Reining in the Crown’s Authority over Dissolution: The Fixed-Term Parliaments Act of the United Kingdom versus Fixed-Date Election Laws in Canada By James W.J. Bowden A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Post-Doctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Political Science Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario, Canada September 2018 ©James W.J. Bowden September 2018 Table of Contents Table of Figures .............................................................................................................................. v Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... vi Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... vii I: Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 3 Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................... 5 II: How the Varying Sources of Authority of the British Crown and of the Crown of Canada Affect Dissolution ........................................................................................................................... 8 “Prerogative” versus the Authority of the Crown as a Legal Person .......................................... 8 The Three Sources of Authority of the Crown of the United Kingdom ..................................... 9 The Four Sources of Authority of the Crown of Canada .......................................................... 10 Scholars Recognize Only Two Sources of Authority of the Crown of Canada ........................ 13 The Entrenchment of the Authority of the Crown and the Separation of Powers .................... 16 Analysis of the Sources on Authority of the British and Canadian Crowns and the Nature of Dissolution ................................................................................................................................ 18 III: The Constitution of Canada and the Political Cynicism of Evading Constitutional Amendment ................................................................................................................................... 19 The Nature of the Constitution of Canada ................................................................................ 19 How the Constitution of Canada Limits the Scope of Fixed-Date Election Laws ................... 22 IV: Responsible Government: What It Means and How It Works ............................................... 24 The Established Constitutional Positions of the Crown and Ministers of the Crown .............. 24 How the Constitution Act, 1867 Partially Codifies Responsible Government ......................... 26 Commanding Confidence of the Crown and of the Commons ................................................. 29 Achieving Harmony and Securing Liberty ............................................................................... 29 V: Dissolution: What It Means and How It Works....................................................................... 30 Dissolution of Parliament in General ........................................................................................ 30 Dissolution of Parliament in Canada ........................................................................................ 31 Dissolution of Parliament in the United Kingdom ................................................................... 33 VI: Historical Antecedents of Fixed-Date Elections in Canada, 1972-2008 ................................ 35 The New Democratic Party, 1972-1974 ................................................................................... 35 ii The Reform Party, the Canadian Alliance, and the Conservative Party, 1988-2007 ................ 38 VII: The Early Dissolution of 2008: Constitutional Conventions and Critique of Heard, Aucoin et al., and the Conacher Rulings ....................................................................................................... 42 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 42 The Nature of Constitutional Conventions ............................................................................... 43 Constitutional Conventions in Relation to Responsible Government and Dissolution ............ 46 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 49 VIII: The Aftermath of the Federal General Election of 2015: Imposing Both a Minimum and Maximum Duration of the Writ .................................................................................................... 50 IX : Provincial Fixed-Date Election Laws in Canada, 2001-2018 ............................................... 53 British Columbia ....................................................................................................................... 53 Newfoundland and Labrador .................................................................................................... 56 Ontario ...................................................................................................................................... 62 New Brunswick ......................................................................................................................... 66 Manitoba ................................................................................................................................... 68 Saskatchewan ............................................................................................................................ 72 Prince Edward Island ................................................................................................................ 74 Alberta....................................................................................................................................... 77 Quebec ...................................................................................................................................... 79 Nova Scotia ............................................................................................................................... 82 X: Territorial Fixed-Date Election Laws in Canada, 2007-2018 .................................................. 84 Introduction on Consensus Government ................................................................................... 84 Northwest Territories ................................................................................................................ 86 Nunavut ..................................................................................................................................... 87 Analysis of Fixed-Date Election Laws Under Consensus Government ................................... 88 XI: There and Back Again: A Tale of Dissolution from 1640 to 2011 ........................................ 89 The Waxing and Waning Prerogative of Dissolution in England and the United Kingdom .... 89 What These Statutes Show About the Nature of the Crown’s Prerogative Authority .............. 94 XII: Fixed-Term Parliaments Act, 2011 ....................................................................................... 95 Putting the Prerogative of Dissolution into Abeyance .............................................................. 95 The Old Confidence Convention and the New Constructive Non-Confidence ........................ 96 iii The Cabinet Manual and Fixed-Term Parliaments .................................................................. 98 The Subversiveness of the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act ........................................................ 101 Analysis of the British Model of Fixed-Term Parliaments and the Political Motivation Behind the Law.................................................................................................................................... 105 The Early Dissolution and General Election of 2017 ............................................................. 108 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 108 Jeremy Corbyn and Jacob Rees-Mogg Expose the Futility of the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 108 The Indecisive and Unclear Outcome of the Early General Election of 2017 .................... 110 The Potential Repeal of the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act ...................................................... 112 XIII: Analysis and Conclusions .................................................................................................. 115 The Provinces Show the Futility of Fixed-Date Election Laws in Canada ............................ 115 Snap Elections and When Early Dissolution is Just ............................................................... 119 The Failure of the Canadian Fixed-Date Election Laws ......................................................... 123 Fixed-Date Election Laws Set A New Baseline for Dissolution by Efflux of Time .............. 126 Fixed-Date Elections and the Transformation of Westminster Parliamentarism ................... 127 Prospects for