Open AccessCanada’s Neglected Tradition of Coalition Government
Author(s) -
James R. Muir
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
constitutional forum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1927-4165
pISSN - 0847-3889
DOI - 10.21991/c90m39
Subject(s) - governor , government (linguistics) , fell , politics , government office , public administration , political science , core (optical fiber) , law , local government , computer science , philosophy , engineering , geography , linguistics , cartography , aerospace engineering , telecommunications
On Wednesday, 26 November 2008, I closed the second of two lectures on politics in the 1840s and 1850s for my second-year, pre-Con- federation Canadian history students by reiter- ating the definition of responsible government. I suggested that, at its core, was the principle that the parliamentary executive was respon- sible to the elected assembly as a whole, and that the governor general (or lieutenant governor) was expected to follow the executive’s wishes. This expectation included not calling elections every time a government fell in the assembly, but rather selecting another government that had the support of the already elected members of the assembly.