Dismissing Governors-General

As most of you will know, in the realms of the Commonwealth
other than the UK, the Queen is represented by a Governor-
General, who is appointed (and dismissed) on the Advice of
the Prime Minister of the realm in question. The GG carries out
functions like dissolving Parliament, which the Queen does in the
UK.

I have recently been reading Bogadanor's 'The Monarchy and the
Constitution' (1995). He quotes a 1938 source as saying that
'in practice no 'reserve powers' can exist in a Dominion, for the
simple reason that a GG who persisted in refusing ministerial advice
would at once be recalled on the advice of his ministry given directly
to the King'.

Bogdanor notes that 'This is to go too far, for there are a number of
successful exercises of the reserve powers in the history of the
Commonwealth'.

I suppose that one of them occurred the very next year, 1939, when
PM Hertzog of South Africa lost a parliamentary vote on entering
WW2, sought a dissolution, and was refused it by GG Sir Patrick
Duncan. Hertzog then resigned as PM. But What If, instead of
resigning, he had Advised George VI to recall Duncan and replace
him with someone more likely to give Hertzog the dissolution he
wanted? There was, after all, the precedent from the Irish Free State
in 1932 when PM de Valera had successfully had GG MacNeill
removed.

There was also the dismissal of New South Wales Premier Lang
by Governor Sir Philip Game in 1932 - though that case is different
because it was not until (I think) the 1980's that state Premiers in
Australia got the right to hire and fire their Governors. Prior to that

michael james...

For some of us, it is a really vague memory. :)

it was done on the advice of the UK Secretary of State for Foreign
and Commonwealth Affairs in London. Seems strange to think of
e.g. Lord Carrington carrying out this function. When did Canadian
provincial Premiers acquire the right to hire and fire their Lt-Governors?

michael james...

At this time, the Lt-governors are appointed by the Prime Minister of
Canada , not by the provincial Premiers. As for dismissing a
lt.Governor, I don't recall this ever happening.

Of course another example was in Australia in 1975, when GG Sir
John Kerr pushed PM Whitlam before Whitlam could push *him*.

cj.buyers...

I am sorry, but this is all quite wrong.

I wish people would understand that there simply is no uniform system
that covers all the countries of the Commonwealth. Each have their own
particular and peculiar constitutional histories, constitutions,
evolution of the viceregal office and the powers pertaining to that
office.

One has to go back and look at the evolution of powers of the office of
colonial governor in each country, and how those powers were then
accommodated within or adapted to the new constitutions that each
nation adopted. Since they reached dominion status at different periods
in history and in the evolution of the relationship with the UK,
enjoyed different relationships between the national and local centres
of government, the constitutional position and powers enjoyed are bound
to be very different. Some are federal in nature, others confederal,
some single chamber parliaments, others bi-cameral, some were
Commanders in Chief others not, etc., etc.

Perhaps the only case where one can hold that they were the same is
with Ireland and Canada, because the Irish Treaty specified that the
position of the Governor-General of Eire would be the same as in
Canada.

The position of the Governors of Australian States and
Lieutenant-Governors of Canadian Provinces have always been completely
different. In the latter case, the Lieutenant-Governors have been
Dominion appointees since Confederation, quite different from
Australia. The similarity with Australia would be with the
Administrators of territories, rather than state Governors.