Bulletin n. 1/2005
December 2005
CONTENTS
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
    • Messamore Barbara Jane
    'The line over which he must not pass': Defining the Office of Governor General, 1878
    in Canadian Historical Review (The) , Volume 86, Number 3, September ,  2005 ,  pp. 453-483
    Confederation in 1867 did not mark any dramatic shift in the functioning of the office of governor general. The watershed of colonial self-government in 1848 was the real point of change. But neither of these constitutional milestones led to any redrafting of the instruments defining the viceregal role. The governor general's commission – or letters patent, and instructions – remained out of step with actual constitutional practice, and the British Colonial Office was content to let the anomaly stand. Lord Dufferin, Canada's governor general between 1872 and 1878, had an activist approach to the role, and his frequent clashes with Alexander Mackenzie's Liberal administration, most notably over the commitment to build a railway to British Columbia, sharpened Justice Minister Edward Blake's resolve to see new permanent documents drafted to define the limits of viceregal power.
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