Editing Governor General of Canada (section)

===Emerging nationality to an independent kingdom===
[[File:Governor General of Canada is welcomed to Washington by Secretary of State Kellogg. Attended by all the pomp and ceremony a republic can bestow, Governor General Willingdon of Canada was LCCN2016888558.tif|thumb|[[Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon|Marquess of Willingdon]] (left) during an [[official visit]] to [[Washington, D.C.]] as the governor general of Canada.]]
During the [[First World War]], into which Canada was drawn due to its association with the United Kingdom, the governor general's role turned from one of cultural patron and state ceremony to one of military inspector and morale booster. Starting in 1914, Governor General Prince Arthur donned his [[Field Marshal]]'s uniform and put his efforts into raising contingents, inspecting army camps, and seeing troops off before their voyage to Europe. These actions, however, led to conflict with the prime minister at the time, [[Robert Borden]]; though the latter placed blame on Military Secretary Edward Stanton, he also opined that the Duke "laboured under the handicap of his position as a member of the Royal Family and never realized his limitations as Governor General".<ref>{{Cite book| last=Borden| first=Robert| author-link=Robert Borden| date=1938| editor-last=Borden| editor-first=Henry| title=Memoirs| volume=1| pages=601–602| location=New York| publisher=Macmillan Publishers}}</ref> Prince Arthur's successor, [[Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire]], faced the [[Conscription Crisis of 1917]] and held discussions with his Canadian prime minister, as well as members of the official opposition, on the matter. Once the government implemented conscription, Devonshire, after consulting on the pulse of the nation with Sir [[Wilfrid Laurier]], Vincent Massey, [[Henri Bourassa]], [[Archbishop of Montreal]] [[Paul Bruchési]], [[Duncan Campbell Scott]], [[Vilhjalmur Stefansson]], and [[Stephen Leacock]], made efforts to conciliate [[Quebec]], though he had little real success.<ref>{{Harvnb| Hubbard| 1977| pp=141–142}}</ref>

Canada's national sentiment had gained fortitude through the country's sacrifices on the battlefields of the First World War and, by war's end, the interference of the British government in Canadian affairs was causing ever-increasing discontent amongst Canadian officials;{{refn|The appointment in 1916 of the Duke of Devonshire as governor general caused political problems, as Canadian prime minister Robert Borden had, counter to established common practice, not been consulted on the matter by his British counterpart, [[H. H. Asquith]].<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.gg.ca/document.aspx?id=55| last=Office of the Governor General of Canada| title=Former Governors General: The Duke of Devonshire| publisher=Queen's Printer for Canada| access-date=18 April 2009}}</ref>|group=n|name=Adv}} In 1918, ''[[The Toronto Star]]'' was even advocating the end of the office.<ref>{{Harvnb| Hubbard| 1977| p=42}}</ref> The governor general's role was also changing to focus less on the larger Empire and more on uniquely Canadian affairs,{{refn|During the [[Great Depression]], the [[Vere Ponsonby, 9th Earl of Bessborough|Earl of Bessborough]] voluntarily cut his salary by ten percent as a sign of his solidarity with the Canadian people.<ref>{{cite book| last=Cowan| first=John| title=Canada's Governors General, Lord Monck to General Vanier| publisher=York Publishing Co.| edition=2| year=1965| location=York| page=156}}</ref>|group=n|name=Pons}} including the undertaking of official international visits on behalf of Canada, the first being that of the [[Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon|Marquess of Willingdon]] to the [[United States]], where he was accorded by [[President of the United States|President]] [[Calvin Coolidge]] the full honours of representative of a head of state.{{refn|Governors general had been venturing to [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] to meet informally with the [[President of the United States]] since the time of [[Charles Monck, 4th Viscount Monck|Viscount Monck]].|group=n|name=US}}<ref name=Hubbard166 /> It would be another decade, however, before the King-Byng Affair: another catalyst for change in the relationship between Canada—indeed, all the dominions—and the United Kingdom, and thus the purpose of the governor general.
[[File:Lord-byng.jpg|thumb|[[Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy|Viscount Byng of Vimy]], who was involved in the [[King–Byng affair]], a catalyst for change over the role of the governor general in the British Empire]]

In 1926, Prime Minister Mackenzie King, facing a [[Motion of no confidence|no-confidence vote]] in the House of Commons over a scandal in his party, requested that Governor General Viscount Byng of Vimy dissolve parliament and call an election. Byng, however, refused his Canadian prime minister's advice, citing both the facts that King held the [[Minority government|minority of seats]] in the house and that a general election had been held only months earlier; he thus called on [[Arthur Meighen]] to [[Kissing Hands|form a government]]. Within a week however, Meighen's [[Conservative Party of Canada (historical)|Conservative]] government lost its own non-confidence vote, forcing the Governor General to dissolve parliament and call elections that saw Mackenzie King returned to power.<ref>{{cite book| title=Byng of Vimy: General and Governor General| url=https://archive.org/details/byngofvimygenera0000will| url-access=registration| last=Williams| first=Jeffery| year=1983| publisher=Leo Cooper in association with Secker & Warburg| location=Barnsley, S. Yorkshire| pages=[https://archive.org/details/byngofvimygenera0000will/page/314 314–317]| isbn=978-0-436-57110-7}}</ref> King then went on to the [[1926 Imperial Conference|Imperial Conference]] that same year and there pushed for reorganizations that resulted in the [[Balfour Declaration of 1926|Balfour Declaration]], which declared formally the practical reality that had existed for some years: namely, that the dominions were fully autonomous and equal in status to the United Kingdom.<ref>{{cite journal| last=Marshall| first=Peter| date=September 2001| title=The Balfour Formula and the Evolution of the Commonwealth| journal=[[The Round Table Journal|The Round Table]]| volume=90| issue=361| pages=541–53| doi=10.1080/00358530120082823| s2cid=143421201}}</ref> These new developments were codified in the [[Statute of Westminster 1931|Statute of Westminster]], through the enactment of which on 11 December 1931, Canada, along with the [[Union of South Africa]] and the [[Irish Free State]], immediately obtained formal legislative independence from the UK.<ref>{{cite book| last=Baker| first=Philip Noel| title=The Present Juridical Status of the British Dominions in International Law| publisher=Longmans| year=1929| location=London| page=231}}</ref> In addition, the Balfour Declaration also held that the governor general would cease to act as the representative of the British government. Accordingly, in 1928, the United Kingdom appointed its first [[List of High Commissioners of the United Kingdom to Canada|High Commissioner to Canada]] thus effectively ending the governor general's diplomatic role as the British government's envoy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.psa.ac.uk/publications/psd/1998/lloyd1.htm#1| title="What's in a name?" – The curious tale of the office of High Commissioner| first=Lorna| last=Lloyd| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080518172615/http://www.psa.ac.uk/publications/psd/1998/lloyd1.htm#1| archive-date=18 May 2008 }}</ref>

The governor general thus became solely the representative of the monarch within Canadian jurisdiction, ceasing completely to be an agent of the British Cabinet,{{refn|The ministers in attendance at the Imperial Conference agreed that: "In our opinion it is an essential consequence of the equality of status existing among the members of the British Commonwealth of Nations that the Governor General of a Dominion is the representative of the Crown, holding in all essential respects the same position in relation to the administration of public affairs in the Dominion as is held by His Majesty the King in Great Britain, and that he is not the representative or agent of His Majesty's Government in Great Britain or of any Department of that Government."<ref>[https://archive.org/details/imperialconferen0000impe/page/n21/mode/1up ''Imperial Conference of 1926 — Summary of Proceedings'' (Ottawa:  King's Printer, 1926), p 14.]</ref>|group=n|name=Balf}}<ref name=DCH3 /><ref>{{cite book| last=Judd| first=Denis| title=Empire: The British Imperial Experience from 1765 to the Present| publisher=Basic Books| date=9 July 1998| location=New York| page=287| isbn=978-0-465-01954-0}}</ref> and as such would be appointed only on the advice of his Canadian prime minister.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=McConnell |first=W.H. |title=Constitutional History of Canada |encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |date=18 August 2022 |publisher=[[Historica Canada]] |access-date=4 June 2009 |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/constitutional-history |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608173042/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1SEC818742 |archive-date=8 June 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> The Canadian Cabinet's first recommendation under this new system was still, however, a [[British subject]] born outside of Canada, John Buchan (later Lord Tweedsmuir).

Tweedsmuir's birthplace aside, though, the professional author took further than any of his predecessors the idea of a distinct Canadian identity,<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.gg.ca/document.aspx?id=55| last=Office of the Governor General of Canada| title=Former Governors General: Lord Tweedsmuir of Elsfield| publisher=Queen's Printer for Canada| access-date=26 March 2009}}</ref> travelling the length and breadth of the country, including, for the first time for a governor general, the [[Canadian Arctic|Arctic]] regions.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Hillmer| first=Norman| title=John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir |encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia |publisher=Historica Canada |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/john-buchan-1st-baron-tweedsmuir-1 |access-date=31 March 2009| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070703002004/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0001071 | archive-date=3 July 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref> Not all Canadians, however, shared Tweedsmuir's views; the Baron raised the ire of [[Imperialism|imperialists]] when he said in Montreal in 1937: "a Canadian's first loyalty is not to the British [[Commonwealth of Nations]], but to Canada and Canada's King",<ref>{{cite book| last=Smith| first=Janet Adam| title=John Buchanan: a Biography| publisher=Little Brown and Company| year=1965| location=Boston| page=423}}</ref> a statement the ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'' dubbed as "disloyal".<ref>{{cite magazine| title=Royal Visit| magazine=Time| volume=IXX| issue=17| publisher=Time Inc.| location=New York| date=21 October 1957| url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,937945,00.html| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070513184211/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,937945,00.html| archive-date=13 May 2007| issn=0040-781X| access-date=29 March 2009}}</ref> During Tweedsmuir's time as viceroy, which started in 1935, calls began to emerge for a Canadian-born individual to be appointed as governor general; but Tweedsmuir died suddenly in office in 1940, while Canada was in the midst of the [[Second World War]], and Mackenzie King did not feel it was the right time to search for a suitable Canadian.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.gg.ca/document.aspx?id=55| last=Office of the Governor General of Canada| title=Former Governors General: Major General The Earl of Athlone| publisher=Queen's Printer for Canada| access-date=24 March 2009}}</ref> The [[Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone|Earl of Athlone]] was instead appointed by King George VI, Athlone's nephew, to be his viceroy for the duration of the war.