Editing Liberal Party of Canada (section)

====Canadian sovereignty====
[[File:Louisstlaurent.jpg|left|165px|thumb|[[Louis St. Laurent]], the 12th prime minister of Canada (1948–1957)]]
Under Laurier, and his successor [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]], the Liberals promoted Canadian sovereignty and greater independence within the [[British Commonwealth]]. In [[Imperial Conference]]s held 
throughout the 1920s, Canadian Liberal governments often took the lead in arguing that the United Kingdom and the [[British Dominions|dominions]] should have equal status, and against proposals for an 'imperial parliament' that would have subsumed Canadian independence. After the [[King–Byng Affair]] of 1926, the Liberals argued that the [[Governor General of Canada]] should no longer be appointed on the recommendation of the British government. The decisions of the Imperial Conferences were formalized in the [[Statute of Westminster 1931|Statute of Westminster]], which was actually passed in 1931, the year after the Liberals lost power.

The Liberals also promoted the idea of Canada being responsible for its own foreign and defence policy. Initially, it was Britain which determined external affairs for the dominion. In 1905, Laurier created the [[Department of External Affairs (Canada)|Department of External Affairs]], and in 1909 he advised [[Governor General of Canada|Governor General]] [[Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey|Earl Grey]] to appoint the first [[Secretary of State for External Affairs (Canada)|Secretary of State for External Affairs]] to [[Cabinet of Canada|Cabinet]]. It was also Laurier who first proposed the creation of a [[Canadian Navy]] in 1910. Mackenzie King recommended the appointment by Governor General [[Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy|Lord Byng]] of [[Vincent Massey]] as the first Canadian [[ambassador (diplomacy)|ambassador]] to Washington in 1926, marking the Liberal government's insistence on having direct relations with the United States, rather than having Britain act on Canada's behalf.