The King Byng affair started with
corruption in the Customs department which became a
scandal when a Liberal MP and Minister responsible for
duties and excise , George Boivin, interfered with the
incarceration of one of the convicted parties in the
corruption case, a Moses Aziz who had been caught with
contraband liquor for a third time which drew a 1 year
sentence.
A Parliamentary
committee was formed to review the transactions and the
regulation of liquor passing through Canada in general.
The committee found several issues to report back to
Parliament about and when a motion of censure against
the Liberal government was introduced, it became a life
and death issue for Mackenzie King. He could not accept
the passage of the motion because if he did then he
would probably not be able to get elected again and in
essence his career in politics would be over. As King
scrambled to find support in the House where the
Liberals held 101 sold votes, the Conservatives 116
votes, the Progressives 24 votes, 2 by independents and
2 by Labour.
The Labour leader J.S.
Woodsworth made a two hour speech trying to mobilize
support fro King, who he felt was the a better choice
then the Conservatives but by the 5th day of debate
defeat for the Liberals looked certain. On June 25th,
1926 Mackenzie King, the wily fox of Canadian politics,
thought he saw a way out of the quagmire. He went to
visit the Governor General three times to not only ask
that Parliament be dissolved but to demand that it be
dissolved and that a Federal Election be called. His
reasoning was that no party except the Liberals had been
the government since the last election and they were, so
far, still in charge, hence they had the right to
request an election.
What was actually
discussed between Byng and King seems unclear but the
result was that Lord Byng refused to allow him to call
an election. King returned to the House of Commons where
he caught everyone by surprise when he announced that
the Government had resigned and moved to adjourn. As
Arthur Meighen began to reply, he was cut off by King
who stated "I might say that this motion is not
debatable." Meighen, clearly caught off guard suggest
that he and the Prime Minister discuss the matter
and King essentially responded by stating that there was
no Prime Minister.
Later that day the Governor General sent
for Arthur Meighen and asked him if he could form a
stable government. Meighen responded that he thought he
could and managed to broker a deal with the Progressives
who were tired of King's tricks and politics and hence
jumped into bed with the Conservatives, the party which
the Progressives had originally been formed to oppose.
Meighen took up
the office of the Prime Minister but according to
Parliamentary tradition and law at that time, he was
required t resign his seat in the House and run in a
by-election before he could take up a Cabinet post,
which the Prime Ministership certainly was. He did
however get around the issue of appointing Cabinet
Ministers who would have to resign and run again by
designating them as acting Ministers.
King however went on
the attack as soon as the Conservatives tried to conduct
normal House business by asking under what authority the
bills and financial matters were being presented and
asked to vote upon. King claimed that the acting
Ministers had not taken an oath of office to conduct
business and hence the whole setup was not within the
boundaries of the law. King implied that Meighen
who he claimed could not form a government and hence the
whole situation was the fault of the Conservatives for
claiming that they could, not the Governor General who
had accepted Meighen's assurances in good faith. The
Progressives were persuaded and when matters came to a
vote, the Conservatives lost 96 to 95. Byng was now
forced t call an election and King was able to gather
all of the nationalistic symbols, sentiments, and
arguments around the Liberal party and go to a general
election with Meighen's attempt at governing as the
issue instead of corruption and political interference
by Liberal Ministers.
The election was held and King and his
Liberals on 60 of 65 seats in Quebec and 116 seats
nationally to the Conservatives 91 and the Progressives,
who could again be counted on to support the Liberals,
winning 30 seats. Meighen was replaced at the next
Conservative party convention as leader with R.B.
Bennett. |
