A Question of Honour

Our system of government flounders when leaders aren't 'good chaps'.

Canada isn't in the midst of a constitutional crisis. Nobody is acting unconstitutionally. In fact, the laws and conventions of the constitution are operating as expected. What we’re seeing instead is a lack of virtue; our political leaders are failing to act honourably.

Honour is a core part of our political system of government. Privy councillors, notably ministers, are given the monicker ‘Honourable’ for a reason: we expect them to act fairly and with integrity. Our system can't run properly if they don’t. Our highest officeholders are held to an even greater standard. The Governor General, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and the Prime Minister are ‘Right Honourable’. They are expected to act accordingly, otherwise our system would break down.

What do we mean by honour and what role does it play? Responsible government evolved as a gentlemanly endeavour. Our system was shaped by a narrow elite who agreed to be bound by the rules of a political game. The political rules of the constitution reflect institutional settlements and arrangements of various kinds. Some of these political rules were abandoned, others endured. Those that were consistently followed eventually became part of the political constitution as conventions. Canada inherited these conventions when it adopted a constitution ‘similar in principle’ to the United Kingdom’s. Whigs once cast these conventions as the inevitable product of the march of democracy and the rule of law. Many legal scholars continue to see them as manifestations of these higher order principles. Underpinning these rules, however, was a socio-cultural element that made them possible: a sense of fair play, probity, and loyalty to the state above naked partisanship and self-interest. That's what honourably means in our constitutional context.

British scholars have coined an idea that captures this well: the 'good chap' theory of government. Our laws and conventions are foundational and form the core of our constitution and system of government. But the system still relies on constitutional and political actors being good chaps. Good chaps aren't supposed to abuse the authority provided by our laws and conventions. Good chaps know when it's time to face the Commons or the electorate. Good chaps know when partisanship has to give way to the national interest. Good chaps act in a way that Andrew Coyne would applaud. You get the idea.

When some of us argue that the Prime Minister should call an election, we're appealing to his sense of honour. The current Parliament is exhausted and dysfunctional. All three opposition parties have publicly declared that they’ve lost confidence in the government. The honourable thing to do is to dissolve Parliament and let the voters elect a new Commons.

External events reinforce the point. Canada is facing a monumental challenge with the re-election of Donald Trump as President of the United States. If the Prime Minister thinks he's still the person to lead the country through what's coming, he should ask voters to reaffirm their faith in his government. If voters no longer want him as the head of government, as the polls suggest, then he should be prepared to accept that verdict. Keeping this dead parrot Parliament in place clashes with the seriousness of the moment. There’s something deeply troubling about being saddled with a zombie legislature as our closest ally and trading partner threatens us with economic ruin. Dragging this Parliament out isn’t the honourable thing to do.

Shouldn’t the constitution get us out of this mess? Alas, it doesn’t offer many solutions at the moment. On the contrary, the Prime Minister has various constitutional means of dragging things out. Prorogation is one option. Despite calls for the Crown to exercise a degree of discretion last seen under Queen Victoria, the Governor General would have few grounds to reject the Prime Minister’s advice to prorogue for a few months. Nor is the Governor General going to dismiss the Prime Minister or compel him to resign; Trudeau has won successive confidence votes of late. Constitutionally speaking, his government and premiership are legitimate and sound. What about the Liberals pushing the Prime Minister out? Party politics may ultimately convince Trudeau to call it quits, but he hasn't yet, and the Liberals don't seem to have the will or means to force him out.

In the end, we’re left asking the Prime Minister to be a ‘good chap’.