The Governor General and the Prime Ministers: The Making and
Unmaking of Governments, Edward McWhinney, Vancouver: Ronsdale Press;
2005, pp. 193.
The political drama surrounding Paul Martin's minority government
awakened media observers to the significance of the governor general, an
office long dismissed as a ceremonial vestige of colonialism. There are
remarkably few works that might enlighten them about the role. In general,
one must seek for such understanding piecemeal through historical studies.
This lays a heavy burden of responsibility on any new work purporting to,
as Edward McWhinney puts it, define “contemporary ground rules for
the exercise of the reserve, discretionary powers of the office”
(19). In this not-so-crowded field, a work by a political scientist of
McWhinney's considerable reputation could well emerge as the
authoritative work on the subject. McWhinney offers it in this spirit,
even appending some “Rules of Constitutional Prudence for a
Contemporary Governor General.” But a note of caution is in
order.