London Evening Advertiser
- FEDERAL CONTESTS ARE SLATED FOR NOVEMBER
- BYNG SAYS BUDGET WON THE ELECTION
- PROPOSED NEW DAM WINNING SUPPORT
This partial reading of the London Evening Advertiser for 6 October 1926 sets national and imperial politics beside a local civic campaign. A staff despatch from Ottawa reported that eleven ministers in Mackenzie King's new cabinet would face by-elections on 9 November, with nominations a week earlier, and listed their seats. An Associated Press report from Southampton described Lord and Lady Byng landing in England after his term as governor general, and his laughing refusal to discuss his constitutional powers, which he said might come up again at the Imperial Conference. At home, the paper reported that London's Public Utilities Commission and civic groups were lining up behind a proposed dam at Springbank Park.
This reading covers three front-page excerpts, transcribed from the page image because the OCR is badly garbled. The by-election despatch breaks off after eight of the eleven seats. The Byng story begins in the middle of a subheading and stops in mid-sentence before the budget remark in its headline. The dam story stops in mid-word. Other items, including the O.T.A. roadhouse, Western floods, Peaches Browning and McGill degree stories, are cut off at tile edges and are not translated, and parts of some photo captions are missing. The sources consulted do not explain why some ministers' seats were held over, and they do not give the result of the December 1926 dam bylaw vote.
Translation
FEDERAL CONTESTS ARE SLATED FOR NOVEMBER
By a Staff Correspondent. Ottawa, Oct. 6.—Eleven ministerial by-elections will be held Tuesday, Nov. 9, according to an announcement made here today. Nomination day will be one week earlier. Writs were i [?] [?] ued today. The seats affected are: Edmonton West—Hon. Charles Stewart. Regina—Hon. Charles Dunning. Brandon—Hon. Robert Forke. Middlesex West—Hon. J. C. Elliott. North Waterloo—Hon. W. O. Euler. Chateauguay-Huntingdon—Hon. J. A. Robb. Dorchester—Hon. Lucien Cannon. St. James—Hon. Fernand Refret.
BYNG SAYS BUDGET WON THE ELECTION
…tional Issue. Associated Press Despatch. Southampton, Oct. 6.—Lord and Lady Byng arrived at Southampton today on board the Empress of France, which was gaily decorated with bunting. The former governor-general of Canada and Lady Byng were officially welcomed by the mayor and sheriff, and then his lordship received a large group of newspapermen. One of the first inquiries put to Lord Byng by the press representatives was with regard to his constitutional powers as governor-general, which question was raised recently in connection with the political situation at Ottawa. "I think we had better leave that alone," said Lord Byng with a laugh. "Everything turned out very satisfactorily. If the question is raised at all again it will be at the Imperial Conference, but at the present moment there is nothing one can say about it. As I say, it all
PROPOSED NEW DAM WINNING SUPPORT
Chamber of Commerce, Service Clubs, Builders' Exchange, Labor Council Represented. Collectively and individually the members of the Public Utilities Commission are heartily behind the proposal to build a dam at Springbank Park next year. At the suggestion of Mayor J. M. Moore, the entire commission has been named to the City Council Springbank Dam Publicity Committee, together with Kiwanis, Rotary and Lions Clubs, two representatives each from the Chamber of Commerce, Trades and Labor Council and the Builders' Ex-
Context
Why King's new ministers had to stand again in November
The Ottawa despatch reflects a convention that no longer exists. In 1926, members of the House of Commons named to cabinet were obliged upon appointment to resign their seats and run for re-election in by-elections. Mackenzie King had returned as prime minister after the general election of 14 September, so the men he placed in his new cabinet, including Charles Dunning and J. A. Robb named in the article, had to go back to their own constituencies; the paper reports writs issued on 6 October and voting set for 9 November. The same rule had shaped the summer crisis. Arthur Meighen, forming a government in a precarious House, avoided ministerial by-elections by appointing ministers without portfolio, who did not have to run again. The weakening of Meighen's position by ministerial by-elections later contributed to R. B. Bennett's Conservatives abolishing them in 1931.
The constitutional question Byng declined to discuss
The reporters at Southampton were asking about the King–Byng affair. In June 1926 Byng, as governor general, refused Mackenzie King's request to dissolve parliament and call a general election. King pressed him to consult the British government before deciding, and Byng again refused, saying the matter should be settled in Canada without resort to London. Meighen's brief government followed, and after the election of 14 September King again took office as prime minister, so when Byng told reporters that everything had turned out very satisfactorily, the man whose advice he had rejected was back in power. Byng left Canada on 30 September 1926 a much respected man in both countries, and this despatch records his arrival in England six days later.
What the 1926 Imperial Conference changed for governors general
Byng predicted that if the question of a governor general's powers were raised again, it would be at the Imperial Conference. That conference produced the Balfour Declaration, unanimously approved by the imperial prime ministers on 15 November 1926 and first proposed by South Africa's J. B. M. Hertzog and by Mackenzie King, the Canadian prime minister whose request Byng had refused. Among its provisions, the declaration recommended that governors general, the King's representatives in each dominion, should no longer also serve automatically as the representative of the British government. It therefore altered the link between the governor general's office and the British government, the same link King had tried to invoke in June when he asked Byng to consult London.
Why Springbank Park needed a new dam
The campaign reported in the article aimed to restore a dam the park had lacked for nine years. An earlier dam on the Thames at Springbank had been built to provide water power for pumping to a reservoir on the hill to the south, which may help explain the Public Utilities Commission's interest. That dam was washed out in 1883, 1899 and 1917, and from 1917 there was no dam at the site. The paper shows the commission and Mayor J. M. Moore's publicity committee pressing to build one the following year, 1927. According to the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority, the present Springbank Dam was constructed in 1929, a short distance downstream of the old site, two years later than the article anticipated. London City Council voted in January 2018 to decommission it.
Original
FEDERAL CONTESTS ARE SLATED FOR NOVEMBER
By a Staff Correspondent. Ottawa, Oct. 6. - Eleven ministerial by-elections will be held Tuesday, Nov. 9, according to an announcement made here today. Nomination day will be one week earlier. Writs were i [?] [?] ued today. The seats affected are: Edmonton West-Hon. Charles Stewart. Regina-Hon. Charles Dunning. Brandon-Hon. Robert Forke. Middlesex West-Hon. J. C. Elliott. North Waterloo-Hon. W. O. Euler. Chateauguay-Huntingdon-Hon. J. A. Robb. Dorchester-Hon. Lucien Cannon. St. James - - Hon. Fernand Refret.
BYNG SAYS BUDGET WON THE ELECTION
tional Issue. Associated Press Despatch. Southampton, Oct. 6. - Lord and Lady Byng arrived at Southampton today on board the Empress of France, which was gaily decorated with bunting. The former governo-general of Canada and Lady Byng were officially welcomed by the mayor and sheriff, and then his lordship received a large group of newspapermen. One of the first inquiries put to Lord Byng by the press representatives was with regard to his constitutional powers as governor-general, which question was raised recently in connection with the political situation at Ottawa. " I think we had better leave that alone, " said Lord Byng with a laugh. " Everything turned out very satisfactorily. If the question is raised at all again it will be at the Imperial Conference, but at the present moment there is nothing one can say about it. As I say, it all
PROPOSED NEW DAM WINNING SUPPORT
Chamber of Commerce, Service Clubs, Builders ' Exchange, Labor Council Represented. Collectively and individually the members of the Public Utitlities Commission are heartily behind the proposal to build a dam at Springbank Park next year. At the suggestion of Mayor J. M. Moore, the entire commission has been named to the City Council Springbank Dam Publicity Committee, together with Kiwanis, Rotary and Lions Clubs, two representatives each from the Chamber of Commerce, Trades and Labor Council and the Builders ' Ex -
Source: Holding institution