[BOURINOT] A STUDY IN COMPARATIVE POLITICS 15 
Ve: 
Briefly stated the strength of the constitution of Canada largely rests 
on the following conditions : 
1. An enumeration of the respective powers of the federal and pro- 
vincial governments, with the residuum of power expressly placed in the 
central or general government. 
Peek permanent and non-elective executive in the person of the reign- 
ing sovereign of England who is represented by a governor-general. 
appointed for five or six years by the queen-in-council to preside over the 
administration of Canadian affairs, and consequently elevated above all 
popular and provincial influences that might tend to make him less res- 
pected and useful in his high position. 
3. The existence of responsible or parliamentary government after the 
English model. 
4. The placing of the appointment of all judges in the dominion 
government, and their removal only on the address of the two houses of 
the dominion parliament, which address can only be passed after full 
inquiry by à committee into any charges formally laid against a judge. 
5. The reference to the courts of all cases of constitutional conflict or 
doubt between the Dominion and the Provinces that may arise under the 
British constitutional law or the British North America Act of 1867. 
These are the fundamental principles on which the security and unity 
of the federal union of Canada rest, and I shall now proceed to show 
briefly the reasons for this emphatic opinion. 
As the queen, or veigning sovereign, who is made the executive 
authority over Canada by the constitution, cannot be present in the 
Dominion to discharge her constitutional functions, the British North 
America Act provides for the presence, as her representative, of a gover- 
nor-general, who has in point of dignity the position, though he has not 
the title or all the regal attributes of a viceroy. Canadians have never 
aised a Claim, as some of the Australian colonists have done, that they 
should be always consulted in the choice by the sovereign of this import- 
ant public functionary, nor have Canadians ever demanded the privilege 
of electing from their own statesmen their governor-general, as was 
(=) 
actually proposed in the Australian convention. 
Sir George Grey of New Zealand, whose democratic tendencies were 
constantly en évidence in the debates of the convention, moved an amend- 
ment with the object of testing the feeling as to an elective governor, but 
it was supported by only three votes against five in the negative. Sir 
John Downer, whose speeches were always distinguished by much consti- 
tutional knowledge and statesmanlike breadth of view, said with truth: 
“IT would ask in what position would the governor-general be when he is 
elected ? If he is elected by the voice of the people, does the hon. gentle- 
