[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by Locke

I am interested in this, and if you've got links I've got time and an affinity for rabbit-holes.

That being said, Canada wasnt a Sovereign nation in 1926 and I dont really know what Australia's status was in 1975.

So that might have had more to do with it?

King-Bing Affair:

https://www.canadahistoryproject.ca/...king-byng.html

When scandal and a vote of non-confidence threatened King's minority government early in its term, King wanted to dissolve the government and call another election, but the Governor General, operating within his constitutional rights, denied King's request. King resigned over the issue, and Byng called on the opposition leader, Arthur Meighan, to form a government. This government lasted only three days, however, before it lost a vote in the House of Commons and an election had to be called after all.

King took advantage of the situation to argue that he, the elected Prime Minister of Canada, had been overruled by the representative of the Crown. Britain was interfering in the affairs of a sovereign country.

During the election campaign, King focussed on this constitutional issue, managing successfully to divert public attention from the Customs Scandal that originally gave rise to the problem and was a blot on his government's reputation. By recognizing the spirit of nationalism and independence in the country and being a spokesman for it, King won the next and several subsequent elections.

The Dismissal:

https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-mome...tlam-dismissal

On 11 November 1975 Gough Whitlam proposed an immediate ‘half Senate’ election in order to break the stalemate.

This measure was not granted, and in a dramatic and controversial decision Governor-General Sir John Kerr instead dismissed the Whitlam government and appointed Liberal leader Malcolm Fraser as caretaker prime minister.

Fraser immediately arranged for budget supply bills to be passed in the Senate, and called a double dissolution election. On 13 December the Labor Party was soundly defeated at the polls.

The Whitlam government remains the only federal government in Australian history to have been dismissed by the representative of the head of state.

Contention still surrounds the dismissal, which occasioned passionate protest across the nation and divided opinion on both Australian democracy and the functioning of the parliament.

Many opposed the actions of the Governor-General, an officer appointed by the Queen, in sacking a prime minister elected by the Australian people. Many disagreed with the ability of the Senate to block the effective functioning of an elected government.

Others supported the process used to remove Whitlam, to break the parliamentary deadlock and instigate the December 1975 election as a use of constitutional powers, where democratic means had failed to succeed.