Parliament will decide: An interplay of politics and principle
| Author | Norman Hillmer,Philippe Lagassé |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020702016638679 |
| Published date | 01 June 2016 |
| Date | 01 June 2016 |
International Journal
2016, Vol. 71(2) 328–337
!The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0020702016638679
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Parliament will decide:
An interplay of politics
and principle
Norman Hillmer
Department of History, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario,
Canada
Philippe Lagasse
´
Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Abstract
Debates about Parliament’s role in deciding military deployments are clouded by mis-
understandings of the relative legal authorities of the executive and the legislature, and
the mixture of political objectives and democratic obligation that inform these discus-
sions. Much has been written about the legal aspects of this question. This article
considers instead the issues of politics and principle, which we argue are consistently
interwoven: while governments have elevated Parliament’s role in military deployments
for political purposes, the choice to involve the legislature also reflects the idea that it is
the ‘‘right thing to do’’ in a democracy.
Keywords
Canada, Parliament, war, defence, legislature
It is for parliament to decide whether or not we should participate in wars in different
parts of the world, and it is neither right nor proper for any individual or for any
group of individuals to take any step which in any way might limit the rights of
parliament in a matter which is of such great importance to all the people of our
country.
Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, 2 February 1923
1
Corresponding author:
Philippe Lagasse
´, University of Ottawa, 120 University Avenue, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada.
Email: plagasse@uottawa.ca
1. House of Commons, Debates, 14th Parliament, 2nd session, 2 February 1923, vol. 1, 33.
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