The story of how the SoCreds humiliated the lieutenant governor may interest some in Ottawa today
It also has a secret function as a reminder of Alberta history. Almost every Albertan knows why Government House is empty. In 1937, its last occupant, a Baptist pastor and Liberal politician named John Campbell Bowen, chose to use his reserve powers to delay radical, aggressive legislation passed by the Social Credit-dominated assembly. Bowen’s use of his reserve powers passed muster with the courts and was approved by the federal government.
The LG played the game of chicken for a while; he insisted that the government’s attack on his expenses required an Order-in-Council that he would have to sign himself. When the lights finally dimmed, and the fine furnishings in the house began to grow cold, a bargain was reached. The order Bowen wanted was properly drafted and delivered, and Bowen duly signed it, packed his things, and moved his base of operations to the Hotel Macdonald.
Bowen received some genuine abuse for defying a very popular government — one he supposedly considered dismissing, before realizing that it would merely be returned again by the people in the ensuing election, and probably in a form more vicious than ever. Bowen’s holdup of laws passed by the Alberta legislature was recognized as anomalous, though constitutional, at the time. There existed an understanding within the federal government that lieutenant governors were “Dominion officers” who were to act on, essentially, ministerial advice from Ottawa. But Bowen neither sought nor received any such advice before acting.
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