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Sir:
Thank you for the invitation to comment on the prorogation of parliament by the Governor General in December 2008.
The position is an unprecedented one. The governor-general stands in place of the Queen as Head of State but, since the Imperial Conference of 1926, it has been recognised that a governorgeneral is not the monarch's representative (in terms of acting on instructions from the monarch) but serves as the equivalent of the monarch, and acts on the advice of ministers. However, as Vernon Bogdanor notes in his book, The Monarchy and the Constitution, 'The Imperial Conference did not. . . lay down any guidance as to the precise circumstances in which the sovereign or the governor-general was expected to act on advice, and the circumstances in which they enjoyed a discretion to use their reserve powers.'
On occasion, a governor-general has used the reserve powers, as with Sir...