[Repeal 16-17]

Can the Governor General refuse to allow a no-confidence vote or void such a vote?

[fanfan]

Can the Governor General refuse to allow a no-confidence vote or void such a vote?

No.

[Arkinsaw]

Can the Governor General refuse to allow a no-confidence vote or void such a vote?

My understanding is that the Governor-General could have ordered new elections, done nothing, or prorogued Parliament (suspended). She chose the third option, apparently seeing it as least intrusive. It is tradition for her to follow the advice of the government which in this case was to suspend.

[Clive]

Repeal 16-17 wrote:
"Can the Governor General refuse to allow a no-confidence vote or void such a vote?"

No

In 1867, When the British North America Act was passed by the British parliament to create a confederation out of certain British North American colonies, the office of Governor General was given certain reserve powers in his capacity as representative of both the Crown and the British government (which are not the same). The intent was that the confederation and its provinces were to be autonomous but within the Empire an the reserve powers were to preserve the interests of the Empire in the event of a conflict arising.

As a fallout of the 1926 King-Byng Wing-Ding, Canada proposed to an Imperial Conference in 1926 that the Governor General be answerable to Canada alone and not to the British Government. This conference resulted in a declaration to the effect that British Empire jurisdictions that achieve Dominion status acquire full sovereignty independent of the British Government. The Governor General then became the representative of the Crown alone, and not of the UK government or of any of its ministries.

The Empire became effectively the British Commonwealth which grew as each colony achieved independence. The Monarch became monarch of Canada and the various other dominions independent of its status as the British monarchy.

Another fallout of the King-Bing Wing-Ding was that Governor General's powers effectively became a legal fiction.

Although the reserve powers are still in the statute, conventional practice is that the Governor General cannot refuse to prorogue parliament, or to drop the writ for an election or to call parliament back from recess, when the Prime Minister requires it to be done.

Should the Governor General attempt to exercise her reserve powers over the objection of the Prime Minister, it would result in a major constitutional crisis and the Governor General would lose in any such contest.

I am grossly over-simplifying.

[Oztrich Boy]

Not once the vote is put to the House. And technically the Prime Minister serves at the Governor General’s pleasure, the requirement being the PM has the confidence of the Parliament