Events took place in 1926 that would set the course for a dramatic shift in the role of the federal viceroy and ultimately result in the creation of a distinct monarchy for Canada . Until that point , the governor general remained a representative in Canada of the British government , but was still able to exercise the Royal Prerogative over the Canadian prime minister without orders from the King in his British Council back in Westminster . When the governor general at the time , the Lord Byng of Vimy , did just that and forced Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King to resign in what came to be known as the King – Byng Affair , the latter was , once reappointed following that year 's general election , motivated to raise at the 1926 Imperial Conference questions about the relationship between the Dominions and the United Kingdom . The first ministers were mostly receptive , and , following the close of the meeting , the Balfour Declaration was issued , wherein it was declared that the Dominions of the British Crown were to be considered equal to the United Kingdom , as Mackenzie King had wished , and the Governor General of Canada , as with all the other governors-general of the empire , would be the direct representative of the King in person , rather than a diplomatic channel between the Canadian and British governments
1926 Imperial Conference
1926 Imperial Conference
History of monarchy in Canada