Canadian Titles Debate - The Nickle Resolution

The Nickle Resolution

The Nickle Resolution was a motion brought forward in 1917 by William Folger Nickle in the Canadian House of Commons. There had been controversy before World War I over the honouring of Canadians—especially the appointment of Sam Hughes as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (a non-hereditary honour) in 1915 and the elevation of Hugh Graham as the Baron Atholstan (a hereditary honour)—and the qualifications of recipients. Prime Minister Robert Borden disapproved of the process by which Canadians were nominated for honours and in March 1917 drafted a policy stating that all names had to be vetted by the prime minister before the list was sent to Westminster. Nickle, however, at the same time, alleged that the granting of hereditary titles to Canadians was itself inconsistent with democratic values. Nickle's detractors, however, charged him with being motivated more by spite and chagrin over his failed attempt to obtain a knighthood for his father-in-law, Daniel Gordon, the principal of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Regardless, Nickle successfully moved a resolution through the House calling for an address be made to King George V requesting that His Majesty no longer grant hereditary peerages and knighthoods on Canadians and that all such titles held by Canadians become extinct upon the death of the incumbent. The motion was carried by the House of Commons, though Nickle himself voted against the version passed, it was not advanced to the Senate, and no address to the King was ever made.

Beginning in 1919, the press reported on the selling of honours in the United Kingdom and there was a fear that the British government would honour a large number of Canadians for their service in the First World War by appointing them to titled classes in the newly created Order of the British Empire. In that context, Nickle again put a motion forward in the lower house of parliament, calling on the King to "hereafter be graciously pleased to refrain from conferring any titles upon your subjects domiciled or living in Canada", thus expanding the earlier resolution of 1917 to include even non-hereditary titles. The Commons voted to create a special committee to look at the question of honours and it concluded that the King should be asked to cease conferring "any title of honour or titular distinction... save such appellations as are of a professional or vocational character or which appertain to an office." Titular honours from foreign governments were also to be banned. However, bravery and valour decorations, such as the Victoria Cross and Military Cross, were exempt.

Although the second Nickle Resolution was adopted by the House of Commons, it was also not forwarded to the Senate, where it was expected to be defeated, as it touched on the Royal Prerogative, a constitutional matter outside the competence of the House of Commons alone. As a resolution, rather than an Act of Parliament or Order in Council, the Nickle Resolution would not have been legally binding on the government, anyway. However, it established a policy precedent which has had a varying degree of enforcement.