Nothing would piss off Arthur Meighen more than using his entire second blog to talk about William Lyon Mackenzie King, but that is exactly what I'm going to do. Arthur and William didn't get a long from the moment they met as students at the University of Toronto, and their rivalry remained ignited as they led Canada's two major political parties in the 1920s - Meighen flying the Conservative banner while Mackenzie-King loved his Liberal ideals. But Meighen got into power for a second term only because of the King-Byng Affair, and so, that's what I'm going to get into. To be fair, Arthur Meighen wasn't in the PM's chair long enough to have anything else really of substance. He's like a Diet Coke of prime ministers.

The King-Byng Thing, as I like to call it, is also known as Canada's first major constitutional crisis. It featured "Rex" (as Meighen called him, and thus so will I) King against Lord Byng, the Governor General - aka the monarch's representative in Canada. Thankfully, their names rhymed and so we are left with a nice title for a constitutional crisis.

The 1925 elections brought Meighen's Conservatives into power with a minority government. The Tories garnered 116 seats to the Liberals 101 and the Progressives - a new party formed of labour workers - 28. Instead of respectfully surrendering the federal government to Meighen, King went to the House of Commons and asked who they thought should run the government. Using this political maneuvering and with the help of the Progressive MPs, King was able to stay in power until June 1926. And again, instead of polishing the furniture for Meighen on his way out of office, King went to Lord Byng and asked him to call another election - even though the results of the 1925 election never really came to fruition. So Byng refused to honour this request, pissing King right off and causing him to resign.

This is how Arthur Meighen got into power for a second time - but for a notably short amount of time. His government was three days old when it lost a vote in the House, causing Meighen to asked Byng to call another election, a mere eleven months after the one that elected the Tories into power as a minority government.

But Meighen's Conservatives didn't fare as well the second time around. The Liberals gained seats, earning a total of 128 and a majority government to the Conservatives 91 and the Progressives 26. Meighen was gone, this time for good.

The King-Byng Thing caused some changes to the Canadian government - most notably the Statute of Westminster, signed on December, 31, 1931. This treaty declared that the dominions - Canada, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa - were their own independent nations. This meant that Canada could thereafter pick its own governor general, making it easier to avoid conflicts such as this.

So, let's be honest, Arthur Meighen didn't leave much of a legacy, especially when compared to his political rival, Rex King. He will be fondly remembered as one of the more obscure prime ministers.