So Her Majesty comes to town and the Prime Minister dispatches the Governor General to China

Is this not an abuse of protocol, should not the country's vice-regal accompany the Queen throughout her entire tour while she is here? No, it is not. It is well and proper for the Governor General to be the first to greet Her Majesty on her arrival and the last to say goodbye, but beyond that you might as well call the monarch's representative woefully unemployed for the nine days that the Monarch is in the country. If the vice-regal's job is to represent the Queen while she is out of the country, then when she is in the country it is just as well that the Governor General disappear altogether.


The King and Queen with Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor General of Canada
In 1939 this protocol question was wrongfully resolved. The Governor General of the day, Lord Tweedsmuir, rightfully considered it his role to greet the King and Queen on their arrival in Canada, and escort them to Ottawa, thereafter Prime Minister Mackenzie King would then accompany them for the rest of their journey. Mackenzie King, however, wanted to be the one to welcome the royal couple when their ship arrived, and so forced his way. The staff at Laurier House and Rideau Hall debated this point furiously in the weeks leading up to the royal visit. In the end, the Governor General's role was diminished even further than he had anticipated. He did not greet the King and Queen until they reached Ottawa some days later. There they stayed with him and his wife at Government House, and he joined them for the farewell in Halifax. Tweedsmuir was scandalously denied the right to greet the royals upon their arrival, and to his credit understood that once the royal standard is firmly planted on native soil, it was his job to assume a significantly diminished role.