Singh said in a letter to the newly installed Governor General that the law allows for an early election if the government has lost the confidence of the House, but the Trudeau government has won every confidence vote it has faced including on the speech from the throne and the budget. Ottawa University law professor Errol Mendes said the Governor General as a representative of the Queen has in theory the power to refuse a request from Trudeau to dissolve Parliament. However, that power has not been used for many decades because Canada has been regarded as an independent country from the United Kingdom.