Prime Minister of New Zealand ministerial power; in 1912 Thomas Mackenzie was the last prime minister to lose power through an unsuccessful confidence motion in the House of Representatives. One change brought about by the First World War was direct participation in governing the British Empire. Previously, New Zealand prime ministers had attended occasional colonial and imperial conferences, but they otherwise communicated with London through the governor (a position then appointed by the British government). In 1917, however, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George offered the New Zealand prime minister a seat in the Imperial War Cabinet, the British Empire's wartime coordinating body. In 1919,
Acting prime minister Ministers in their own right. In Canada, the Deputy Prime Minister—a position that is not always in use—becomes acting head of government in the event that the Prime Minister is absent from Canada or incapacitated. Prior to the creation of this position, there was one notable and brief appointment made by a Canadian Prime Minister. In February 1958, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker appointed Ellen Fairclough as acting Prime Minister for two days while he was absent from Canada. The designated Acting Prime Minister takes the role of Prime Minister as Acting Prime Minister, for up to one hundred consecutive days,