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What are the informal powers of the governor?

Governor General can exercise any of the Queen's powers in Canada." The converse is not true, however; "the Qu?

  • "James R. Mallory points out in his book The Structure of Canadian Government (1984) that legally "the Governor General can exercise any of the Queen's powers in Canada." The converse is not true, however; "the Queen cannot exercise the Governor General's powers because they are conferred on him, and not on the Queen" Is this seriously true?

  • Answer:

    No I am pretty sure it is only convention that prevents the Queen exercising power. "As the Constitution Act, 1867, vests all executive power in Canada in the nation's sovereign,[6] the reserve powers belong to that figure. However, the same act specifically mandates that some executive power may be used only by the monarch's representative, the governor general, and, in 1947, King George VI issued letters patent permitting the governor general "to exercise all powers and authorities lawfully belonging to Us [the King] in respect of Canada."[7] The reserve power of dismissal has never been used in Canada, although other reserve powers have been used to force the prime minister to resign on two occasions: The first took place in 1896, when the prime minister, Sir Charles Tupper, refused to step down after his party did not win a majority of the House of Commons seats in the 1896 election, leading the governor general, the Earl of Aberdeen, to no longer recognize Tupper as prime minister and disapprove of several appointments Tupper had recommended. On the second occasion, which took place in 1925 and came to be known as the King-Byng Affair, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, facing a non-confidence motion in the Commons chamber, advised the governor general, the Viscount Byng of Vimy, to dissolve the new parliament, but Byng refused. No modern governor general has disallowed a bill, though provincial lieutenant governors have.[8] The power to issue passports also remains under the Royal Prerogative in Canada. The terms for the issuing of passports by the Minister of Foreign Affairs on behalf of the Crown are set out in the Canadian Passport Order, issued by the Governor-in-Council under the Royal Prerogative. The Canadian government has used the Royal Prerogative on one occasion to deny passports to a Canadian citizen whom the United States government held, and released, from the American prison in the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay. Abdurahman Khadr was denied a passport by the Canadian government. The Federal Court of Canada on judicial review quashed the Minister's refusal of a passport and ordered that the application be re-considered."

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In Canada, the Constitution is not found in one single document. The Constitution Act, 1867 did not codify all of the new Dominion’s constitutional rules, stating simply that Canada was to have a “constitution similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom”. Apart from changes needed to establish the new federation, the old rules governing the exercise of public authority continued in form and substance virtually unchanged from those operating in the colonies at the time of Confederation. For this reason, much of Canadian constitutional law is found outside the Constitution Acts. In fact, some of Canada’s most important rules are not matters of law at all, but conventions. In 1982 we were given full and final independence but the Constitution Act of 1867 still stands today, it is why we still have a Governor General. But the Governor General can only exercise his/her powers by the consent of the Government of Canada. If the Governor General acts against the advice of our elected Government, the Government will abolish the Governor General and appoint a new one.

Mackenzie Carr

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