Monarchy in the Canadian provinces

Monarchy in the Canadian provinces
Monarchy in Newfoundland and Labrador
Monarchy in Prince Edward Island
Monarchy in Nova Scotia
Monarchy in New Brunswick
Monarchy in Quebec
Monarchy in Ontario
Monarchy in Manitoba
Monarchy in Saskatchewan
Monarchy in Alberta
Monarchy in British Columbia

In the Canadian federation, the provinces are each a separate jurisdiction of the Canadian Crown, wherein a hereditary monarch is the sovereign and head of state of each province, forming the core of its Westminster style parliamentary democracy. As the institution from which the power of the state flows, the terms The Crown in Right of [Province], Her Majesty in Right of [Province], and The Queen in Right of [Province] may also be used to refer to the entire executive of the government in each jurisdiction. As the pinnacle of governance, the authority of the Crown in the province is symbolised through elements included in various government institutions' insignia, as well as their names, such as Court of Queen's Bench and Queen's Printer.

The Canadian territories are not sovereign entities, and thus do not have legally distinct crowns from which they derive their authority. The territories fall within the sovereignty of the Canadian Crown, as advised by the federal Cabinet.

The Crown in the provinces

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The three main bodies of the provincial government of Alberta: The Queen of Canada (centre) with her vice-regal representative, the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, Norman Kwong (left), and her Albertan premier, Ralph Klein (right), at the official celebrations of Alberta's centennary, May 23, 2005.

Across the country, the Canadian Crown is unitary; the headship of state is not a part of either the federal or provincial jurisdictions; the monarch reigns impartially over the country as a whole, meaning the sovereignty of the provinces is passed on not by either the Governor General or Parliament of Canada, but through the overreaching Crown itself. The Crown, however, does opereate distinctly within each sphere, provinding authority to the federal and ten provincial realms. The monarch, thus, forms a part of the provincial governments, as established by William Watson, Baron Watson, of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, in the case of Maritime Bank vs. Receiver-General of New Brunswick. This arrangement is demonstrated in the fact that the same monarch takes on two or more different legal personas when a provincial government files a lawsuit against the federal and/or another provincial government. Jacques Monet stated in his book The Canadian Crown: "The adaptation of the Crown to a federal system was a unique and daring experiment. But it works. The sovereignty of the same Crown is exercised by different representatives in different jurisdictions. Thus, diversity has been reconciled to unity." Or, as David Smith notes in his book The Invisible Crown, the provinces became a "constitutional amalgam... called compound monarchy." This means the status of the provincial viceroys is crucial to provincial co-sovereignty and federalism. To facilitate this relationship, since 1970 the 10 provincial viceroys (and now the three territorial commissioners as well) have held a triennial meeting, hosted each time by a different Lieutenant Governor in their province, though the chairperson is the Governor General.

Since the Queen transcends and encompasses both the central and provincial governments, the Canadian headship of state is not a creature of either jurisdiction. Through the offices of the Governor General and Lieutenant Governor, the Queen reigns impartially over Confederation as a whole.

— Dr. Michael Jackson LVO CD

In an attempt to explain this situation, the Canadian Crown has been called a divided crown; however, the Crown over Canada is technically not broken into smaller crowns. Eugene Forsey wrote in Crown and Cabinet: "The first thing to get clear is that the provinces are not themselves 'monarchies.' They are a part of a constitutional monarchy, Canada. The Queen is Queen of Canada, not Queen of Ontario, Queen of Quebec, Queen of British Columbia, etc. She is, of course, queen in all these provinces. But she is 'Queen of Canada,' and it is as such that she is queen in each of the provinces." The Fathers of Confederation chose this system as they saw constitutional monarchy to be a bulkwark against any fracturing of the Canadian federation. Sir Shuldham Redfern, then Secretary to the Governor General, said in 1939 that without a common allegiance to the Crown the regions of Canada might break up. Also, Smith opined that the separation of the Canadian monarch from the people by two levels of vice-regal representation has made them more accepting of the role of the Crown in determining who will govern in a minority parliament situation. Because the Crown is so central to Confederation, any constitutional amendment that affects it, including in the provinces, requires the unanimous consent of all the provincial legislatures, along with the federal parliament, rather than the two-thirds majority necessary for most other amendments.

Following immediately on Confederation in 1867, the provincial governments were seen by their Dominion counterpart in Ottawa and the Foreign Affairs office in London to be subordinate to the federal Crown. Sir John A. Macdonald structured the British North America Act with just such a situation in mind: the lieutenant governors were to be agents of Ottawa, appointed by the Govenror General and not by the Queen herself, as is done with the governors of the Australian states, and was suggested be integrated in Canada by the 1979 Task Force on National Unity. Though the lieutenant governors each held an official great seal for the province, summoned and prorogued parliament in the Queen's stead, and granted Royal Assent to bills that bore the Queen's name, it was still expected that the latter be given to provincial legislation in the name of the Governor General. However, this last rule was never followed in Ontario and Quebec, with the other provinces soon following suit. In 1882, the legitimacy of the lieutenant governors as direct representatives of the monarch was set down by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which stated: "the Lieutenant Governor... is as much a representative of Her Majesty, for all purposes of Provincial Government as the Governor General himself is, for all purposes of Dominion Government." This discovery of a provincial guise of the Crown further empowered the provinces. Today, though they continue to be appointed by the Governor General, the lieutenant governors are now considered to be direct representatives of the sovereign, which has accorded them the right to receive audience with the Queen; a practice begun by the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta in 1956. They are, however, still only accorded the style of His/Her Honour, which is inferior to the Governor General's style of His/Her Excellency.

Constitutional role

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The Governor General with the provincial lieutenant governors and territorial commissioners at La Citadelle, May 30, 2008.

Canada's constitution, which includes the constitutions of the provinces, is made up of a variety of statutes and conventions that are either British or Canadian in origin, which gives each of the provinces a similar parliamentary system of government to the Dominion and other Commonwealth realms.

Sovereign and viceroys

Lise Thibault, Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, presides over a ceremonial unveiling of sculptures by Maurice Lemieux, as as part of her vice-regal duties, November 1, 2006.

The present monarch of Canada is Elizabeth II– officially styled Queen of Canada (French: Reine du Canada)– who has reigned since February 6, 1952. She, her consort, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the eldest son and heir apparent, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, and other members of the Canadian Royal Family, undertake various public ceremonial functions throughout the provinces. However, the Queen is the only member of the Royal Family with any constitutional role, holding ultimate executive authority over the governments, legislative structures, and courts of the provinces. Because the Canadian monarch does not reside in any province, the sovereign's federal representative, the Governor General, on the advice of the Prime Minister of Canada, and in consultation with the relevant provincial prime minister, appoints lieutenant governors to act as viceroys in each of the provinces. Unlike in the federal sphere, all of the constitutional duties in the provincial spheres are carried out only by the Queen's representatives.

The Commissioners of Canada's territories of Nunavut, Yukon, and Northwest Territories are appointed by the Governor-in-Council, at the recommendation of the federal Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. But as the territories are not sovereign entities, the commissioners are not representatives of the Sovereign. They receive instruction from the said Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.

Executive: the Governor-in-Council

The role of the Crown is both legal and practical; the institution is regarded as a corporation, in which several parts share the authority of the whole, with the Queen as the person at the centre of the constitutional construct. The vast powers that belong to the Crown are collectively known as the Royal Prerogative. Parliamentary approval is not required for the exercise of the Royal Prerogative; moreover, the consent of the Crown must be obtained before the legislature may even debate a bill affecting the Crown's prerogatives or interests. While the Royal Prerogative is extensive, it is not unlimited. For example, the lieutenant governor does not have the prerogative to impose and collect new taxes; such an action requires the authorization of an Act of Parliament.

In Canada's constitutional system, one of the main duties of the Crown is to appoint a premier. In accordance with convention, the lieutenant governor, to maintain the stability of government, must appoint to this position the individual most likely to maintain the support of the legislative assembly: usually the leader of the politial party with a majority in that house, but also when no party or coalition holds a majority (referred to as a minority government situation), or other scenarios in which the lieutenant governor's judgement about the most suitable candidate for premier has to be brought into play. In 1952, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia Clarence Wallace had to exercise his personal discretion in choosing his premier after a near tie in the general election that year. Once the premier is installed, he or she thereafter heads the Cabinet and advises the lieutenant governor on how to execute his or her executive powers over all aspects of government operations. Though the Crown's power is still a part of the executive process– the operation of the Cabinet is technically known as the Queen-in-Council (or Governor-in-Council)– the advice tendered is typically binding. Since the death of Queen Anne in 1714, the last monarch to head the British Cabinet (when almost all of Canada was still French colonial territory), the monarch reigns but does not rule; in Canada, this has been true since the Treaty of Paris ended the reign of Canada's last absolute monarch, King Louis XV. This means that the monarch's role, and thereby the vicegerents' role, is almost entirely symbolic and cultural, acting as a symbol of the legal authority under which all governments and agencies operate, while the Cabinet directs the use of the Royal Prerogative, which includes the privilege to maintain the Queen's peace, to summon and prorogue parliament, and call elections. However, it is important to note that the Royal Prerogative belongs to the Crown, and not to any of the ministers, though it may sometimes appear that way, and the royal figures may unilaterally use these powers in exceptional constitutional crisis situations.

The lieutenant governor also appointes to Cabinet the other ministers of the Crown– who are, in turn, accountable to the democratically elected legislature, and through it, to the people– as well as members of various executive agencies, and other officials. The appointment of judges to the Courts of Probate in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick is the responsibility of the lieutenant governors of those provinces, and all the lieutenant governors are specifically delegated to appoint, under the Great Seal of the Province, the Attorney General, the Secretary and Registrar of the Province, the Treasurer of the Province, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, and the Commissioner of Agriculture and Public Works, and, in the Case of Quebec, the Solicitor General. Public inquiries are also commissioned by the Crown through a Royal Warrant, and are called Royal Commissions.

Parliament

The Royal Arms of Quebec carved in stone above the main entrance to the Quebec Parliament Building.

The Crown, along with the legislature, is one of the two components of parliament in each of the provinces. The authority of the Crown in the parliaments is embodied in the maces for each province's house, which all bear a crown at their apex. The viceroys do not, however, participate in the legislative process, save for the granting of Royal Assent. Further, the Constitution Act, 1867, outlines that the lieutenant govenrors alone are responsible for summoning, proroguing, and dissolving the legislature, after which the writs for a general election are usually dropped by the lieutenant governor at Government House. The new parliamentary session is marked by the State Opening of Parliament, during which the lieutenant governor reads the Speech from the Throne. Even this role cannot be performed by the monarch in the provincial legislatures; in 1959, the request by Premier of British Columbia W. A. C. Bennett, to have Queen Elizabeth II read the speech from the throne at the opening of the parliamentary session, was turned down on the grounds that it was constitutionally impossible for her to do so. Unlike in the Parliament of Canada, where the monarch and viceroy cannot enter the House of Commons, the reading of the Speech From the Throne, as well as the bestowing of Royal Assent, takes place in the legislative chamber.

Legal role

Legislation

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The Great Seal of Ontario.

All laws in the provinces are enacted with the viceroy's granting of Royal Assent, and impression of the pertinent Great Seal, to a bill passed by the legislature. The lieutenant govenror may deny Royal Assent to a bill, or reserve a bill for the Govenror General's decision, though the federal viceroy may further defer the bill to the monarch, who can disallow the bill within a time limit specified by the constitution; this latter ability has not been used since 1961. For example, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta John C. Bowen denied Royal Assent to two unconstitutional bills put forward by the Social Credit Party government of William Aberhart (which resulted in Aberhart cutting power and heat to the viceregal residence and denying Bowen an official car).

Whether or not the monarch may personally grant Royal Assent to a bill in a provincial legislature came into question in the lead-up to the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Alberta in 2005, when the Cabinet of Premier Ralph Klein wanted the Queen to grant her assent to a bill passed by the Alberta legislature. The Office of the Governor General at Rideau Hall objected to this proposal, stating that the move would be unconstitutional and go against the "Canadianization" of the Crown. Kenneth Munro, a professor at the University of Alberta and former member of the Household at Rideau Hall, felt that the thinking at Government House in Ottawa was both politically and legally unfounded– seeing it as an attempt by the federal government and Rideau Hall to elevate the position of Governor General– while Richard Toporoski, a professor at the University of Toronto, saw the denial of the sovereign's granting of Royal Assent as correct– going against the 1882 ruling of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and stating that, by the Constitution Act, 1867, the Queen does not form a part of the provincial legislatures. Regardless, as all provincial laws are the monarch's laws, the enacting formula in most provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and New Brunswick) being: "Therefore, Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of [Province], enacts as follows..."

Courts

Because all laws eminate from the Crown, the authority of the provincial courts is drawn from the same institution, resulting in the superior courts of a number of provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and New Brunswick) being called Her Majesty's Court of Queen's Bench of [province] (to be His Majesty's Court of King's Bench of [Province] during the reign of a male monarch) (summarised as Queen's Bench or King's Bench), and each will display the arms of Her Majesty in right of the relevant province, save for British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador, where the sovereign's arms in right of the United Kingdom are used instead. The Governor General appoints the justices of the provincial courts, per the Constitution Act, 1867, except for the Courts of Probate judges in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Also, in each province the legal personality of the state is referred to as Her Majesty the Queen in Right of [Province]; for example, a case in which the province of Ontario sues the federal government would formally be called Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Ontario v. Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada. The monarch as an individual takes no more role in such an affair than in any other business of government.

The law in certain provides (in British Columbia, the Queen's Counsel Act; in Manitoba, the Court of Queen's Bench Act; and in Newfoundland and Labrador, the Queen's Counsel Act) allows for the Lieutenant Govenror to appoint prominent lawyers as Queen's Counsel, a predominantly honorary title recognising exceptional merit and contribution to the legal profession. Copyright for all materials published by the provincial government, usually created and distributed by the Queen's Printer, is also held by the sovereign in right of each province.

Legal embodiment of the state

The Red Room of Province House in Nova Scotia (the Nova Scotia House of Assembly), adorned by large portraits of King George III and his consort, Queen Charlotte, above the throne dias.

Not only is the sovereign seen as the legal personification of the state for the nation, but he or she performs the same function for the provinces. Executive director of the Canadian Royal Heritage Trust and past Ontario chairman of the Monarchist League of Canada Gary Toffoli stated: "The Queen is the legal embodiment of the state at both the national and the provincial levels. There is no other legal embodiment. That is why the oath is taken to the Queen. It is not taken because she is an admirable person in her own right or because it is a nice tradition to maintain. It is taken to the Queen because she is our sovereign and it is the role of the Queen, recognized by the constitutional law of Canada, to embody the state." As government staff– including governors, judges, police officers, and parliamentarians– are employed by the monarch, as affirmed by the Supreme Court in the 1980 case of Attorney General of Quebec v. Labreque, which found that civil servants are not contracted by an abstraction called "the state," but rather are employed by the monarch, who "enjoys a general capacity to contract in accordance with the rule of ordinary law," most of these persons must take the oath of allegiance, in one form or another, before taking their posts, in reciprocation to the sovereign's Coronation Oath, wherein he or she promises "to govern the Peoples of ... Canada ... according to their respective laws and customs."

Thus, the legal personality of the state in each province is referred to as Her Majesty the Queen in Right of [Province] (French: Sa Majesté la Reine du chef du [Provence]). For example, if a lawsuit is filed against a provincial government, the respondent is formally described as Her Majesty the Queen in Right of [Province], or simply Regina.^{[broken footnote]} Likewise, in a case in which a party sues both the province of Saskatchewan and the federal government, the respondents would formally be called Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Saskatchewan and Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada. The monarch is also the owner of all state lands (called Crown land), buildings and equipment (called Crown held property), the copyright for all government publications (called Crown copyright), and is charged with the guardianship of foster children (called Crown wards), all as Queen in Right of a relevant province, though this in his or her position as sovereign and not as an individual.

After the members of the separatist Parti Québécois refused to recite the Oath of Allegiance before taking their seats in the National Assembly of Quebec in 1970, the Act Respecting the National Assembly of Quebec was granted Royal Assent in 1982, which added a supplementary oath of loyalty to the people of Quebec, The Members' Manual of the National Assembly outlines that this additional oath is to the people and constitution of Quebec, while the other is to the country via the Queen, though some saw the Queen as representative of the Quebec state and not of Canada, in that context.

Further information: The Crown

Cultural role

Royal presence and duties

The Queen, other members of the Canadian Royal Family, and/or the Lieutenant Govenror attend numerous functions, either official or working, and either as a host or guest of honour. In 2004, the Canadian viceregal office holders participated in over 4,100 engagements, and, though the monarch and the rest of the Royal Family live predominantly in the United Kingdom, members visit the provinces regularly. Usually important milestones, anniversaries, or cultural celebrations will warrant the presence of the monarch, while other royals will be asked to participate in lesser occasions. In these instances, the royals will carry out either official or unofficial duties, the former being at the direction of the government, and the latter focusing on organizations such as charities and military regiments. Shorter, province-specific tours, organized by the relevant provincial government in conjunction with the Department of Canadian Heritage, have become more popular into the 21st century.

The lieutenant govenrors also perform the task of bestowing provincial honours upon deserving citizens (save for the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec). On occasion, members of the Royal Family will bestow awards in person, such as when Anne, Princess Royal, presented the Saskatchewan Protective Services Medal to 25 recipients, in Saskatoon in 2004. This marked the first time a member of the Royal Family had presented a provincial honour in Canada.

Further information: Royal tours of Canada

Symbols

Signage for the 400-series of the King's Highways in Ontario also bear and image of the Crown.

Though most royal symbols visible in the provinces are representative of the national crown (ie. the Royal Standard or stamps), each province does have its own coat of arms which are the arms of the Queen in right of each province.

While God Save the Queen is the national royal anthem, the Vice-Regal Salutes includes the first six bars of God Save the Queen, which then modulate into the first four and last four bars of O Canada. The Vice-Regal Salutes are played only for the lieutenant governors, or Governor General, as they represent Canada's monarch.

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The Coat of Arms of Alberta, showing the St. Edward's Crown as the symbol of the locus from where all authority in the province of Alberta flows.

An Ontario vehicle licence plate showing the silhouette of the Crown.

Each lieutenant governor also has a personal flag, consisting of a blue field bearing the relevant provincial coat of arms surrounded by ten gold maple leafs, symbolizing each of the ten provinces.

Honours

In 1999, Queen Elizabeth II approved the design of a Vice-Regal Badge of Service. The distinctive badge features a diamond-like shape framing a red circle with a maple leaf. The lieutenant-governor's badge is gold in appearance and the badge of one's spouse is silver. On January 1, 2000, all living current and former lieutenant-governors and their spouses were presented with this badge.

The Lieutenant Governor's Award is also presented by Heritage Canada to an individual or group who has achieved an outstanding result in heritage conservation in the province in which the Heritage Canada Foundation's annual conference is held.

Royal designation, charter and patronage

Prior to modern industrial times, a Royal Charter granted by the sovereign was necessary to create an incorporated body, such as a city, company, or university; today, other means such as the registration of a limited company are now available. To receive a Royal Charter, the organization must have corporate members who have at least first degree level in a relevant field, consist of 5,000 members or more, be financially sound, and it must be in the public interest to regulate the institution under a charter. However, meeting these benchmarks does not guarantee the issue of a Royal Charter. In Alberta, these are now granted by the Governor-in-Counil in the name of the Queen in Right of Alberta.

A provincial organization may also acquire the patronage of a member of Canada's Royal Family; a relationship with medieval roots, but today primarily consisting of a ceremonial function wherein the royal will either volunteer their time for service or make a charitable donation. To receive royal patronage, an organization must prove to be long lasting. Similarly, within the province, a number of organizations and events have been granted the prefix "royal" by the monarch, though patronage and a "royal" prefix are not necessarily concurrent.

Further information: List of Canadian organizations with royal patronage

Finance

Funding for the provincial crowns is split between the federal and provincial governments. Citizens of the provinces do not pay any money to the Queen, either for personal income or to support the Royal residences outside of Canada. Only when the Queen is in the province does any provincial government support her in the performance of her duties. This rule applies equally to other members of the Royal Family. When in the province, the Monarch's expenses are split between the federal and provincial governments, where the province may pay for accommodation and transport, and Ottawa may pay for security.

As the lieutenant-governor is a federal appointee, his or her salary is paid by the federal government, as well as some of the other associated costs of the office. Unlike the Governor General, the salaries of lieutenant-governors are fully taxed. The other money put forward by the federal government goes towards the exercise of their duties, in two parts: "In Capital City Expenses" and "Out of Capital City Expenses." Retired lieutenant-governors receive a superannuation, paid through the Department of Canadian Heritage, though these funds are actually garnished off of the vice-regal salaries during the occupant's time in office.

There is no uniform way in which each province funds its lieutenant-governor, and the amounts vary, depending on the facilities available to the lieutenant-governor, how they are used, which departments support them, and how the expenditures are listed in provincial estimates.

BC

AB

SK

MB

ON

QC

NB

PE

NS

NL

YT

NT

NU

Click on the link within each province to go to the article focusing on the monarchy within that province.

See also

• List of current Canadian lieutenant-governors and commissioners
• Monarchy in the Australian states

Bibliography

Text

• Munro, Kenneth; The Maple Crown in Alberta: The Office of Lieutenant Govenror; Trafford, Victoria; 2005 (ISBN 141205317X)
• Ivie, Opal L.; Palace to prairie; Regina: Tucker's Printing Co, 1993 (ASIN B0006S6J7O)
• Jackson, Michael; The Canadian Monarchy in Saskatchewan; Regina: Government of Saskatchewan, 1990 (ASIN B0006EY308)

Video

• From palace to prairie: the Crown and responsible government in Saskatchewan; Executive Producer: Jack Tunnicliffe; Producer/Director: Frank Halbert; Writer: Bruce Edwards; Recording Protax Production Group; Regina: Saskatchewan Intergovernmental Affairs, 1997 (51 min.) (AMICUS 17452571)

See also: Monarchy of Canada: Bibliography