Queen's Privy Council for Canada

The Privy Council Office as it appeared in the 1880s

The Queen's Privy Council for Canada (French: Conseil privé de la Reine pour le Canada) is the council of advisers to the Queen of Canada, whose members are appointed by the Governor General of Canada for life on the advice of the Prime Minister. It was established by the British North America Act, and is modelled on the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. Britain and Canada are the only two Commonwealth Realms to have "privy councils". They are equivalent, in practice, to the Executive Councils in Canadian provinces and some other Commonwealth jurisdictions. (see Executive Council (Commonwealth countries) and Executive Council (Canada))

The formal authority of the council is exercised by the Prime Minister and the Canadian Cabinet, who make up a minority of the Council's members. Their actions are supported by the Privy Council Office which is headed by the Clerk of the Privy Council as chief civil servant and the President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada as the Cabinet minister in charge. All Orders of the Governor in Council must be made on the recommendation of a Privy Councillor, invariably a government minister.

Among the duties of the Privy Council is the proclamation of the new Sovereign following a demise of the Crown. Constitutional scholar and former Member of Parliament Ted McWhinney has suggested that Canada could cut its ties with the monarchy and become a republic without passing an amendment to the Constitution of Canada by simply failing to proclaim a new monarch upon the demise of the old. The government has not issued any comment on McWhinney's proposal, nor has there been any widely published support or dismissal of McWhinney's theory by other constitutional experts.

At present the membership of the Council comprises all current and former federal cabinet ministers, and Chief Justices of Canada. As well, all former Governors General are members. The Leader of the Opposition and leaders or other members of Opposition parties are inducted into the Privy Council from time to time, either as an honour or so that sensitive information can be disclosed to them under the Official Secrets Act. In addition, it is required by law that members of the Security Intelligence Review Committee be Privy Councillors, resulting in all nominees being sworn in if they are not already members. Other persons recommended by the Prime Minister have been sworn into the Privy Council as an honour.

Under Paul Martin, Parliamentary Secretaries were sworn into the Privy Council.

Ministers are not automatic appointees, although generally they are made members at the same time as their appointment as ministers, and various non-cabinet members have been appointed since 1891. Provincial premiers do not automatically become Privy Councillors, but have been made members on special occasions (e.g., the centennial of Canadian Confederation, 1967 and the patriation of the Constitution of Canada, 1982). On Canada Day 1992, the 125th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Brian Mulroney appointed eighteen prominent Canadians to the Privy Council, including former Premier of Ontario David Peterson and businessman Conrad Black. The use of Privy Council appointments as purely an honour had not been employed by his successors until Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed former MP John Reynolds on February 6th, 2006 along with his new cabinet.

Privy Councillors are entitled to the style The Honourable (or if a serving or former Governor General, Prime Minister or Chief Justice of Canada, The Right Honourable as are certain other eminent individuals). The post-nominal initials "P.C." (or "C.P." in French) are also used.

Until 1967, the style Right Honourable was only employed in Canada by those appointed to the Imperial Privy Council in London. Such appointees were usually, prime ministers, Supreme Court Chief Justices, certain senior members of the Canadian Cabinet and other eminent Canadians. Canadian appointments to the Imperial Privy Council ended under Lester Pearson and, instead, the Governor General assumed the right to assign holders of these positions (as well as former Governors-General) and other eminent Canadians the title of Right Honourable. From 1967 until 1992 the only members of the Canadian Privy Council granted the style Right Honourable were prime ministers, chief justices and governors-general. In 1992, several eminent Privy Councillors, most of whom were long-retired from active politics, were granted the style. In 2002, Jean Chrétien recommended that Herb Gray, a Privy Councillor of long standing, be given the style upon his retirement from Parliament.

Governors General are entitled to use the style "Right Honourable" for life; however, unless they are already members of the Privy Council by virtue of being a former Cabinet minister or having been inducted for another reason, they do not become members of the Privy Council until their term as Governor General has concluded.

The Canadian Privy Council has met in the presence of the Sovereign only twice: in Ottawa in 1957 and in Halifax in 1959.

The full Privy Council meets to proclaim the accession of a new sovereign and to give consent to Royal Marriages. The last meeting of the full Privy Council was in 1981 to give formal consent to the marriage of the Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer. Following the announcement of the Prince of Wales' engagement to Camilla Parker-Bowles, however, the Department of Justice announced its decision that the Privy Council was not required to meet to give its consent to the marriage as the union would not result in offspring and thus would have no impact on the succession to the throne.

However, the consent given is symbolic in nature only. The Canadian Privy Council itself has no direct legal power to stop a Royal Marriage, as the Royal Marriages Act, 1772, a part of Canadian law, predates the creation of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada and assigns the authority to withhold assent to a marriage to the Sovereign in consultation with the British Privy Council.

References

External links

*Privy Council Office

Queen's Privy Council for Canada: Encyclopedia BETA

Contents

Queen's Privy Council for Canada

See also

References

External links