Monarchy of Canada

Although the sovereign is shared with 14 other independent countries within the Commonwealth of Nations, each country's monarchy is separate and legally distinct.^[22] As a result, the current monarch is officially titled the King of Canada and, in this capacity, he and other members of the royal family undertake public and private functions domestically and abroad as representatives of Canada. However, the monarch is the only member of the royal family with any constitutional role. The monarch lives in the United Kingdom and, while several powers are the sovereign's alone,^[23] most of the royal governmental and ceremonial duties in Canada are carried out by the monarch's representative, the governor general of Canada.^[27] In each of Canada's provinces, the monarchy is represented by a lieutenant governor. As territories fall under the federal jurisdiction, they each have a commissioner, rather than a lieutenant governor, who represents the federal Crown-in-Council directly.


All executive authority is vested in the sovereign, so the monarch's consent is necessary for letters patent and orders-in-council to have legal effect. As well, the monarch is part of the Parliament of Canada, so royal assent is required to allow for bills to become law. While the power for these acts stems from the Canadian people through the constitutional conventions of democracy,^[28] executive authority remains vested in the Crown and is only entrusted by the sovereign to the government on behalf of the people. This underlines the Crown's role in safeguarding the rights, freedoms, and democratic system of government of Canadians, reinforcing the fact that "governments are the servants of the people and not the reverse".^[29][30] Thus, within Canada's constitutional monarchy the sovereign's direct participation in any of these areas of governance is normally limited, with the sovereign typically exercising executive authority only with the advice and consent of the Cabinet of Canada, and the sovereign's legislative and judicial responsibilities largely carried out through the Parliament of Canada as well as judges and justices of the peace.^[29] There are, though, cases where the sovereign or their representative would have a duty to act directly and independently under the doctrine of necessity to prevent genuinely unconstitutional acts.^[31][32] In these respects, the sovereign and his viceroys are custodians of the Crown's reserve powers and represent the "power of the people above government and political parties".^[33][34] Put another way, the Crown functions as the guarantor of Canada's continuous and stable governance and as a nonpartisan safeguard against the abuse of power.^[37]


Canada has been described as "one of the oldest continuing monarchies in the world" of today.^[19][38] Parts of what is now Canada have been under a monarchy since as early as the 15th century as a result of colonial settlement and often competing claims made on territory in the name of the English (and later British) and French crowns.^[51] Monarchical government has developed as the result of colonization by French and British empires competing for territory in North America and a corresponding succession of French and British sovereigns reigning over New France and British America, respectively. As a result of the conquest of New France, claims by French monarchs were extinguished and what became British North America came under the hegemony of the British monarchy which ultimately evolved into the Canadian monarchy of today.^[54] With the exception of Newfoundland from 1649 to 1660, no part of what is now Canada has been a republic or part of a republic;^[55] though, there have been isolated calls for the country to become one. The Crown, however, is considered to be "entrenched" into the governmental framework.^[59] The institution that is Canada's system of constitutional monarchy is sometimes colloquially referred to as the Maple Crown^{[n 1]} or Crown of Maples,^[63] Canada having developed a "recognizably Canadian brand of monarchy".^[64]


Though not part of the Canadian monarchy, either past or present, Canada has an even older tradition of hereditary chieftainship in some First Nations, which has been likened to non-sovereign monarchy and today exists in parallel with the Canadian Crown and individual band governments. All three entities are components of the nation-to-nation relationship between the Crown and First Nations in upholding treaty rights and obligations developed over the centuries.