Ok...I know this is wiki...but someone would've corrected it if it was wrong.
The
Governor General of Canada (
French [masculine]:
Gouverneur général du Canada, or [feminine]:
Gouverneure générale du Canada) is the
viceregal representative in the federal jurisdiction of the
Canadian monarch and
head of state,
Queen Elizabeth II, who is equally shared with
15 other sovereign nations in a form of
personal union, but resides predominantly in her oldest realm, the
United Kingdom. On the
advice of her
Canadian Prime Minister only,
[1] the Queen appoints the
Governor General to carry out most of the monarch's constitutional and ceremonial duties for an unfixed period of time — known as serving
At Her Majesty's pleasure — though five years is the normal convention, as is a rotation between
anglophone and
francophone incumbents. Once in office, these individuals maintain direct contact with the Queen, wherever she may be at the time.
[2]The office has its roots in the 16th and 17th century colonial governors of
New France and
British North America, and thus is the oldest continuous institution in Canada.
[3] The present incarnation of the position emerged with
Canadian Confederation and the
British North America Act in 1867, which defined the viceregal office as the "Governor General acting by and with the Advice of the
Queen's Privy Council for Canada."
[4] However, the post still ultimately represented the
government of the United Kingdom (that is, the monarch
in his British Council) until the passage in 1931 of the
Statute of Westminster,
[5][6]whereafter the Governor General became the direct representative of the uniquely Canadian sovereign (the monarch in his Canadian Council).
[7][8] This was the culmination of a process of gradual independence that saw the Governor General take on an ever expanding role: in 1904, the Militia Act granted permission for the Governor General to use the title of
Commander-in-Chief of the
Canadian militia,
[9] in the name of the sovereign and actual Commander-in-Chief,
[10] and in 1927 the first official international visit by a Governor General was made.
[11][12] In 1949,
King George VI issued
letters patent allowing the viceroy to carry out almost all of the monarch's powers in his or her stead. Per the
Constitution Act, 1982, any constitutional amendment that affects
the Crown, including the Office of the Governor General, requires the unanimous consent of each provincial legislature as well as the
federal parliament.
