Categories: Capital Read, Inside the Queensway

UPDATED AGAIN: A constitutional crisis? On the Friday before a long weekend?

by kadyomalley on Friday, October 9, 2009 9:48am - 111 Comments

Sadly, as the ever-vigilant Colleague Potter points out, that’s one way to describe the current dispute between our prime minister and our governor general over whether or not the latter can style herself as Canada’s head of state.

According to PMO — and at least a few constitutional lawyers — she cannot; that title belongs to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, and Her Majesty alone.

According to the Governor General, she jolly well can. From a statement issued by Rideau Hall last week: : “As the representative of the Crown in Canada, the Governor General carries out the duties of head of state, and therefore is de facto head of state.”

Apparently, it all goes back to King George VI, who, in 1947, “”transferred all the duties of head of state of Canada to the Governor General,” although presumably, that could be revoked by a future monarch, although as far as ITQ knows, that hasn’t happened.

Meanwhile, last night, the GG’s official website appears to have undergone a major redesign; visitors are now greeted by an enormous photo of Michaelle Jean representing Canada at the United Nations. Unfortunately, none of the links seem to be working at the moment, and the site itself is painfully slow to load, but ITQ will keep clicking away — and will report back once she’s able to peruse the rest of the site.

UPDATE: The site seems to be back online, enormous splash screen photo and all. Under the heading “Represent Canada,” the governor general is described as “representative of the Crown and head of State.” It also helpfully provides a link to the aforementioned letters patent from King George in the explanation of her “role and responsibilities”:

Since Confederation in 1867, Canada has been a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is the sovereign and Canada’s head of State.

The role of the sovereign has evolved over time. In 1947, letters patent signed by King George VI redefine the powers of the governor general and authorize the governor general to carry out the responsibilities of the Crown previously assumed by the sovereign, without having to refer to the sovereign. Since then, the governor general has represented the Crown in Canada and carries out nearly all of the duties of the head of State.

The governor general represents Canada during State visits abroad or when receiving Royal visitors, heads of State and foreign ambassadors. The governor general is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian Forces.

Your move, PMO.

~~REPUBLICAN UPRISING~~ NEVER MIND, JUST AN IT SECURITY GLITCH UPDATE: Apparently, the newly refurbished site triggered a brief, but still conspiracy-fuelling, access ban for parliamentary users earlier today:

Just an overzealous autotriggered filtering protocol? At the very least, it suggests that the site itself has been transferred to a new server — perhaps to prevent PCO from getting their hands on it?

IT’S OFFICIAL: Colleague Potter posts the latest release from Rideau Hall announcing the relaunch, which has, we’re told, been in the works for “months”; there is no mention of the contretemps over her official status, as far as state-heading.

Tags: don't mess with a woman who eats her seal heart raw, Michaëlle Jean, so whose side will the monarchists be on?, Stephen Harper, where are all those constitutional lawyers when you need one?

More by kadyomalley

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jenn_ Jenn_

LOL, I just spent the last five minutes looking for who this OM person is.
James Morrell

It amazes me that so many people seem to think that simply saying something makes its so. Tell me this. Why would the the Governor General be the Commander in Chief of the Canadian Forces if she were not the defacto Head of State? Regardless, it ain't Harper – no matter how you cut it.

Lord Kitchener's Own

The Governor General is the Commander-in-Chief because the Head of State made the Governor General the Commander-in-Chief.

The great thing about letters patent from the Sovereign is that they can be overridden by letters patent from the Sovereign. In other words, the King made the GG the CinC (we had a King back then) by writing a letter saying "The GG is the CinC". All the current Queen would have to do to reverse that would be to write another letter saying "I'm CinC again". She would never do that of course, but she certainly has that power. Why?

BECAUSE SHE'S OUR HEAD OF STATE.

JMR

Oh grow up, Harper is having a tantrum because he isn't president
and Obama has just won the Nobel Peace Prize. Poor little Harper isn't feeling important enough and has to pick on a woman. He better be careful because if I'm reading the letters of patent correctly she the GG can get rid of him but he can not get rid of her.

Lord Kitchener's Own

He's picking on a woman.

Huh.

Here I thought he was defending a woman, that being the Queen (as is his constitutional duty).

I'd love to see what would happen if the Governor General tried to remove a sitting Prime Minister for publicly stating that she is not the Head of State of Canada. You know who might have something to say about that?

The actual Head of State of Canada.
Ceeger

JMR, your leaps in logic are startling. According to your chain of causation, Obama has won a Nobel Prize, so that in turn has provoked Harper (who has a warm and cordial relationship with Obama, I might add) to throw a fit and pick on a woman?
Is that the best you Liberals have these days?
Don't wanna go all 'ad hominem' on ya here or anything, but that statement of yours – by all rules of debate and common sense – is just plain stupid.
It couldn't be that the PM was simply clarifying a matter of fact – that being that a woman appointed by a Canadian PM and serving at the pleasure of the Queen does not, in fact, make her the actual head of state?
Man, bring on an election, if only because a Tory majority may well shake posters like JMR back to some semblance of reality about how the real world thinks and works.

http://intensedebate.com/people/VinceClortho VinceClortho

One day you will get your wish….who knows when
http://intensedebate.com/people/callmemit callmemit

Well Mr Harper better call an unnecessary election over this :)
Ceeger

I'm glad our country's real head-of-state (HoS, for ease of repeating) lives across an ocean and cares little about our domestic affairs. Just imagine how much more dysfunctional and paralyzed our already zoo-like Parliament would become if a homegrown HoS started meddling in our political affairs — It would represent total, one-person power like the PMO enjoys, but without all the nuisance possibility of maybe being turfed by the electorate to act as a deterrent.
Republic Now

I reviewed some of her website recently as it happens. I don't think she can say more than three sentences on anything without mentioning the word diversity. Her frequent encouragement of graffitti – vandalism – is disturbing. On a recent state visit Mme Jean had a philosopher accompany her who espoused, among other things, that "diversity is a human right".

If she were influenced by the wrong crowd she, as CiC of the armed forces, could be in a position to do some damage. We now have a radical in charge of the forces, and she has radical – revolutionary – views and perhaps aims, and, I suspect, grudges from here to Inuvik. Keep an eye on this one for us Kady.
AGL

It's about time to ditch the monarchy. The Brits don't give a fig about Canada, so why should we carry on with remnants of rancid colonialism. Blue haired ladies will object, but imagine, in a few years, having to genuflect to queen Camilla! Let's call the whole ting off.