The Crown

1
The Crown Its Servants

• Chapter 6
• Malcolmson Myers

2
The Government

• Imprecise term
• Crown, i.e., sovereign authority
• The bureaucracy
• A specific Ministry, e.g., the Harper Ministry

3
Constitutional Monarchy

• CA 1867, Section 9
• The Executive Government and Authority of and
  over Canada is hereby declared to be continued
  and vested in the Queen.

4
The Governor General

• Queens representative in Canada
• Head of State
• Wields executive authority
• e.g., Royal assent

5
The Governor General

• Ceremonial Powers
• Reserve Powers
• Name Prime Minister (PM)
• Dismiss PM
• Kerr-Whitlam, Australia 1975
• Appoint officials
• Dissolve Parliament
• King-Byng crisis 1926

6
The Crowns Advisors

• CA 1867, Section 11
• There shall be a Council to aid and advise in
  the Government of Canada, to be styled the
  Queens Privy Council of Canada

7
Cabinet

• Functional part of Privy Council
• Provides Crown with advice on course of
  government
• Collective (Cabinet) Responsibility
• Individual (Ministerial) Responsibility
• Representation (provincial, religious, linguistic)

8
Cabinet

• Growth in size of Cabinet
• Representation complexity versus effectiveness
  unity
• Committee System
• Multi-tier cabinet
• Collective responsibility?

9
Size of the Canadian Cabinet, 1945-2004
10
Resources for TA Assignment

• Hansard on-line
• LEGISinfo
• http//www.parl.gc.ca/common/bills.asp?LanguageE
• The current Cabinet

http//webinfo.parl.gc.ca/MembersOfParliament/Main
CabinetCompleteList.aspx?TimePeriodCurrentLangua
geE
11
Summary

• CA 1867, Section 9
• Governor Generals Reserve Powers
• Cabinet Ministry
• Conventions
• Size representativeness vs effectiveness

12
The Prime Minister

• Primus inter pares First among equals
• Head of Government
• Hires fires ministers
• Chairs cabinet meetings
• Head of party

13
The Prime Minister

• Prime Ministers Office (PMO)
• Party political support
• Privy Council Office (PCO)
• Governmental support
• Apex of civil service
• Link between executive bureaucracy

14
Prime Ministerial Government

• Concentration of power in PM
• Presidentialization of cabinet government
• Limits to PMs power?
• How do we measure prime ministerial strength?

15
The Civil Service

• The bureaucracy
• Line Departments
• Defence
• Transport
• Central Agencies
• PCO
• Treasury Board
• Finance

16
The Civil Service

• Delegated authority
• Ministerial responsibility
• Answerability vs. culpability?
• Anonymity of civil servants?
• Policy vs. administration?

17
The Gomery Report

• Should senior civil servants (deputy ministers
  DMs) answer directly to Parliament?
• Should DMs be political or merit-based
  appointments?
• Should DMs be reshuffled like ministers?

18
The Gomery Report

• Although the issue is acknowledged, the average
  tenure of deputies in a position is still too
  brief and deputies retire too young. The
  professionalism of the service is diminished
  accordingly
• (Aucoin 2005, 333)
• Restoring Accountability Volume 1 PARLIAMENT,
  MINISTERS AND DEPUTY MINISTERS

19
To Reshuffle DMs or Not?

• Things have changed since the days of the old
  style mandarins who used to stand astride Ottawa
  like colossuses. These were people who had spent
  years in a department, health say, and had come
  up from being a regional officer, to a national
  officer, and now headed the department. They
  spent 25 years in the same department and knew
  where all the bodies were buried and had put
  some of them there themselves. There was a
  feeling that these mandarins ran their own show
  and didnt have to listen to Cabinet, and that
  this created a resistance to change. So the idea
  was that we had to shuffle these DMs around in
  order to reign in departments.