The Executive: Prime Minister And Cabinet

Key questions


  • What are the institutions of executive power in Canada? How do they relate to one another? 

  • What principles and practices shape cabinet government? 

  • Why are Canadian prime ministers so powerful? Are they overly so?


Structure of Political Authority



The Canadian Executive


  • What is the executive power?

  • The executive: the crown, prime minister and cabinet (the political executive), and the civil service

  • Role of the crown: 

    • “Embodiment of the state”

    • King of Canada, represented by the governor general

  • The political executive exercises almost all executive power in Canada.



Prime Minister and Cabinet


  • Political executive

    • The group of ministers, including the prime minister, that constitute the government

    • Ministers as ‘political heads’ of departments, advised by Deputy Ministers (DM)


Composition of Cabinet (February 2025)



BC

3

Alberta

0

Saskatchewan

0

Manitoba

1

Ontario

16

Quebec

11

New  Brunswick

2

Nova Scotia

1

PEI

1

Nfld and Labrador

2

Total

37






Women

17

Men

20

Visible Minorities

10

Indigenous

0



  • Cabinet ministers appointed by the prime minister

  • The “Representative imperative”: Cabinet should be reflective of the diversity of the Canadian population

What should be the most important factors in a prime minister's choice of cabinet ministers?




Principles of Cabinet Government


  • Collective responsibility: cabinet as a whole is responsible for government decisions

  • Cabinet solidarity: all ministers must publicly support government decisions. 

  • Ministerial responsibility: ministers are accountable for the activities of their department. 


Cabinet Government in reality


  • In practice, cabinet does not act as a collective decision-making body

    • A ‘focus group’ for the prime minister

      • Essentially, a way for the prime minister to gather opinion

    • Real decision-making is in cabinet committees, central agencies and the prime minister


The Prime Minister


  • Who is the prime minister?

  • Most powerful person in Canadian government

  • Power rests on practice and convention


Sources of Prime Ministerial Power


  1. Principal advisor to the crown

  2. Power over cabinet appointment and processes

  3. Control over the “machinery of government” (the civil service)

  4. Vast Range of appointment powers

    1. Bank of Canada, UN, supreme court justice etc

  5. Leaders and chief spokesperson of party and government


  • PM is also supported by the Prime Minister’s Office and the Privy Council Office

  • Prime Ministers Office

    • Political organization that supports and advises the prime minister, staffed mostly by partisan appointees. Provides “policy sensitive” political advice

    • “The PMO - Ottawa’s centre of power”

  • Privy Council Office

    • Bureaucratic office that supports and advises the prime minister, cabinet, and cabinet committees in nonpartisan terms. Provides “politically-sensitive” policy advice.

    • The Prime minister can choose the clerk of the privy council (head of the civil service) but they aren’t tied to the PM (if Trudeau leaves, the clerk doesn’t have to unless new PM chooses new clerk) 



Political Authority in Canada in Reality





Constraints on Power?


  • Federal system

  • Other actors in ‘centre of government’

  • Complexity and size of government

  • Democratic norms and accountability (e.g., Responsible Government)

  • Political context: power is dynamic and flexible