The ceremonial duties include delivering the speech from the throne at the state opening of parliament; accepting letters of credence from incoming ambassadors; and distributing honours, decorations, and medals.

Any constitutional amendment that affects the Crown, including the office of governor general, requires the unanimous consent of each provincial legislative assembly as well as the Senate and House of Commons of Canada.

[n 6] In a speech on the subject of Confederation, made in 1866 to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, John A. Macdonald said of the planned governor, "we place no restriction on Her Majesty's prerogative in the selection of her representative ...

[15] The only time the leader of the opposition was consulted on the choice of name to put forward to the monarch for appointment as viceroy was when Lord Tweedsmuir's predecessor, Bessborough, wished to resign as governor general coincidentally just ahead of Parliament reaching the end of its maximum five year life in July 1935, after which an election was required.

[32][33] Although required by the tenets of constitutional monarchy to be nonpartisan while in office, governors general were often former politicians; a number held seats in the British House of Lords by virtue of their inclusion in the peerage.

[17] If, and because your Governor-General is in the service of the Crown, he is, therefore ... in the service of Canada ... [A]loof though he be from actual executive responsibility, his attitude must be that of ceaseless and watchful readiness to take part ... in the fostering of every influence that will sweeten and elevate public life; to ... join in making known the resources and developments of the country; to vindicate, if required, the rights of the people and the ordinariness and Constitution, and lastly, to promote by all means in his power, without reference to class or creed, every movement and every institution calculated to forward the social, moral, and religious welfare of the inhabitants of the Dominion.

You must have the patience of a saint, the smile of a cherub, the generosity of an Indian prince, and the back of a camel",[66] and the Earl of Dufferin stated that the governor general is "a representative of all that is august, stable, and sedate in the government, the history and the traditions of the country; incapable of partizanship and lifted far above the atmosphere of faction; without adherents to reward or opponents to oust from office; docile to the suggestions of his Ministers and, yet, securing to the people the certainty of being able to get rid of an administration or parliament the moment either had forfeited their confidence.

[74] The governor general is required by the Constitution Act, 1867, to appoint for life persons to the King's Privy Council for Canada,[75] who are all technically tasked with tendering to the monarch and viceroy guidance on the exercise of the royal prerogative.

After the Imperial Conference of 1926 produced the Balfour Declaration, formally establishing the autonomy and equal status of Commonwealth governments, governors general ceased to be advised in any way by British ministers.

[94] Queen Elizabeth II stated in 1959, to then-Governor General Vincent Massey, "maintain[ing] the right relationship between the Crown and the people of Canada [is] the most important function among the many duties of the appointment which you have held with such distinction.

In this official and bureaucratic capacity, the entire household is often referred to as Government House[103] and its departments are funded through the normal federal budgetary process,[104] as is the governor general's salary of CAD$288,900,[105] which has been taxed since 2013.

Typically, individuals appointed as federal viceroy were already a peer, either by inheriting the title, such as the Duke of Devonshire, or by prior elevation by the sovereign in their own right, as was the case with Earl Alexander of Tunis.

The governor general carried out in Canada all the parliamentary and ceremonial functions of a constitutional monarch—amongst other things, granting Royal Assent, issuing Orders-in-Council, and taking advice from the Canadian Privy Council.

As early as 1880, the viceregal family and court attracted minor ridicule from the Queen's subjects: in July of that year, someone under the pseudonym Captain Mac included in a pamphlet called Canada: from the Lakes to the Gulf, a coarse satire of an investiture ceremony at Rideau Hall, in which a retired inn-keeper and his wife undergo the rigorous protocol of the royal household and sprawl on the floor before the Duke of Argyll so as to be granted the knighthood for which they had "paid in cold, hard cash".

[140] During the First World War, into which Canada was drawn due to its association with the United Kingdom, the governor general's role turned from one of cultural patron and state ceremony to one of military inspector and morale booster.

Starting in 1914, Governor General Prince Arthur donned his Field Marshal's uniform and put his efforts into raising contingents, inspecting army camps, and seeing troops off before their voyage to Europe.

These actions, however, led to conflict with the prime minister at the time, Robert Borden; though the latter placed blame on Military Secretary Edward Stanton, he also opined that the Duke "laboured under the handicap of his position as a member of the Royal Family and never realized his limitations as Governor General".

[141] Prince Arthur's successor, Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire, faced the Conscription Crisis of 1917 and held discussions with his Canadian prime minister, as well as members of the official opposition, on the matter.

Once the government implemented conscription, Devonshire, after consulting on the pulse of the nation with Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Vincent Massey, Henri Bourassa, Archbishop of Montreal Paul Bruchési, Duncan Campbell Scott, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, and Stephen Leacock, made efforts to conciliate Quebec, though he had little real success.

In 1926, Prime Minister Mackenzie King, facing a no-confidence vote in the House of Commons over a scandal in his party, requested that Governor General Viscount Byng of Vimy dissolve parliament and call an election.

[147] These new developments were codified in the Statute of Westminster, through the enactment of which on 11 December 1931, Canada, along with the Union of South Africa and the Irish Free State, immediately obtained formal legislative independence from the UK.

Tweedsmuir's birthplace aside, though, the professional author took further than any of his predecessors the idea of a distinct Canadian identity,[153] travelling the length and breadth of the country, including, for the first time for a governor general, the Arctic regions.

[158] As his viceregal tenure neared an end, it was thought that Massey, an anglophone, should be followed by a francophone Canadian; and so, in spite of his Liberal Party attachments, Georges Vanier was chosen by Conservative prime minister John Diefenbaker as the next governor general.

Vanier was subsequently appointed by Queen Elizabeth II, in person, at a meeting of her Canadian Cabinet,[159] thus initiating the convention of alternating between individuals from Canada's two main linguistic groups.

[168][169][170] When the constitution was patriated four years later, the new amending formula for the documents outlined that any changes to the Crown, including the Office of the Governor General, would require the consent of all the provincial legislatures plus the federal parliament.

"[177] It was theorized by Peter Boyce that this was due, in part, to widespread misunderstanding about the governor general's role coupled with a lack of public presence compared to the media coverage dedicated to the increasingly presidentialized prime minister.

Clarkson managed to bring the viceregal office back into the collective consciousness of Canadians, winning praise for touring the country more than any of her predecessors, her inspiring speeches, and her dedication to the military in her role as the Commander-in-Chief's representative.

[191] This attitude was not unique to Clarkson, though; it had been observed that, for some decades, staff at Rideau Hall and various government departments in Ottawa had been pushing to present the governor general as head of state,[192] part of a wider Liberal policy on the monarchy that had been in effect at least since the proposed constitutional changes in the 1970s,[167] if not the 1964 Truncheon Saturday riot in Quebec City.

[193] Her appointment initially sparked accusations that she was a supporter of Quebec sovereignty, and it was observed that she had on a few occasions trodden into political matters,[194][195][196] as well as continuing to foster the notion that the governor general had replaced the Queen as head of state, thereby "unbalancing ... the federalist symmetry".

Edward Schreyer, for instance, was appointed Canadian High Commissioner to Australia upon his departure from the viceregal role in 1984, and Michaëlle Jean became the UNESCO special envoy to Haiti and, later, the secretary-general of La Francophonie.