The lieutenant governor is appointed in the same manner as the other provincial viceroys in Canada and is similarly tasked with carrying out most of the monarch's constitutional and ceremonial duties.

On 26 August 2020, she was installed as the 19th lieutenant governor, becoming the first South Asian and Muslim in Canadian history to hold the role.

Upon appointment, the lieutenant governor automatically becomes a Knight or Dame of Justice and the Vice-Prior in Alberta of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem.

[10] One of the few examples in Canada of a viceroy exercising the royal prerogative against or without ministerial advice came in 1937, when John Bowen reserved royal assent to three bills passed through the legislative assembly; two of the bills would have put the province's banks under the control of the provincial government, while a third, the Accurate News and Information Act, would have forced newspapers to print Cabinet rebuttals to stories the ministers objected to.

All three bills were later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, though, in retaliation for this move by Bowen, his premier, William Aberhart, closed Government House (the viceregal residence), removed the lieutenant governor's secretary and support offices, and took away his official car.