The lieutenant governor of Ontario 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.

[1][3][4] The lieutenant governor of Ontario is vested with a number of governmental duties and is also expected to undertake various ceremonial roles.

[10] Since 2011, the incumbent lieutenant governor has served ex officio as the Colonel of the Regiment of the Queen's York Rangers, a unit in the Canadian Army.

[13] With the election in 1937 of the Liberal Party to a majority in the Legislative Assembly, the lieutenant governor in Ontario was targeted for spending cutbacks.

The post then remained relatively low-key until 1985, when the personal discretion of Lieutenant Governor John Black Aird was required in the exercise of the royal prerogative: After Frank Miller that year lost the confidence of the Legislative Assembly, the opposing Liberal Party managed to negotiate a deal with both the New Democratic Party (NDP) and independent members of the assembly[14] and Aird, rather than dissolve the legislature only 55 days after the last election, called upon Liberal leader David Peterson to serve as premier.