"[4] Canadian citizenship is not a requirement[3] and elected or appointed members of a governmental body are ineligible as long as they hold office.

[4] This committee then meets once or twice yearly to make its selected recommendations to the Cabinet and works with that body in narrowing down the potential appointees to a list that will be submitted to the lieutenant governor.

[1] Posthumous nominations are not accepted, though an individual who dies after their name was submitted to the Honours and Awards Secretariat can still be retroactively made a Member of the Order of Ontario.

The obverse is white enamel with gold edging, bearing at its centre the escutcheon of the arms of Ontario, all surmounted by a St Edward's Crown symbolizing the Canadian monarch's role as the fount of honour.

[3] The order's ribbon is patterned with vertical stripes in red, green, white, and gold, reflecting the colours within the provincial coat of arms.