Thrones of Canada

To grant royal assent to bills passed by the Commons and Senate, the governor general sits "at the foot of the throne", that is, in the speaker's chair.

The thrones in the Senate chamber of Parliament were commissioned in 1878, ahead of the arrival of John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, as Governor General of Canada, accompanied by his wife, Princess Louise, who would serve as viceregal consort.

These were designed in a Neoclassical style that both meshes with the Beaux-Arts architecture of the building and draws inspiration from the thrones John Pearson, the architect of the Centre Block, conceived of in the 1920s.

Using English walnut from Windsor Great Park that was donated by Canada's then-reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, the thrones were completed by craftsmen and upholsterers from Ontario and Quebec.

[1] Though the monarch's representative, the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, uses the speaker's chair in the legislative chamber of Province House to deliver the throne speech at the opening of parliament,[3] the province does have separate thrones located in the legislature's Red Chamber, which was home of the parliament's upper house until 1928.

Made from mahogany, the near-identical thrones—one for the monarch or lieutenant governor and the other for the royal or viceregal consort—bear rose, thistle, shamrock, and mayflower carved into headpieces, surmounted by St Edward's Crown on the sovereign's throne and the Crown of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, on the slightly smaller consort's throne.