An acting Prime Minister is a Cabinet member (often in a Commonwealth nation) who is serving the role of prime minister, whilst the individual who normally holds the position in unable or unwilling to do so. The role of Acting Prime Minister is often performed by the Deputy Prime Minister. The office is also commonly used when the prime minister is absent from the territory of that nation. An Acting Prime Minister should not be confused with a caretaker prime minister, which refers to an outgoing prime minister following an electoral defeat, and who by convention does not implement new policies or an Interim Prime Minister who is appointed to perform a similar role to a Caretaker Prime Minister, but who is typically not a prime minister at the time of being appointed.
Read more about Acting Prime Minister: Statutory Authority
Famous quotes containing the words prime minister, acting, prime and/or minister:
“Being prime minister is a lonely job.... you cannot lead from the crowd.”
—Margaret Thatcher (b. 1925)
“She does not realize that the only difference between us is that she is on one stage and I on another. I feel that I am acting just as much as she is.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“The prime lesson the social sciences can learn from the natural sciences is just this: that it is necessary to press on to find the positive conditions under which desired events take place, and that these can be just as scientifically investigated as can instances of negative correlation. This problem is beyond relativity.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)
“[T]he dignity of parliament it seems can brook no opposition to it’s power. Strange that a set of men who have made sale of their virtue to the minister should yet talk of retaining dignity!”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)