Duties
The official duties of the deputy prime minister are to answer questions pertaining to overall government policy during Question Period, and to chair the cabinet in the absence of the prime minister. The office has no standing in law, and does not carry any formal duties or tasks; that is, it is without a portfolio, though the prime minister may negotiate or assign specific tasks in conjunction with the title. With the exception of Herb Gray, all deputy prime ministers have held a portfolio alongside this title.
One deputy prime minister, Sheila Copps, attracted controversy in 1993 after asserting that she was "in charge" of government business while the then Prime Minister, Jean Chrétien, was out of the country. After she left politics, she wrote that although the position of deputy prime minister is only ceremonial, "very often, the DPM's job was to protect the prime minister from the political damage that Question Period can inflict on a leader," further citing the experience of Erik Nielsen during the Sinclair Stevens scandal.
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