Lieutenant Governor (Canada) - Selection and Appointment

Selection and Appointment

Unlike the federal viceroy, the Canadian lieutenant governors have been since 1867, if not Canadian-born, at least long-time residents of Canada and not of the Peerage, though a number, up until the Nickle Resolution in 1919, were knighted. Although required by the tenets of constitutional monarchy to be nonpartisan while in office, lieutenant governors have frequently been former politicians and some have returned to politics following their viceregal service. Canadian lieutenant governorships have also been used to promote women and minorities into a prominent position: The first female viceroy in Canada was Pauline Mills McGibbon, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1974 to 1980, and many have since served in both that province and others. There have been two Black (Lincoln Alexander and Mayann E. Francis) and several Aboriginal lieutenant governors. Norman Kwong, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta from 2005 to 2010, is Chinese-Canadian and David Lam, the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia from 1988 to 1995, was Hong Kong-Canadian. Former Lieutenant Governor of Quebec Lise Thibault used a wheelchair, while David Onley, the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, had polio as a child and uses crutches or a scooter.

The lieutenant governors are appointed by the Governor General of Canada on the advice of his or her prime minister, usually in consultation with the relevant premier, and the governor general gives the viceroyal sign-manual and affixes the Great Seal of Canada to the commission. In 2012, the Advisory Committee on Vice-Regal Appointments was established to create a non-binding shortlist of candidates to be presented to the prime minister when the appoinment of a lieutenant governor is upcoming.

Besides the administration of the oaths of office, there is no set formula for the swearing-in of a lieutenant governor-designate. Though there may therefore be variations to the following, the appointee will generally travel to the legislative assembly building in the provincial capital, where a guard of honour awaits to give a general salute. From there, the party is led by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly to the legislative chamber, wherein all justices of the province's superior court, members of the Legislative Assembly, and other guests are assembled. The governor general's commission for the lieutenant governor-designate is then read aloud, and the required oaths are administered to the appointee by either the governor general or a delegate thereof; the three oaths are: the Oath of Allegiance, the Oath of Office as lieutenant governor, and the oath as keeper of the province's Great Seal. With the affixing of their signature to these three solemn promises, the individual is officially the lieutenant governor and at that moment the Viceregal Salute is played and a 15-gun salute is conducted outside. The lieutenant governor then receives the insignia of the province's order or orders. Since the appointment in 1956 of John J. Bowlen as Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, newly installed lieutenant governors will, at some point in the first year of their mandate, be invited to a personal audience with the monarch.

Though incumbents are constitutionally mandated to serve for at least five years, unless the federal parliament agrees to remove the individual from office, the lieutenant governors still technically act at the governor general's pleasure, meaning the prime minister may recommend to the governor general that the viceroy remain in the Crown's service for a longer period of time, sometimes upwards of more than ten years. A lieutenant governor may also resign, and some have died in office. In such a circumstance, the governor general can appoint an administrator to exercise the functions of the lieutenant governor until a suitable replacement is found; in some provinces, the associated chief justice has a standing appointment as the provincial administrator.