Canadian Prime Minister Powers

This essay discusses the powers of the Canadian Prime Minister, including appointing government officials, controlling the legislature, and leading the executive branch.

Running Head: CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER AND HIS POWERS
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Canadian Prime Minister Powers
In Canada, a Prime Minister is the person in charge of running the government. This
office is not constitutionally recognized as the holder of this office is appointed by the monarchy.
In most cases, the leader of the majority political party in the House of Common automatically
becomes eligible for this office. Before a person becomes a Prime Minister, he/she is elected
during the federal elections of Canada. This enables him/her to seat in the House of Common.
This essay thesis therefore is to show that the Canadian Prime Minister is the most powerful
political office. This is going to be seen through the powers bestowed to the holder of the office
by the Governor General as the Prime Minister reports him. In addition, the politics of the State
of Canada revolves through the decisions and actions of the Prime Minister.
First and foremost, the Prime Minister is the party leader of the majority in the
parliament. He is therefore the leader of parliamentary party according to the Labour and
Conservative representatives (Birch, 2013). This gives him the power to be in control of the
members of parliament and he can control the day to day business of the parliament.
Secondly, the Prime Minister in Canada has the power to appoint and nominate the
government. This means that he is the one with powers to appoint judges both in the supreme
and appeal courts, ambassadors to represent Canada in different places, commissioners for
electoral bodies and also the civil servants. The prime minister names a cabinet that he himself
chairs during its meetings.

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Another important role that makes the Prime Ministerial office be powerful is the role of
being the head of the government. This makes a prime Minister the head of the Executive. He
chooses a cabinet, the Prime Minister Office staff (PMO) and the Privy Council Office
secretariats(PCO). These staffs help him in running the government activities. He is free to
consult either the PMO or the PCO secretariats when making decisions (Lagassé, 2016).
The Canadian Prime Minister has the power over the foreign policy and military
deployment. The Prime Minister together with the foreign minister formulates trade policies for
Canada. Prime Minister Harper for example placed his party attention to adopting a better and
recent approach to matters of international affairs (Paris, 2014). The prime minister also decides
whether to send Canada army for missions and peace keeping operations where needed.
As the Canadian PM, he controls the legislature, therefore making him more powerful
than the American president, who is accountable to the voters yet he does not have powers over
the Congress. The Prime Minister chooses who to join the PBO and the PCO, the cabinet and
even the ministers and advisors. The president is only allowed to check in regularly (Chohan and
Jacobs, 2016). The presidentialisation debate in Canada therefore is influenced highly by the
Prime Minister’s power in the political system. The power makes the Prime Minister of Canada
more of the president as the president’s budgetary powers are very limited.

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Another important aspect that makes the prime minister of Canada powerful is the fact
that he is considered a symbol of the country. He represents Canada in international forums like
the G-7 summits. He also performs symbolic duties other than the political duties assigned to
him. The prime minister also has authority to send holiday messages.
A research carried out shows that the Canadian Prime Minister is “highly power in their
own system” (O'Malley, 2007). The Canadian system of government is associated to a
monarchy. The Crown therefore gives the Prime Minister all these powers as he rules on their
behalf. He reports sometimes to the Governor General (Smith and Firmini, 2017). He has the power
to make decisions.
In conclusion, the Prime Minister of Canada is accorded the most powerful office
politically. He runs the State of Canada generally as he decides what happens from the Executive
branch to the Legislature branch. He can remain as the holder of this office for a long period as
this office has no limited time. The prime minister can call for federal elections when its suitable
for him so as to seek a fresh mandate.

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Bibliography
Birch, A. H. (2013). British system of government. Routledge.
Chohan, U. W., & Jacobs, K. (2016). The presidentialisation thesis and parliamentary
budget offices. Parliamentary Affairs, 70(2), 361-376.
Lagassé, P. (2016). The Crown and Prime Ministerial Power. Canadian Parliamentary
Review, 39(2), 17.
Maddex, R. L. (2014). Constitutions of the World. Routledge.
O'Malley, E. (2007). The power of prime ministers: Results of an expert survey.
International Political Science Review, 28(1), 7-27.
Paris, R. (2014). Are Canadians still liberal internationalists? Foreign policy and public
opinion in the Harper era. International Journal, 69(3), 274-307.
Smith, J., & Firmini, M. (2017). The Crown in Canada. In (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the
Canadian Constitution.: Oxford University Press, Retrieved 24 Nov. 2018, from
http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/law/9780190664817.001.0001/law-9780190664817-
chapter-6.

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