Meetings of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, 1867-1882

Abstract

In Britain, a meeting of the Privy Council means a meeting of the Queen and three or more Privy Counsellors (at least four must be summoned, but only three need be present). Such meetings are, of course, summoned for purely formal purposes, but they are not infrequent. It used to be blandly assumed that similar meetings of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada had taken place only very rarely indeed. Successive articles by Professor Mallory showed that at least in the early years after Confederation this was not so.Professor MacNutt, on the other hand, has suggested that, until Lord Lome's assumption of the Governor-Generalship, meetings of the Council with the Governor present were the rule rather than the exception, and that they were much more than merely formal. He says: “Shortly after his arrival in Ottawa, Lorne was astonished by an invitation to sit in Council with [his ministers] as public business was discussed. He was shown the high-backed, decorated gubernatorial chair in the cabinet room in the east block where Dufferin had sat like a Stuart monarch and sometimes summarily influenced debate. Lorne refused; most informed men were confused and mystified.”