The Institutions of Our Federal Government
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The Cabinet
By custom, every province must, if possible, have at least one Cabinet Minister. Of course, if a province does not elect any government supporters, this becomes difficult. In that case, the Prime Minister may put a Senator from that province into the Cabinet, or get some Member from another province to resign his or her seat and then try to get a person from the “missing” province elected there. In 1921, the Liberals did not elect a single Member from Alberta. The Prime Minister, Mr. King, solved the problem of Alberta representation in the Cabinet by getting the Hon. Charles Stewart, Liberal ex-Premier of Alberta, nominated in the Quebec constituency of Argenteuil and then elected. Whether Mr. King’s ploy would work now is quite another question. The voters of today do not always look with favour upon outside candidates being “parachuted” into their ridings. The smallest province, Prince Edward Island, has often gone unrepresented in the Cabinet for years at a stretch.
Cabinet meets around this oval table.
By custom also, Ontario and Quebec have 10 or 12 Ministers each, provided each province has elected enough government supporters to warrant such a number. Historically, at least one Minister from Quebec was an English-speaking Protestant, and there was at least one Minister from the French-speaking minorities outside Quebec, normally from New Brunswick or Ontario, or both. It also used to be necessary to have at least one English-speaking (usually Irish) Roman Catholic Minister. In recent years women have won increased recognition and Canada’s multicultural nature has been reflected in Cabinet representation from Jewish and non-English, non-French, ethnocultural minorities.
