About Cabinet

In Canada, by constitutional convention, Cabinet is the body of advisors, appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister, which acts in the name of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada. Almost all of Cabinet is selected from the House of Commons. In practice, it carries out the executive government of Canada in the Queen’s name, and the Governor General almost invariably acts on its advice. Cabinet is the Prime Minister’s forum for creating consensus among ministers. As the mainspring for modern ministerial government, it is an informal political mechanism even though its decisions are authoritative. In Cabinet, the Prime Minister may lead members to agreement on particular matters that each will be expected to defend publicly.

The Canadian system of government is premised on both collective and individual ministerial responsibility. Cabinet solidarity, or collective ministerial responsibility, allows ministers to be frank in private but requires them to support the government in public. As a group, ministers are held accountable to Parliament for their government’s actions. They may speak about government’s policy only after it has been agreed to in private by their colleagues.

The personal responsibility of each member of Cabinet is referred to as individual ministerial responsibility. It normally includes responsibility for a Department. Ministers receive confidential advice from the public service, make important decisions and are held accountable for these decisions in Parliament and the country.

Canada’s cabinet system performs certain functions: securing agreement among Ministers on government priorities; securing agreement on parliamentary actions by the government; providing a forum for ministerial debate on issues of general interest; providing adequate information to Ministers relative to decisions for which they will be held collectively responsible and which may impact on their individual responsibilities; and providing adequate information to the Prime Minister to carry out his/her responsibilities and his/her leadership role.