Letters Patent, 1947

The Letters Patent, 1947 (more formally, the Letters Patent Constituting the Office of Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada) are a legal instrument introduced by King George VI, which came into effect on 1 October 1947 and continue to, along with parts of the Constitution Act, 1867, constitute the Office of the Governor General. These letters served to expand the role and powers of the governor general in exercising the Royal Prerogative, allowing the governor general to carry out an increased number of the King's duties in "exceptional circumstances". While the letters patent allow the governor general to use most of the "powers and authorities" lawfully belonging to the Canadian sovereign, this permission can be revoked, altered, or amended by the sovereign at any time and these powers and authorities thus remain with the monarch and are carried out by the governor general on his or her behalf.

The first letters patent in Canada were, starting in 1663, issued to the governors of New France by the Kings of France. At that time, the letters patent outlining the office of the governor and its role were issued with a commission appointing the occupant to the office, as well as an accompanying set of royal instructions. In this way, a different set of letters patent were issued by the Crown each time a new governor was appointed, a custom that was continued by the British following the surrender of New France in 1763 to the United Kingdom. This system remained largely unchanged until 1947 with two exceptions: The first was the granting of the title commander-in-chief in 1905 and the second occurred in 1931, when the governor general went from acting as an agent of the British government to a representative of the Canadian Crown.

The experiences of the Kingdom of Iceland during the Second World War also gave Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent an example of how the lack of a regency act or similar mechanism could, in certain circumstances, evoke a constitutional crisis. When Denmark was invaded by Nazi Germany in 1940, Iceland found itself in the peculiar position wherein its king, Christian X, who was also king of and resided in Denmark, was effectively cut off and unable to perform his constitutional duties, such as passing bills and exercising the royal prerogative, in Iceland. With no method to allow for the incapacity of the sovereign, the Icelandic parliament was forced into passing an illegal declaration of independence, with the appointment of Sveinn Björnsson as regent. The subject of the Canadian governor general's ability to act in the absence or incapacitation of the monarch was discussed in the House of Commons in 1947. This discussion brought up Canada's lack of something similar to the United Kingdom's Regency Act, which further underscored the need for such a mechanism within the Canadian political structure. As a result, the 1947 Letters Patent were issued by the King later that year, allowing the governor general to carry out nearly all of the sovereign's duties in case of capture or incapacity and thus negated the need for His Majesty's Canadian government to go through the process of passing legislation equivalent to the Regency Act.

...
Wikipedia