The deputy prime minister of Canada<!--"deputy prime minister" is uncapitalized here because it is preceded by modifier "The", per MOS:JOBTITLES bullet 3 and table column 2 example 1. Any proposal for modification to the guideline should be posted at its talk page, WT:MOSBIO.--> () is a position in the Canadian Cabinet which is created from time to time by the prime minister of Canada, who has the power to designate a Cabinet minister as the deputy prime minister. That position does not have any standing at law and does not automatically have any formal duties. It does not have an associated departmental portfolio, since it is almost always conferred on an individual who already holds a position as Cabinet minister. As a Cabinet minister, deputy prime ministers are appointed to the Privy Council and styled as the Honourable (), a privilege maintained for life.
There is currently no position of deputy prime minister. There was no deputy prime minister under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, nor initially under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau until November 20, 2019, when he appointed Chrystia Freeland. While deputy prime minister, she served concurrently first as minister of intergovernmental affairs, then as minister of finance. She resigned her Cabinet positions in December 2024. Neither Trudeau nor his successor, Prime Minister Mark Carney, have recreated the position.
The deputy prime minister should not be confused with the position of the clerk of the Privy Council, who is effectively the deputy minister (the senior civil servant in a department) of the prime minister's department (which is the Privy Council Office).
History
The position of deputy prime minister was first created by Pierre Trudeau in 1977, largely to recognize the long years of service of Allan MacEachen. nor did Prime Minister Justin Trudeau until the appointment of Chrystia Freeland in 2019, after his second electoral victory. Prior to Freeland's appointment, Canada's most recent deputy prime minister had been Anne McLellan appointed by Prime Minister Paul Martin.
Harper gave special status in the line of authority to members of his cabinet: under an Order in Council issued on February 6, 2006—the day Harper was appointed prime minister—when "the prime minister is unable to perform the functions of his office", Lawrence Cannon, then Jim Prentice, then the balance of the Cabinet by order of precedence, were "authorized to act for the prime minister". This order was followed by a number of others updating the list; in each case, the top person on that list was apponited the vice-chair of the cabinet's Priorities and Planning Committee. Previous prime ministers have had similar orders-in-council, under which the deputy prime minister and then the balance of the Cabinet, in order of precedence, have been authorized to act for the prime minister. Media analysts generally credited the top person on these lists as being the de facto deputy prime minister,
Similarly, no deputy prime minister was named in the first cabinet of incumbent prime minister Justin Trudeau. Ralph Goodale was deputy leader of the Liberal Party and had been ranked first in the "order of precedence" in the cabinet. An order in council designated him as first in line to assume the prime minister's duties in the event Trudeau ever became incapacitated. However, media analysts focused on Dominic Leblanc, who despite having been lower in the official order of precedence served on numerous cabinet committees and as the government's liaison with the Senate, as being the "de facto deputy prime minister".
Following the 2019 federal election, which saw the Liberals returned to power in a minority government but being shut out of the western provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, Goodale was defeated in the Saskatchewan riding of Regina—Wascana, while Leblanc was reelected in his New Brunswick riding of Beauséjour but on medical leave due to recovery from cancer treatment. The Liberals were pressed to respond to concerns about lack of representation in cabinet from the prairie provinces potentially driving sentiments of western alienation. On November 20, 2019, Trudeau appointed Chrystia Freeland, who represents the Toronto riding of University—Rosedale in Parliament but was born in Peace River, Alberta and grew up in Alberta, as the deputy prime minister.
On December 16, 2024, Chrystia Freeland resigned from cabinet as finance minister and as deputy prime minister. Her successor, Dominic LeBlanc, replaced her as finance minister but was not appointed to the post of deputy prime minister by Prime Minister Trudeau.
Duties
The office has no standing in law and does not carry any formal duties or tasks. It is not one of the mandatory Cabinet positions created by statute. For the political analysis magazine Policy Options Eugene Lang and Greg Schmidt describe the role as one of "soft power", in which a deputy prime minister only carries as much or as little power within a government as the prime minister chooses to permit them; the level of power is usually communicated less by the deputy prime minister's title itself, and more by what other roles they hold alongside it.
One deputy prime minister, Sheila Copps, attracted controversy in 1993 after asserting that she was "in charge" of government business while the then prime minister, Jean Chrétien, was on a brief holiday. After she left politics, she wrote that although the position of deputy prime minister is only ceremonial, "very often, the DPM's job was to protect the prime minister from the political damage that Question Period can inflict on a leader", further citing the experience of Erik Nielsen during the Sinclair Stevens scandal.
Succession
The deputy prime minister does not automatically assume the office of prime minister if the incumbent prime minister dies or resigns while their party maintains the confidence of the House of Commons.<br><small>April 30, 1996 – June 19, 1996</small>
|-
|(6)
|118x118px
|Sheila Copps<br><small>MP for Hamilton East</small><br><small>(born 1952)</small>
|June 19,<br>1996
|June 11,<br>1997
|
- Minister of Multiculturalism and Citizenship (until 1996)
- Minister of Canadian Heritage (from 1996)
| style="background:; " |
|Liberal
|-
|7
|113x113px
|Herb Gray<br><small>MP for Windsor West</small><br><small>(1931–2014)</small>
|June 11,<br>1997
|January 15,<br>2002
|–
| style="background:; " |
|Liberal
|-
|8
|119x119px
|John Manley<br><small>MP for Ottawa South</small><br><small>(born 1950)</small>
|January 15,<br>2002
|December 12,<br>2003
|
- Minister of Finance (from 2002)
| style="background:; " |
|Liberal
|-
|9
|118x118px
|Anne McLellan<br><small>MP for Edmonton West (until 2004)<br>MP for Edmonton Centre (from 2004)</small><br><small>(born 1950)</small>
|December 12,<br>2003
|February 6,<br>2006
|
- Solicitor General of Canada (until 2005)
- Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness (from 2005)
| style="background:; " |
|Liberal
|Paul Martin<br><small>Liberal</small><br><small>(27th)</small>
|-
| colspan="8" rowspan="2" |Position did not exist<br><small>February 6, 2006 – November 20, 2019</small>
|Stephen Harper<br><small>Conservative</small><br><small>(28th)</small>
|-style="height:40px"
| rowspan="3" |Justin Trudeau<br><small>Liberal</small><br><small>(29th)</small>
|-
|10
|120x120px
|Chrystia Freeland<br><small>MP for University—Rosedale</small><br><small>(born 1968)</small>
|November 20,<br>2019
|December 16, <br>2024
|
- Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs (until 2020)
- Minister of Finance (from 2020)
| style="background:; " |
|Liberal
|-
| colspan="8" rowspan="2" |Position does not exist<br><small>December 16, 2024 – present</small>
|-
|Mark Carney<br><small>Liberal</small><br><small>(30th)</small>
|}
Acting prime minister
thumb|upright|170px|[[Ellen Fairclough served as acting prime minister from February 19 to 20, 1958, in the absence of John Diefenbaker.]]
Prior to the creation of the position of deputy prime minister, a prime minister would routinely name a member of the cabinet to temporarily act on the prime minister's behalf while the prime minister was away from the regular duties of his job for a period of time, such as being out of the country on a working visit or a vacation. The delegate was thus a caretaker, whose role was to oversee the routine day-to-day functioning of the government and cabinet during the prime minister's absence; for example, in his capacity as acting prime minister, Mitchell Sharp ordered a precautionary one-day shutdown of government offices in Ottawa on August 20, 1970, as the storm that had spawned the Sudbury tornado headed toward Ottawa. An acting prime minister did not otherwise have the authority to act independently of the sitting prime minister in a legislative or political capacity, nor would an acting prime minister be considered to have actually served as prime minister. As well the acting prime minister was not given the title The Right Honourable, even during the acting period, although some people who served as acting prime ministers may have independently earned that distinction for other reasons.
Due to the routine and relatively minor nature of the role, few to no research sources exist to provide a complete list of everyone who was ever named as acting prime minister. However, John Diefenbaker's selection of Ellen Fairclough as acting prime minister on February 19 and 20, 1958, is historically noteworthy as Fairclough was the first woman ever designated.
Senior Minister
Prior to the creation of this position, the position of "Senior Minister" was a ceremonial position used in a similar manner, heading the order of precedence. Upon the absence of the prime minister, the senior minister would act on behalf of the prime minister.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
! rowspan="2" scope="col" | Portrait
! rowspan="2" scope="col" width="150px" | Name<br><small>Electoral district<br>(Birth–Death)</small>
! colspan="2" scope="col" | Term of office
! rowspan="2" width="150px" |Other portfolios
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Party
! rowspan="2" width="100px" |Prime minister<br><small>Party<br>(Ministry)</small>
|-
!width="95px" |Term start
!width="95px" |Term end
|-
|106x106px
|Paul Hellyer<br><small>MP for Trinity</small><br><small>(1923–2021)</small>
|April 30,<br>1968
|April 23,<br>1969
|
- Minister of Transport
| style="background:; " |
|Liberal
|Pierre Trudeau<br><small>Liberal</small><br><small>(20th)</small>
|}
See also
- Deputy Premier (Canada)
Notes
References
External links
- Official website
- Parliament of Canada page