Governor General of Canada

The Governor General of Canada was the viceregal representative of the Monarch of Canada from its founding in 1867 to its abolition of the monarchy and transition to a republic in 1988. The office of Governor General, by the three acts mentioned above, which together formed the legal basis of the republican transition, had its ties to the Monarchy of the United Kingdom (namely, Queen Elizabeth II) severed, and was itself renamed to the office of the President of Canada, which like the Governor General, remained a mostly ceremonial office, with the Westminster-style political system left in place and thus the Prime Minister of Canada retaining the majority of executive power at the federal level. The only real exception is that during wartime, the President of Canada, being commander-in-chief of the Canadian Forces according to the constitution, can form a Presidential Defence and Security Council to which all military and military-related apparatus, including the Department of National Defence (which is part of the Cabinet of Canada led by the Prime Minister) are ultimately responsible.