<P> In federal department press releases, the government has sometimes been referred to by the phrase (last name of prime minister) Government; this terminology has been commonly employed in the media . In late 2010, an informal instruction from the Office of the Prime Minister urged government departments to consistently use in all department communications the term (at that time Harper Government) in place of Government of Canada . The same cabinet earlier directed its press department to use the phrase Canada's New Government . </P> <P> As per the Constitution Acts of 1867 and 1982, Canada is a constitutional monarchy, wherein the role of the reigning sovereign is both legal and practical, but not political . The Crown is regarded as a corporation sole, with the monarch, vested as she is with all powers of state, at the centre of a construct in which the power of the whole is shared by multiple institutions of government acting under the sovereign's authority . The executive is thus formally called the Queen - in - Council, the legislature the Queen - in - Parliament, and the courts as the Queen on the Bench . </P> <P> Royal Assent is required to enact laws and, as part of the Royal Prerogative, the royal sign - manual gives authority to letters patent and orders in council, though the authority for these acts stems from the Canadian populace and, within the conventional stipulations of constitutional monarchy, the sovereign's direct participation in any of these areas of governance is limited . The Royal Prerogative also includes summoning, proroguing, and dissolving parliament in order to call an election, and extends to foreign affairs: the negotiation and ratification of treaties, alliances, international agreements, and declarations of war; the accreditation of Canadian, and receipt of foreign, diplomats; and the issuance of passports . </P> <P> The person who is monarch of Canada (currently Queen Elizabeth II) is also the monarch of 15 other countries in the Commonwealth of Nations, though, he or she reigns separately as King or Queen of Canada, an office that is "truly Canadian" and "totally independent from that of the Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms". On the advice of the Canadian Prime Minister, the sovereign appoints a federal viceregal representative--the Governor General of Canada (currently Julie Payette)--who, since 1947, is permitted to exercise almost all of the monarch's Royal Prerogative, though there are some duties which must be specifically performed by, or bills that require assent by, the king or queen . </P>

Who has the power to make laws in canada