Document Record

Creator

Quebec, Lower Canada, Upper Canada, Canada. Governor.

Title

Indian Affairs : Office of the Governor General, petitions, 1839-1850

Identifier

lac_mikan_157411
163193
RG 10 A 1 c
R216-705-5-E
R216-705-5-F
Government
Aboriginal
oocihm.lac_mikan_157411

Document source

Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada

Language

English

Description

The Governor General of Canada is the federal viceregal representative of the Canadian monarch. The office has its roots in the 16th and 17th century colonial governors of New France and British North America, and thus is the oldest continuous institution in Canada. After 1867, the Governor General represented the government of the United Kingdom (that is, the monarch in his British council) until, after continually decreasing involvement by the British government and the passage in 1931 of the Statute of Westminster, the governor general became the direct, personal representative of the uniquely Canadian sovereign (the monarch in his Canadian council). During that process of gradual independence, the governor general took on an ever expanding role: in 1904, the Militia Act granted permission for the governor general to use the title of Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian militia, and, in 1927, the first official international visit by a governor general was made. In 1947, King George VI issued letters patent allowing the viceroy to carry out almost all of the monarch's powers in his or her stead. Per the Constitution Act, 1982, any constitutional amendment that affects the Crown, including the Office of the Governor General, requires the unanimous consent of each provincial legislature as well as the federal parliament. Generally speaking, a Governor General holds the position for a five year term, though the terms are officially unfixed, and Governor Generals alternative between Anglophones and Francophones (ie. a Francophone will hold the post immediately after an Anglophone has done so).
This collection consists of petitions sent to the Governor General concerning problems with Aboriginals, 1840-1850; and abstracts of petitions, 1839-1850. These abstracts serve as a finding aid to this collection giving both the numerical sequence of petitions and also an alphabetical index of petitioners. .

URL

https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_mikan_157411