The monarchy of Canada forms the core of each Canadian provincial jurisdiction's Westminster-style parliamentary democracy, being the foundation of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government in each province. The monarch since is , who as sovereign is shared equally with both the Commonwealth realms and the Canadian federal entity. He, his consort, and other members of the Canadian royal family undertake various public and private functions across the country. He is the only member of the royal family with any constitutional role.

Royal assent and the royal sign-manual are required to enact laws, letters patent, and Orders in Council. The Constitution Act, 1867, leaves the monarch's direct role in the provinces in question and many royal duties in these regions are specifically assigned to the sovereign's provincial viceroys, known as lieutenant governors, who are appointed by the King's federal representative, the governor general. Further, within the conventional stipulations of constitutional monarchy, the Crown's direct participation in any of these areas of governance is limited, with most related powers entrusted for exercise by the elected parliamentarians, the appointed ministers of the Crown generally drawn from amongst them, and the judges and justices of the peace. The Crown today primarily functions as a guarantor of continuous and stable governance and a nonpartisan safeguard against the abuse of power, the sovereign acting as a custodian of the Crown's democratic powers and representing the "power of the people above government and political parties."

In all provinces, the monarchy's roots lie in the British Crown, while in some, mostly in Eastern Canada, the French Crown also had influence. Over the centuries, the institution throughout the country has evolved to become a distinctly Canadian one, represented by unique symbols for each province.

Federal and provincial aspects

The Canadian monarchy is a unitary institution over all eleven of Canada's governmental spheres (one federal and ten provincial); the monarch reigns impartially over the nation as a whole, with the headship of state neither federal nor provincial jurisdiction. At the same time, the one Crown operates separately within each area of governance; it is so central a part of the various governments that any constitutional amendment that affects the monarchy in any or all of them requires the unanimous consent of all the provincial legislatures, along with the federal parliament, rather than the two-thirds majority necessary for most other amendments. There is one monarch, who "acts in different rights". Such is demonstrated when the sovereign takes on different legal personas in a case wherein a provincial government files a lawsuit against the federal or another provincial government. Also, as it was put in Attorney-General of Canada v. Higbie: "When the Crown, in right of the Province, transfers land to the Crown, in right of the Dominion, it parts with no right. What takes place is merely a change of administrative control." The Canadian Crown thus both remains above and links together all of the jurisdictions in Confederation; it has been described as a "divided crown," or a "compound monarchy".

The arrangement provides that each of Canada's provinces are all sovereign of each other and the federal realm. The sovereignty of the provinces is passed on not by the governor general or federal parliament, but through the overreaching Crown itself to the monarch's viceregal representatives in the provinces, the lieutenant governors, and the limitation that they act, in the monarch's name, only on the advice of the relevant provincial ministers of the Crown or legislature. The Supreme Court found in 1918 that provincial legislation cannot bind the federal Crown except "by express terms or necessary intendment", nor can the monarch in his federal council or parliament legislate for the provinces beyond the provisions of the constitution. The provincial Crown "exists to safeguard the independence of each province".

The system was set up as such by the Fathers of Confederation because they saw such a use of constitutional monarchy as a bulwark against any fracturing of the Canadian federation.. In 1939, Sir Shuldham Redfern, then Secretary to the Governor General, said that, without a common allegiance to the Crown, the regions of Canada might break up. The British North America Act, 1867 (now the Constitution Act, 1867), was written so as to reflect the view of John A. Macdonald and the Earl of Derby that the provinces were subordinate to the federal Crown, with the lieutenant governors appointed by the governor general and not—as is done with the governors of the Australian states and was suggested be integrated in Canada by the 1979 Task Force on National Unity—by the Queen herself. Further, while the lieutenant governors did each hold a great seal, summoned and prorogued parliament in the Queen's stead, and granted royal assent to bills that bore the Queen's name, it was still expected that the latter be given in the name of the governor general.

That rule was never followed in Ontario and Quebec, though, and the other provinces soon followed suit. Then, in 1882, the legitimacy of the lieutenant governors as direct representatives of the monarch was established by the Lord Watson of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the case of Maritime Bank v. Receiver-General of New Brunswick. In his ruling, which discovered a provincial guise of the Crown and thus further empowered the provinces, Watson stated, "the Lieutenant Governor [...] is as much a representative of Her Majesty, for all purposes of provincial government, as the Governor General himself is, for all purposes of Dominion government." This was further confirmed with the Referendum Act, 1919 and the Judicial Committee found in 1932 that there was a definite separation between the provincial and federal treasuries; "it is true there is only one Crown, but, as regards Crown revenues and Crown property by legislation assented to by the Crown, there is a distinction to be made between the property in the province and the revenues and property in the Dominion. There are two purses." The Lord Denning of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales ruled in 1982 that "the Crown became separate and divisible, according to the particular territory in which it was sovereign... It was separate and divisible for each self-governing Dominion or province or territory."

The Crown became the foundation of "the federative principle in Canada." The lieutenant governors' equal status to the governor general is crucial to provincial co-sovereignty and federalism, the monarchy having been said to provide flexibility to the Canadian federation and thus be a factor in its sustainability. Indeed, provincial premiers have used the monarchy to the advantage of their respective provinces, recognising that "the Crown has been the engine or propeller of expanded provincial constitutional authority in the shifting balance of power within the Canadian confederation.". David Smith opined that, by being separated from the monarch by two levels of viceregal representation, the Canadian populace has been made more accepting of the Crown's role in determining who will govern in a minority parliament situation, while Canadian republican leader Tom Freda opposes the system, calling the lieutenant governors "redundant and obsolete", as does Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois, who opined that the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec is a "waste of money".

Today, though they continue to be appointed and dismissed by the governor general and only the federal parliament may initiate constitutional changes to their role, the lieutenant governors are now considered to be direct representatives of the sovereign, which has accorded them the right to receive audience with the monarch; a practice begun by the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta in 1956. They are also still only accorded the style of His/Her Honour, which is inferior to the governor general's style of His/Her Excellency, and may receive only a 15-gun salute, as opposed to the 21-gun salute given to the federal viceroy. The relationship between all the governments has been facilitated since 1970 by triennial meetings of the eleven viceroys (and now the three territorial commissioners as well), hosted each time by a different lieutenant governor in their province, though the chairperson is always the governor general.

Finances Funding of the Crown's operation in the provinces is split between the federal and provincial governments. As the viceroy is a federal appointee, the federal Crown pays in two parts—In Capital City Expenses and Out of Capital City Expenses—for some of the lieutenant governors' costs of office; his or her salary, which, like the governor general's, is fully taxed; and, through the Department of Canadian Heritage, a superannuation to retired lieutenant governors, though this money is actually garnished off of the individual's salary during his or her time in office. The provincial coffers supply the relevant lieutenant governor for other expenses of office, travel costs, and the upkeep of official residences, amongst other necessities. There is no uniform way in which each province distributes the money, and the amounts will also vary, depending on the facilities available to the monarch's representative, how they are used, which departments support them, and how they expenditures are listed in the provincial estimates.

The sovereign and other members of the royal family are only supported by tax dollars in the performance of their official duties. Should a province be hosting events that involve royal participation, the costs are also split between the federal and provincial spheres—the provincial Crown may pay for accommodation and transport, while the federal Crown supplies funds for Royal Canadian Mounted Police security and other household staff. Residents of the provinces do not pay any money to the royals, either as personal income or to support royal residences outside of the province.

Personification of the state The sovereign is regarded as the personification, or legal personality, of each of the provincial states, with the state therefore referred to as The Crown in Right of [Province], His Majesty in Right of [Province], or The King in Right of [Province]. As such, the monarch is the employer of all provincial government staff (including the viceroys, judges, police officers, and members of the legislative assemblies), the guardian of foster children (Crown wards), as well as the owner of all state lands (Crown land), buildings and equipment (Crown-held property), state-owned companies (Crown Corporations), and the copyright for all government publications (Crown copyright). This is all in his position as sovereign, and not as an individual; all such property is inherited by each successive sovereign as possession of the Crown in right of the province in perpetuity and it cannot be sold by the sovereign without the lieutenant governor doing so with the proper advice and consent of their ministers.

As the embodiment of the state, the monarch is at the head of all provincial orders of precedence, and is also the locus of the Oath of Allegiance, which is constitutionally required of members of the legislative assemblies and of the recruits of some provincial police forces, per statute law. This is done in reciprocation to the sovereign's Coronation Oath, wherein he or she promises "to govern the Peoples of... Canada... according to their respective laws and customs." There was in the 1970s some opposition to the oath by Parti Québécois members of the National Assembly of Quebec, where an additional oath to the people of Quebec has been added.

Constitutional role