What are the benefits of a governor general?

Answer 1

The Governor General is important because very little can happen in government without them. Parliament is formed, prorogued and dissolved for election by the Governor General's order. Legislation issued by Parliament or the Cabinet cannot come into force until the Governor General, or one or his or her deputies, assents to it. Important officials cannot take office unless the Governor General appoints them. Because of how critical he or she is to the functioning of government, the Governor General and all those in line to become Administrator should the Governor General be unable to perform his or her duties had high priority for evacuation in the case of a nuclear strike during the Cold War.

On a somewhat more mundane note, the Governor General conducts diplomatic relations for Canada, and is charged with administering the Canadian honours system, roles that are important for the promotion of Canada's interests abroad, and the promotion of our values at home.

Answer 2

Recognition of Canadian excellence

As Canada has both a Governor General (the Queen's representative), and a prime minister (the head of Government), as opposed to a presidential system (where the same person serves as both head of State and head of Government), the Canadian honours system can be managed exclusively by the Governor General. This ensures that Canadians can enjoy an honours system that is entirely non-partisan, as honours decisions are not made (or announced) by the upper-echelons of the partisan component of government.

Reserved (emergency) powers of the Crown

Though the weight of decision-making rests with the prime minister, and ministers, having a Governor General ensures that executive power actually rests above the partisan fray of day-to-day government. As the executive power is held by the Crown, and not any individual minister, there are mechanisms in place to revoke the commission of any Government, or an individual thereof, who abuses power or acts against the framework of the Canadian constitution.

Though these powers are rarely used, the Governor General has sweeping powers to restore democratic order in the event of an emergency, including (a) the power to dissolve the Parliament of Canada; (b) the power to dismiss the prime minister and Government; and (c) the power to appoint a new prime minister. The Governor General, as a representative of Her Majesty, also has the right to encourage, to be advised, and to warn the prime minister and ministers.

Answer 3

Purely ceremonial. On paper it looks like he controls the government, that the government answers to him, that he appoints the Prime Minister, is Head of State, Commander in Chief and many other things.

He is none of that. If he even hinted that his role was anything other than ceremony it would create a crisis. If he insisted on action on a political opinion the following crisis would likely see the end of the GG and quite possibly the Confederation as we know it.

We keep those Royal roles and names to keep consistency within our system. We really do not answer to the GG or the Queen and see ourselves as democratic. But if we were to remove certain terms and roles the debate required would raise many very difficult questions.

To avoid those Questions and keep the status quo we keep the roles of a GG and Queen and many terms like Royal and Crown and we even pretend they mean something, as long as they don't.

Answer 4

There are very few benefits, none of which have the ability to be of any use to Canadians on a day to day basis.

The main purpose of the Governor General is to take money from taxpayers, and make it disappear.