APPOINTS LIEUTENANT-GOVERNORS.
178
6. POWERS AS REGARDS THE PROVINCES.
Lieutenant-Governors of the Provinces are appointed by Appoint-
the Governor-General in Council by Commission under the Lieute-
Great Seal of Canada. In case of the absence, illness or other nent-Go
inability of the Lieutenant-Governor, the Governor-General
may appoint an administrator to execute the duties of the
office’.
By section 59 of the British North America Act a Removal
Lieutenant-Governor is not “ removable within five years from Silage
his appointment except for cause assigned, which shall be Yornors-
communicated to him in writing within one month after the
order for removal is made, and shall be communicated by
message to the Senate and to the House of Commons within
one week thereafter if the Parliament is then sitting, and if
not, then within one week after the commencement of the
next session of the Parliament.” The section is silent as to
the circumstances under which the removal of a Lieutenant-
Governor would be justifiable, but the Letellier case may be Leteliier
taken to have established the rule that the Governor-General Case.
ought to act by and with the advice of his ministers. The
facts of the case were shortly these’:—In 1878 the Lieutenant-
Governor of Quebec, M. Letellier, dismissed his ministers on
the ground that they had acted contrary to his representa-
tions, were encouraging a lavish expenditure in regard to
railways, and had promoted a bill which he deemed to be an
arbitrary and illegal infringement of vested rights. The
subject was brought before the Governor-General by both
sides, and a petition praying for the Lieutenant-Governor’s
dismissal was addressed to the Governor-General in Council
by certain members of the dismissed ministry. The Governor-
General communicated the petition and the statement of the
Licutenant-Governor to the Senate and the House of Commons.
1 For form of Commission, see Can. Sess. Journ. 1878, p. 175.
? See Todd. p. 405, for a more detailed account.
