Letters Patent, 1947
Canadian constitutional document / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Letters Patent, 1947 (formally, the Letters Patent Constituting the Office of Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada), are letters patent signed by George VI, as King of Canada, on 8 September 1947 and came into effect on 1 October of the same year. These letters, replacing the previous letters patent issued in 1931, reconstituted the Office of the governor general of Canada under the terms of the Constitution Act, 1867, expanding the governor general's ability to exercise the royal prerogative, thereby allowing her or him to use most of the "powers and authorities" lawfully belonging to the sovereign[5] and to carry out an increased number of the sovereign's duties in "exceptional circumstances".[6]
While the Crown theoretically has the power to revoke or alter the letters patent at will, it remains unclear to what extent that power remains after the enactment of the Constitution Act, 1982, which requires all changes to the office of the King and the governor general to be done through a constitutional amendment approved by Parliament and all provincial legislatures.[7][8]