Definition: A lieutenant governor in Canada is a provincial representative of the Queen. Lieutenant governors are appointed by the Governor General of Canada on the advice of the prime minister, and the federal government pays their salaries. However, they derive their power directly from the monarch, and have the same formal, prerogative and discretionary powers in respect to the provincial government as the governor general has in regards to the federal government.
The role of lieutenant governor is mainly ceremonial, but includes key duties such as giving Royal Assent to provincial legislation, opening, proroguing or dissolving the legislative assembly, and in an extreme case the lieutenant governor can dismiss a government.
Pronunciation: lef´ten-ent gov´er-ner
