The
Queen's Privy Council for Canada (QPC) ( (CPR)), sometimes called
Her Majesty's Privy Council for Canada or simply the
Privy Council, is the full group of personal consultants to the
monarch of Canada on
state and constitutional affairs.
Responsible government, though, requires the sovereign or her
viceroy—the
Governor General of Canada—to almost always follow only that
advice tendered by the
Cabinet—a committee within the Privy Council composed usually of elected
Members of Parliament. Those summoned to the QPC are appointed for life by the governor general as directed by the
Prime Minister of Canada, meaning that the group is composed predominantly of former cabinet ministers, with some others having been inducted as an honorary gesture. Those in the council are accorded the use of an honorific
style and
post-nominal letters, as well as various signifiers of precedence.