The
Government of Canada , formally
Her Majesty's Government , is the
federal administration of
Canada. In
Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the
Queen-in-Council. In both senses, the construct was established at
Confederation—through the
Constitution Act, 1867—as a
federal constitutional monarchy, wherein the
Canadian Crown acts as the core, or "the most basic building block," of its
Westminster-style parliamentary democracy. The Crown is thus the foundation of the
executive,
legislative, and
judicial branches of the Canadian government. Further elements of governance are outlined in the rest of the
Canadian constitution, which includes written statutes, court rulings, and unwritten conventions developed over centuries.