Lieutenant-Governor Patronage in Canada: Who did more of it?

The Lieutenant-Governorships are bestowed by the party leader invariably on his partisans and usually on worn-out politicians. That they form a decent retirement for those who have spent their energies in public life but on whom the community would not consent to bestow pensions, forms the best defense for their existence.

- Goldwin Smith

Being a lieutenant-governor in Canada is a fun job. Other than cutting the occasional ribbon at the new Wal-Mart, you don't really have to do anything, and few Canadians are even aware of your existence.

Technically, the office of Queen's representative is supposed to be a strictly non-partisan affair. However, because the Prime Minister of the day gets to chose who holds the office, in reality this is rarely the case. Provincial lieutenant-governorships are a great place to stick loyal members of your party, especially when all the seats in the Senate are full.

Here are the lieutenant-governors appointed by Canada's two most recent Prime Ministers.

Summary

Brian Mulroney appointed 15 lieutenant-governors during his time in office. 60% of them were former politicians from his own political party. Of course this is not counting Henry Jackman, who was a well-known Conservative Party fundraiser and organizer.

Jean Chretien appointed 20 lieutenant-governors. Exactly 50% of them were former Liberals, while the other 10 were various community figures and philanthropists. Chretien was also nice enough to overlook partisanship and appoint a former BC Socred lieutenant-governor, though to be fair Mr. Gardon does have some history with the Liberal party as well.

Overall, of the 35 lieutenant-governors appointed by the two men, around 57% of them received their office as a result of political patronage by the ruling party.

By this measurement, Mulroney was more exploitive of the lieutenant-governorships for political purposes than Chretien was. Of course, this assumes the backgrounds of the non-politician LGs were entirely non-partisan, which seems dubious. Though they may have never been elected members of the government, it's entirely possible many of them were backers, donators, or even members of the PM's party. It's worth noting that the non-politicians Mulroney appointed were mostly ex-CEOs and corporate chairmen, a class of people known to be supportive of the Conservative party's agenda. Chretien's picks, by contrast came mainly from academic and artsy circles, which tend to be more Liberal-friendly communities.

Such information is hard to definitively research though.

Here are the 10 still-in-office appointees of Canada's two post-Chretien prime ministers. While Martin's reign was too brief to be significant, Prime Minister Harper seems to have abruptly abandoned the practice of appointing partisans to the positions.