Parliamentary and judicial ambivalence toward executive prerogative powers in Canada

This article argues that ambivalence surrounds the prerogative powers of the Canadian Crown and the significant authority they afford the executive in Canada. In strictly legal terms, these residual Crown powers are vulnerable to parliamentary abolition, displacement and limitation, and their exercise is subject to judicial review and remedy, leading scholars to suggest that these powers are an increasingly marginal source of executive authority. In practice, however, they have proven more resilient to legislative infringement than their formal vulnerability to statutory interference implies. In addition, the judiciary's authority to review the exercise of these powers has been tempered by the courts' reluctance to impose robust remedies. The article maintains that the predominant understanding of these powers, which stresses their vestigial status, fails to capture the actual power and acquiescence they afford the executive