The structure of the Canadian cabinet, 1948 to 1963

The structure of the Canadian cabinet has been taken by a variety of observers and participants in government to be an important, or at least an intriguing subject. The volume of writings about the Canadian cabinet has increased over the past decade. Civil servants have produced unpublished additional volumes of memoranda. The pace of change in cabinet structures, and prime ministerial announcements about them, suggest that they are regarded as significant policy instruments and as significant indica- tions of the character and directions of a government. Certainly it is no longer true to say, as Prime Minister Diefenbaker did in 1960, that "The means by which the Cabinet conducts its business are traditionally regarded as its own affair, and questions on the subject are normally neither asked nor answered". [Continued in text ...]