And no, we’re not talking about your grandmother’s antique hutch in the corner…

We’re talking about the group of people who run the show in government.

Collectively, the Ministers of the Crown are known as the cabinet. Each minister is responsible for a specific area of government such as Finance, Justice or Foreign Affairs. They oversee everything that happens in their particular governmental department and they drive the agenda of the government.

Together, they can even pass certain regulations that do not need the approval of Parliament. I know, it’s pretty important stuff.

So we’ll guide you through how this cabinet business works and why it matters to pro-lifers.


Who gets to be in cabinet?

The Prime Minister, who is the leader of the political party that won the most amount of seats in the House of Commons, determines which Members of Parliament and Senators will be in the cabinet. Typically most federal cabinets will have around 30-40 ministers. These ministers are known as Ministers of the Crown, but we simply call them cabinet ministers.

Once the Prime Minister has chosen who will be in the cabinet, they will be sworn into their cabinet position by the Governor General. Cabinet ministers must be sworn in and take an oath because they both wield a great deal of political power, but also deal with state secrets that are not revealed to the public due to a potential effect on national security.


What does cabinet do?

Collectively the cabinet will meet often (usually on a weekly or bi-weekly basis) and discuss how their government departments are doing. Think of the cabinet as the board of directors of a large corporation and the Prime Minister as the chair of the board.


Government legislation

Cabinet will discuss which pieces of legislation should be introduced in Parliament. Once a piece of legislation has been voted on and accepted by cabinet, a minister will introduce it in the House of Commons (or Senate) and this becomes known as government legislation. The government bill will have one digit preceded by a C (if introduced in the House of Commons) or an S (if introduced in the Senate). So for example, in a particular session of parliament, if the government introduced its third piece of legislation in the House of Commons, it would be known as Bill C-3.

Orders-in-council

Cabinet can also make certain decisions together without the approval of Parliament. This is known as royal prerogative. The cabinet simply needs to meet and pass a vote on a motion to create a specific regulation, ratify a treaty or even declare war. This is known as an order-in-council. The orders-in-councils cannot be about whatever cabinet wants, but rather follow parameters laid out in the Constitution Act. Furthermore, they must be approved by the Governor General (yes, the position is more than a figurehead!).

One of the key uses for an order-in-council is making appointments to government institutions. These institutions include regulatory bodies, government departments and the judiciary.

 
So why does this matter to pro-lifers?

As one can see, members of cabinet hold an immense amount of power in governing the people of Canada or the people of a particular province. If cabinet was constituted primarily of pro-lifers, especially in key cabinet positions such as the Minister of Justice or the Minister of Health, then we could expect more pro-life justices appointed to the judiciary, more pro-life foreign policy decisions such as defunding abortion services overseas and more pro-life legislation such as recognizing the humanity of the child in the womb.

The best way to ensure pro-life cabinet members is to elect as many pro-life politicians as possible. You can do this by joining RightNow and we will set you up with a pro-life action team in your community!

Added bonus!

There are lots of different cabinet members and they do lots of different things. This also means that different cabinet members can affect the pro-life cause in different ways in government. Here is a breakdown of key members of cabinet for pro-lifers:


Federal:

Provincial: