Canada is a nation in an unprecedented crisis. It also has an unprecedented prime minister. Mark Carney became Canada’s 24th prime minister on March 14 after being blessed by an Algonquin chief with a feather, taking the oath of office in French and English, and being confirmed by the governor general. A lifelong technocrat with no parliamentary experience, Carney is now the most powerful man in Canada at a critical time.

Facing a certain economic recession, trade war and consequential renegotiations of most treaties with the United States, Carney is a prime minister with no mandate to face the crisis.

It is an unusual situation: There was no election, Parliament is prorogued, and the man Canadians didn’t vote for is now deciding the future of the country.

When we look below the surface, it is much more than unusual: It is unconstitutional. The circumstances that led to this crisis, combined with the conventions of Canada’s Constitution, lay bare the corrupt nature of a government that will stop at nothing to retain its power.

Perhaps most Canadians have not realized the grave nature of this moment and that the Constitution is on the verge of being an irrelevant document. The fact is, our survival as a nation is at stake.

Office of the Prime Minister

Canada’s government is a version of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy. It functions largely on the principle of convention. The traditions and methods of governing that have developed over time are accepted as legal. Some elements are statutory, meaning they are written as a law and must be rigidly followed. But Canada’s executive branch functions almost entirely on convention.

In fact, the office of “prime minister” is not mentioned in the British North America Act 1867 (bna Act) or the later Constitution Acts. The executive office is a convention that developed through many years and dramatic events in the “mother” Parliament in Great Britain. As Canada’s Parliament developed as an institution that controlled the money and machinery of the realm, the British monarch needed an effective means of working with the elected body. Thus a council was created of top men from Parliament to run the country and advise the monarch.

This is known as the Privy Council. This is the only statutory element of the executive branch in Canada. Section 11 of the bna Act reads:

There shall be a council to aid and advise in the government of Canada, to be styled the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada; and the persons who are to be members of that council shall be from time to time chosen and summoned by the governor general and sworn in as privy counselors, and members thereof may be from time to time removed by the governor general.

This King’s Privy Council of Canada is made up of many different members of government: prime minister, cabinet ministers, chief justice, clerks, members of the opposition, members of the Security Intelligence Review Committee and even celebrities. There is no statutory requirement for a member of the Privy Council to be an elected member of the House of Commons. So any Canadian citizen is eligible to become a privy counselor.

Once someone is appointed, he or she is a member for life. You can view the full list here of currently dozens and dozens of counselors.

It is not unconstitutional for Carney to be appointed as a member of the Privy Council. All members of the cabinet automatically become members of the Privy Council. These are the most important members of the council for they wield the machinery of government, running the ministeries of the executive branch.

The prime minister and his cabinet became known as the King in Council, a subset or committee within the Privy Council. Carney’s role in the King in Council as an unelected member is where his premiership begins to clash with convention.

Of all branches of government in Canada, the executive has the least amount of statutory restraint and relies on conventions. From its very inception in 1867, this has made it susceptible to overreach, abuse, corruption and the amassing of power. Currently, the prime minister and the Prime Minister’s Office (the top section of the civil service directly serving the prime minister) exercise much more power than any previous convention allowed for. This allows the prime minister, if not guided by personal conscience and character, to wield dictatorial power. In 1995, journalist Glenn Simpson called Canada “the friendly dictatorship” because of the prime minister’s great power, ungoverned by checks and balances.

Carney’s position threatens to erode the last conventions left to guide the power of the executive, amounting to a silent coup against the rule of law.

Lawless Circumstances

It is important to grasp the circumstances that led to Carney succeeding Justin Trudeau as prime minister. Other people have become prime minister without being a member of Parliament (like the unfortunate John Turner in 1984), but this time it is different.

Trudeau won the election in 2021, which is his current mandate, with the smallest amount of the vote in Canadian electoral history: 36 percent. He lost the popular vote but won enough seats by slim margins to retain a minority government. The election, held during covid-19 and with mass mail-in ballots, was fraught with irregularities.

Trudeau survived this weak mandate through a Supply and Confidence Agreement with the New Democratic Party. Its leader, Jaghmeet Singh, propped up Trudeau’s minority government in Parliament, allowing Trudeau to survive a vote of nonconfidence and to govern with a “majority.” This continued until Trudeau’s popularity hit a historic low of 30 percent. After surviving many scandals (e.g. snc Lavalin, Aga Khan, WE charity, black face, improper use of Emergencies Act, foreign interference in elections, etc) the nail in the coffin was the return of Donald Trump to the United States presidency. Trump humiliated Trudeau enough to force him to announce on January 6 his intention to resign.

With Singh ending his protection in the House, and facing a nonconfidence vote, Trudeau prorogued Parliament until March 24. This gave the Liberal Party time to elect a new party leader and allowed Trudeau to avoid facing accountability in the House of Commons and in the next election. It allowed a prime minister with a weak mandate and who had lost the confidence of the House, and the country, to appoint a successor without an election.

Mark Carney won the Liberal leadership race by a landslide, though the race was also fraught with irregularities, particularly in the western provinces.

Trudeau has avoided being held accountable by bending and twisting the Constitution. The result of this lawlessness is the premiership of Carney.

As prime minister, Carney now has the following paths to choose from:

• Call a general election before October 20
• Call a byelection in one riding for him to win a seat in the House of Commons
• Sit in the Senate as a temporary measure until a general election (this has been done once before)
• Run the country outside of Parliament until October 20

If someone becomes prime minister while not being an elected member of the House of Commons, it is conventional to seek a seat at the earliest possible moment. However, this is not the main constitutional issue: Carney is already an unconstitutional prime minister.

Conventions in Question

When the circumstances of Trudeau’s government, resignation and Carney’s appointment are all taken into account, three conventions are being violated.

Confidence Convention: “By constitutional convention, the prime minister and the cabinet can continue to exercise authority only with the consent and approval of the majority of the members of the House of Commons,” according to the official House of Commons website. This is usually decided by specific motions, such as votes on budgets, nonconfidence motions, or any vote the government indicates is one of confidence.

However, there is no statute limiting it to these conventions. “As the confidence convention is an unwritten parliamentary practice, it is not always clear what constitutes a question of confidence” (ibid).

It is clear that Trudeau lost the confidence of the House and resigned and prorogued Parliament to avoid a vote of nonconfidence. Thus the Trudeau government for the past three months has been operating without the confidence of the House. The proroguement of Parliament has been challenged in the Supreme Court as unconstitutional. Carney has assumed the office of prime minister under these circumstances: He currently does not have the confidence of the House but may exercise the authority of the state until Parliament resumes on March 24, when a vote of confidence may be held.

Additionally, these are not normal times: Canada is facing a trade war while a prime minister without the confidence of the House is making critical decisions. Trudeau’s proroguement and manipulation violated this principle to begin with, and Carney’s premiership further violates it.

Caretaker Convention: In circumstances when the legitimacy of a prime minister is in question, such as Carney’s right now, the caretaker convention limits the powers of the executive while an election is being conducted or when confidence is lost. This ensures a “lame duck” administration does not use its last moments in power to handicap or limit the next government.

Howard Anglin at The Hub explained: “This allows the essential business of government to continue—providing services, paying public servants, etc—but it otherwise admonishes ministers, including the prime minister, not to exercise the full powers of their offices … as the government explained in 2021, ‘To the extent possible … government activity … in matters of policy, expenditure and appointments—should be restricted to matters that are: a) routine, or b) noncontroversial, or c) urgent and in the public interest, or d) reversible by a new government without undue cost or disruption, or e) agreed to by opposition parties (in those cases where consultation is appropriate).’”

This means the government should not make policy decisions, appointments, committing of funds, or expenditures during this caretaker period.

It is easy to argue that the Carney government is a caretaker government, lacking confidence in the House and requiring an election, or byelection, to become legitimate. It is also clear Trudeau violated this convention over the past few months, setting Canada on an irrevocable path of confrontation with the United States in a trade war.

Although it is early days for Carney, it is not looking promising. He has already signed an Order in Council to do away with the consumer carbon tax, has traveled to Europe, and hopes to speak with President Trump. He is putting Canada on a trade war footing. These actions violate the caretaker convention.

Principle of Responsible Government: This is the cornerstone of Canadian democracy. All elected leaders are held responsible for their actions by the people. This is generally achieved through the House of Commons holding leaders accountable through questioning and the “confidence convention”. Again, this is a principle and no written rules exist. Four conventions guide this principle, two of which Carney’s premiership violate.

First, members of the cabinet, or King in Council, must be members of Parliament so they can be held responsible by the people. Those who advise the head of state, the governor general who signs laws and has the power to prorogue Parliament, must be current members of the House of Commons. How can Carney, the chief executive of the King in Council, be held responsible if he is not a member of the House of Commons and Parliament is currently prorogued?

Secondly, if the House loses confidence in the executive and the prime minister resigns, then the governor general will appoint someone from the House who can command the confidence of the House. If there is no one in the House who can fulfill that requirement, the House should be dissolved and a general election held. Carney’s premiership is a result of circumventing this convention entirely.

It is safe to say most Canadians have never heard of these conventions, and that is part of problem. Our leaders can shred our Constitution because we don’t know the law of the land.

A Nation in Crisis

Of all the crises facing Canada, our constitutional crisis is the most unknown but may be the most important. At stake is whether Canada remains a sovereign nation with a real democracy, or a nation one step away from tyranny.

The next few weeks and months will be decisive to whether Canadians can prove to the world that we are worthy to remain “the true north, strong and free.” Donald Trump says Canada’s economy proves it cannot function as a real country, but the reality is the summation of our national character will decide is we will continue as a country or not. If Canadians fall for the “Orange Hitler” narrative and allow Carney, the unconstitutional prime minister, to remain in office, then Canada has surrendered to tyranny without a fight. The remaining threads of our Constitution will be permanently severed.

Trudeau created a constitutional crisis by stretching and bending the Constitution to avoid being held responsible for the consequences of his leadership. He, the Liberal Party and the political machine behind it all are willing to do anything to maintain their grip on power.

God has warned us of this exact problem! As the late Herbert W. Armstrong wrote in his book The United States and Britain in Prophecy, Canada is a descendant of the Israelite tribe of Ephraim. In Hosea 5:11, God calls Ephraim “oppressed and broken in judgment.” The rule of law has been under attack in our nations for generations, as Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry exposes in No Freedom Without Law:

No ship of state can find its way to a safe harbor without a captain to guide it. That is exactly the way it was in ancient Israel just before they were conquered! And that is exactly where America and Britain are today! There is no leader who can or will establish the rule of law. This sad state of affairs was also prophesied (Isaiah 3:1-5). In this prophecy, our leaders are likened to children!

Most people don’t see that we are destroying the rule of law. …

It’s all about either establishing the rule of law—or descending into lawlessness.

This is Canada’s defining moment. Either we reestablish the rule of law, or we will descend into lawlessness. Carney’s premiership is just a symptom of a much larger problem. We as a nation have become lawless against God and the Bible. We must each individually establish the rule of law in our own lives. That is the first step toward God saving our nation from lawlessness. No man can deliver us; only the living God, who gives us His law as a gift to guide our steps, can save us.

Read No Freedom Without Law to see how God plans to save Canada and every nation on Earth.