From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Clerk of the Privy Council (Canada)

Senior civil servant in the Canadian government

Field	Value
post	Clerk
body	the Privy Council
Secretary to the Cabinet
insignia	Government of Canada signature.svg
insigniasize	200px
incumbent	Michael Sabia
incumbentsince	July 7, 2025
type	Deputy minister
department	Government of Canada
Privy Council Office
member_of	Public Service of Canada
reports_to	Prime Minister of Canada
appointer	Governor in Council
appointer_qualified	On the advice of the prime minister
formation
inaugural	William Henry Lee
website	Privy Council webpage
native_name	Greffier du Conseil privé
secrétaire du Cabinet

Secretary to the Cabinet Privy Council Office secrétaire du Cabinet The clerk of the Privy Council () is the professional head of the Public Service of Canada. As the deputy minister for the Privy Council Office (the prime minister's department), the clerk is the senior civil servant in the Government of Canada and serves as the secretary to the Cabinet ().

Michael Sabia has been the 26th clerk of the Privy Council since July 7, 2025. The clerk is a Governor-in-Council appointment made on the advice of the prime minister. The role of the clerk is nonpartisan; clerks may serve multiple prime ministers and do not belong to any political party. As the secretary to the Cabinet, the role provides impartial advice to the ministry and oversees the advice and policy support given to Cabinet and its committees. As head of the public service, the clerk is responsible for other deputy ministers and the provision of non-partisan, expert advice to the government as a whole.

In the provinces and territories, the equivalent position of senior public servant and deputy minister to the premier is called the cabinet secretary, secretary general, or clerk of the executive council (in French, secrétaire du conseil exécutif, secrétaire général, or greffier du conseil exécutif, respectively).

History

The Privy Council for Canada was created and authorized by the Constitution Act, 1867, and there has been a clerk of the Privy Council since then.

The staff of the Privy Council increased from 142 to 352 between 1971 and 1975.

In 1989, reforms initiated by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney gave the clerk position its present day responsibilities. Expert Donald Savoie describes these as a combination of three roles: "the secretary of cabinet, the head of the non-partisan public service, and the deputy minister — or top bureaucrat — to the prime minister." One critique of this arrangement is that it could put senior nonpartisan officials in the position of taking partisan positions. Clerks generally have extensive previous experience in the Public Service of Canada before being appointed.

#	Name	Start date	End date	Prime Minister	Notes
1	William Henry Lee	July 1, 1867	June 30, 1872	CA	Conservative (historical)	background}}	John A. Macdonald
(1867–1873)
2	William Alfred Himsworth	July 1, 1872	January 7, 1880
		Alexander Mackenzie
(1873–1878)
CA	Conservative (historical)	background}}		John A. Macdonald
(1878–1891)
3	Joseph Olivier Côté	January 13, 1880	April 24, 1882
4	John Joseph McGee	May 20, 1882	May 5, 1907
John Abbott
(1891–1892)
John Sparrow David Thompson
(1892–1894)
Mackenzie Bowell
(1894–1896)
Charles Tupper
(1896–1896)
CA	Liberal	background}}		Wilfrid Laurier
(1896–1911)
5	Rodolphe Boudreau	May 6, 1907	August 4, 1923
CA	Conservative (historical)	background}}		Robert Borden
(1911–1920)
Arthur Meighen
(1920–1921)
CA	Liberal	background}}		William Lyon Mackenzie King
(1921–1926)
6	Ernest Joseph Lemaire	August 14, 1923	January 1, 1940
		Arthur Meighen
(1926–1926)
		William Lyon Mackenzie King
(1926–1930)
		R. B. Bennett
(1930–1935)
CA	Liberal	background}}		William Lyon Mackenzie King
(1935–1948)
7	Arnold Danford Patrick Heeney	March 25, 1940	March 14, 1949
Louis St. Laurent
(1948–1957)
8	Norman Alexander Robertson	March 15, 1949	May 31, 1952
9	John Witney Pickersgill	June 1, 1952	June 1, 1953
10	Robert Broughton Bryce	January 1, 1954	June 30, 1963
		John Diefenbaker
(1957–1963)
CA	Liberal	background}}		Lester B. Pearson
(1963–1968)
11	Robert Gordon Robertson	July 1, 1963	January 15, 1975
Pierre Trudeau
(1968–1979)
12	Peter Michael Pitfield	January 16, 1975	June 4, 1979
13	Marcel Massé	June 5, 1979	March 10, 1980			Joe Clark
(1979–1980)
(12)	Peter Michael Pitfield	March 11, 1980	December 9, 1982	CA	Liberal	background}}	Pierre Trudeau
(1980–1984)
14	Gordon Francis Joseph Osbaldeston	December 10, 1982	August 11, 1985
John Turner
(1984–1984)
CA	Conservative	background}}		Brian Mulroney
(1984–1993)
15	Paul M. Tellier	August 12, 1985	June 30, 1992
16	Glen Scott Shortliffe	July 1, 1992	March 27, 1994
Kim Campbell
(1993–1993)
CA	Liberal	background}}		Jean Chrétien
(1993–2003)
17	Jocelyne Bourgon	March 28, 1994	January 17, 1999
18	Mel Cappe	January 18, 1999	May 12, 2002
19	Alex Himelfarb	May 13, 2002	March 5, 2006
Paul Martin
(2003–2006)
CA	Conservative	background}}		Stephen Harper
(2006–2015)
20	Kevin G. Lynch	March 6, 2006	June 30, 2009
21	Wayne G. Wouters	July 1, 2009	October 3, 2014
22	Janice Charette	October 6, 2014	January 21, 2016
CA	Liberal	background}}		Justin Trudeau
(2015–2025)
23	Michael Wernick	January 22, 2016	April 18, 2019
24	Ian Shugart	April 19, 2019	May 27, 2022
(22)	Janice Charette	May 28, 2022	June 23, 2023
25	John Hannaford	June 24, 2023	July 4, 2025
Mark Carney
(2025–Present)
26	Michael Sabia	July 7, 2025	incumbent

References

Notes

References

[https://www.canada.ca/en/privy-council/corporate/clerk/role.html#ii Clerk of the Privy Council]
[http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/pam_archives/index.php?fuseaction=genitem.displayItem&lang=eng&rec_nbr=1 "Archives Search"] at collectionscanada, 2018-05-20
Alex Boutiliero (March 1, 2019). [https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2019/03/01/caught-in-the-snc-lavalin-scandal-canadas-top-civil-servant-should-help-us-understand-his-job-expert-says.html Caught in the SNC-Lavalin scandal, Canada’s top civil servant should help us understand his job, expert says]. ''[[Toronto Star]]''.
(2017-05-29). "Clerk and Deputy Clerk". Privy Council Office.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

clerks-of-the-privy-council-(canada) federal-departments-and-agencies-of-canada 1867-establishments-in-canada

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Clerk of the Privy Council (Canada) — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report