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The Canadian Government, formally Her Majesty's Government in Canada, is the federal government of Canada. Powers and structure of the federal government are set out in the Constitution of Canada.

Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and the three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba). Central Canada consists of Quebec and Ontario.
 

Atlantic Canada consists of the three Maritime provinces (New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia), along with Newfoundland and Labrador. Eastern Canada refers to Central Canada and Atlantic Canada together. Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) make up Northern Canada. Provinces have a more autonomy from the federal government than territories. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols.

The Canadian provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces.

All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada. The Lieutenant-Governor is appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years.

In Canadian English, the word government is used to refer both to the whole set of institutions that govern the country (following American usage, but where Britons would use state), and to the current political leadership (following British usage, but where Americans would use administration). For example a Canadian could be a government employee but never a state employee, and they would support or oppose the policies of the Harper government but never the Harper administration.

Because Canada is a federation, the government may refer to the federal, provincial or municipal government. In this article, government refers to the structure of the Canadian federal state.

 

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