Orders, decorations, and medals of Canada
The orders, decorations, and medals of Canada comprise a complex system by which Canadians are honoured by the country's sovereign for actions or deeds that benefit their community or the country at large. Modelled on its British predecessor, the structure originated in the 1930s, but began to come to full fruition at the time of Canada's centennial in 1967, with the establishment of the Order of Canada, and has since grown in both size and scope to include dynastic and national orders, state, civil, and military decorations; and various campaign medals. The monarch in right of each Canadian province also issues distinct orders and medals to honour residents for work performed in just their province. The provincial honours, as with some of their national counterparts, grant the use of post-nominal letters and or supporters and other devices to be used on personal coats of arms.
The monarch is regarded as the fount of all honours—as the monarch is the only person who may create new national honours—and acts as the Sovereign of all of Canada's orders; he, or other members of the royal family, will conduct inductions or present medals. In Canada, the monarch is represented by the governor general, who also carries out investitures and distributes awards in the sovereign's name. As such, administration of the honours system is the responsibility of the Chancellery of Honours at Rideau Hall, which is a part of the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General of Canada. The governor general also sets out, via order-in-council, the order of precedence for the wearing of insignia, decorations, and medals. Provincial and territorial honours are similarly awarded by their respective lieutenant governors or commissioners.
There also exist in Canada numerous awards distributed by and/or named for members of the royal family or viceroys. These are not, however, included in Canada's formal honours system.
History
Imperial and colonial honours
Since as far back as the reign of King Louis XIV, the monarchs that reigned over colonies in New France, British North America, and present-day Canada have bestowed royal honours, decorations, and medals on those living under their sovereignty, in recognition of their services to the state. Early governors of New France also desired to establish local honours in or import European honours to Canada; Samuel de Champlain, for instance, founded on 14 November 1606 the Order of Good Cheer and Charles de Montmagny had designs to establish the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in New France while he was governor from 1635 to 1648. The, established by King Louis XIV in 1693 specifically to honour worthy French, Catholic military officers, came to be one of the most familiar honours in New France; some 300 people associated with Canada were appointed into it, Louis-Hector de Callière being the first. Appointments into the order continued even after the transfer of New France to the British Crown in 1763.After the creation of British North America, Canadians were entitled to receive British imperial honours, though the awarding of these was not consistently allowed. From Confederation until the Nickle Resolution in 1919, the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George served as the equivalent of today's Order of Canada, being the highest non-peerage honour available to Canadian politicians, judges, and civil servants. Appointments into the Order of the British Empire, into grades below those that carried a title, were also commonly made. Besides knighthoods, peerage titles were also bestowed on Canadians, sometimes with uniquely Canadian designations—such as Baroness Macdonald of Earnscliffe and Baron Beaverbrook of Beaverbrook in the Province of New Brunswick and of Cherkley in the County of Surrey—and permitted those so honoured to sit in the House of Lords at Westminster. Such acts of recognition were carried out by the reigning British monarch. Prior to Confederation, the sovereign did so on the advice of the British prime minister; the names of those to be honoured were either selected by the colonial governor or governor general in British North America and passed on to the Secretary of state for the colonies and then the prime minister; by the secretary and passed on to the prime minister; or by the prime minister himself. The British government felt no obligation to consult any government in British North America before bestowing an honour upon any resident of the colonies. Following Confederation, the prime minister of Canada submitted a list of names to the monarch via the governor general; though, the governor general also continued to recommend individuals for honours without the Canadian prime minister's knowledge.
This practice came into question in 1901, when Governor General the Earl of Minto nominated Thomas Shaughnessy for a knighthood, even after Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier expressed his opposition to the idea, leading Laurier in the following year to draft a policy whereby all nominees for honours be approved by the prime minister before being forwarded to Westminster. Later, the public began to suspect the worthiness of those receiving the knighthoods and elevations to the peerage; the controversy that surrounded the appointment of Sam Hughes as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1915 marked the beginning of the end of such honours in Canada. After it was revealed in 1917 that British Prime Minister David Lloyd George had been selling peerage titles and knighthoods to raise money for his political party, the awarding of such distinctions in Canada immediately ceased. Thereafter, the House of Commons of Canada in 1917 and 1919 passed the Nickle Resolutions, which, though never legally binding, generally cemented the cease of titular awards to Canadians. The end of the conferment of imperial honours on Canadians came in 1955. Awards for gallantry and bravery, such as the Victoria Cross, however, remained available and knighthoods were still conferred: on Sir Frederick Banting in 1934, Sir Edwin Leather in 1964, and Sir Terry Matthews in 2002. Further, some pre-existing Canadian peerages continued to be recognised—the Baron de Longueuil and Baron Thomson of Fleet, for example—and still others were granted after 1919 by the sovereign of Canada, such as the Viscount Bennett of Mickleham, Hopewell, and Calgary.
Canadian honours
Governor General the Viscount Monck had originally pushed for a distinct Canadian order of knighthood in 1867, to be called the Order of St Lawrence. The idea was revived by Vincent Massey in 1935 and again in 1951, in between which he also suggested in 1940 a Royal Order of Canada. The Canadian Cabinet, however, never accepted these proposals, generally wishing instead to steer clear of the controversial topic of orders. Still, the beginnings of a distinct Canadian honours system came in March 1934, with the creation of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Long Service Medal by royal warrant of King George V, issued on the advice of the Cabinet of R. B. Bennett; this was the first time an honour specific to Canada and for service in Canada had been established by the monarch of Canada. There was uncertainty amongst officials in Canada and Britain alike around how to go about creating such an honour, and delays were incurred not only as Canadian bureaucrats interpreted the Nickle Resolution as applying to medals, but also because the King himself was widening the project to consider all the Empire police forces.File:BennettSeated.jpg|thumb|left|Prime Minister of Canada R.B. Bennett, who advised King George V to create the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Long Service Medal
This process was refined through the Second World War and Korean War, though the pool of available honours became smaller and smaller as the decades progressed; non-titular British honours continued to be granted until 1946 and, from 1950 and 1953, only British military decorations were permitted. In 1942, the Canada Medal was created by royal warrant of King George VI, though none was ever struck, and the Canadian Forces' Decoration was founded in 1947. Though the Letters Patent of 1947 issued by the King permitted the governor general to exercise most of the monarch's royal prerogative on his behalf, it was agreed between George VI and his Canadian Prime Minister at the time, William Lyon Mackenzie King, that the sovereign alone would retain the prerogative to create new honours. In 1951, the first distinctly Canadian campaign medal, the Korea Medal, was created, when other Commonwealth countries used the British version.
The centennial of Canadian Confederation in 1967 provided the right opportunity and circumstances in which to establish Canada's first order: the Order of Canada. The system was revised in 1972 and has since expanded, mostly through the 1990s, and generally attracted little criticism; indeed, the orders, decorations, and medals of Canada inspired other Commonwealth realms, such as Australia and New Zealand, to adopt similar approaches in their respective jurisdictions, as did each of Canada's provinces. However, some experts in the field, such as Christopher McCreery, have pointed out what they see as deficiencies in the construct: At the 2006 conference on Commonwealth Honours, the concern was raised that Canada does not have a way to recognize the nation's very best; the three grades of the Order of Canada being insufficient to do so. It was suggested that either two more levels be added to the Order of Canada, equivalent to knighthoods in Australian and British orders, or create a new single class but limited-membership order, similar to the Order of New Zealand. The order of precedence also came under scrutiny, particularly the anomaly that all three grades of the Order of Canada supersede the top levels of each of the other orders, contrary to international practice. McCreery echoed these comments in 2010 and added that the Canadian honours system was lacking a polar medal, such as those issued in other northern nations, as well as a public service order, akin to the Imperial Service Order, and honours to specifically recognise protective services other than the police forces.
In June 2010, McCreery highlighted inconsistency in honouring those in Canada's royal family. For example, the Queen Mother was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada on only an honorary basis, though the Canadian Forces' Decoration awarded to her was substantive. Similarly, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was offered only honorary appointment to the Order of Canada, which he refused on the grounds that, as the royal consort of the Queen, he was Canadian and thus entitled to a substantive appointment, as he had been awarded the Canadian Forces Decoration and Commemorative Medal for the Centennial of Saskatchewan. In 2013, the constitutions of the Order of Canada and the Order of Military Merit were amended to create for each of the three grades of each order an extraordinary category reserved for those members of the royal family nominated and approved for appointment. Upon taking office, governors general and viceregal consorts become Extraordinary Companions of the Order of Canada and the governor general an Extraordinary Commander of the Order of Military Merit.