Lieutenant governor
A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction, but is often the deputy or lieutenant to or ranking under a governor — a "second-in-command".
Description
In many Commonwealth of Nations states, a lieutenant governor is the representative of the monarch and acts as the nominal chief executive officer of the realm, although by convention the lieutenant governor delegates actual executive power to the premier of a province. The Dutch political system also includes and has included lieutenant governors, who act as executors of overseas possessions. In India, lieutenant governors are in charge of special administrative divisions in that country.[1]
In the United States, lieutenant governors are usually second-in-command to a state governor, and the actual power held by the lieutenant governor varies greatly from state to state. The lieutenant governor is often first in line of succession to the governorship, and acts as governor when the governor leaves the state or is unable to serve.
Lieutenant governors in the former British Empire
- Australia – Lieutenant governor (Australia)
- Canada – Lieutenant Governor (Canada)
- Lieutenant Governor of Alberta
- Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia
- Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba
- Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick
- Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador
- Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia
- Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
- Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island
- Lieutenant Governor of Quebec
- Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan
- Guernsey – Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey
- Hong Kong – Lieutenant Governor of Hong Kong – role used from 1843–1902
- India – Governors and Lieutenant-Governors of states of India
- Isle of Man – Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man
- Jersey – Lieutenant Governor of Jersey
- New Zealand – The only person to have held the rank of Lieutenant Governor of New Zealand was Royal Navy Captain William Hobson from 1839–1841 when New Zealand colony was a dependency of the colony of New South Wales, governed at that time by Sir George Gipps. When New Zealand was designated a Crown colony in 1841, Hobson was raised to the rank of governor, which he held until his death the following year. Subsequently in 1848 New Zealand was divided into three provinces: New Ulster, New Munster, and New Leinster, each with their own Lieutenant Governors.
- U.S. states – Lieutenant governor (United States)
Lieutenant governors in the Kingdom of the Netherlands
Lieutenant governors (Dutch: gezaghebber) of the former Dutch constituent country of Netherlands Antilles acted as head of the governing council of the island territories, which formed a level of decentral government until the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in 2010. Currently the Netherlands has a lieutenant governor overseeing each of the three special municipalities in the Caribbean Netherlands — Saba, Bonaire, and Sint Eustatius — where their function is similar to a mayor in the European Netherlands.
See also
- Acting governor
- Administrator of the Government
- Deputy Governor
- Governor-general
- Governor-in-chief
- Lieutenant Governor's Court
- Vice president
References
- ↑ "lieutenant governor". dictionary.cambridge.org. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Governor". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.