It's not ceremonial. The Crown legally owns 89% of Canadian land. She (her representative) holds the power to appoint government and to dissolve it entirely. The Governor General is appointed by the monarch and also has the power to add up to 8 additional senators of their choice.

More importantly, they can dismiss any sitting leader they want to. This power was the one used in Australia when Whitlam was removed, which is colloquially referred to here on Hexbear as the time Australia was couped by the CIA.

These things are played down and scoffed about as "ceremonial" because they are rarely used powers. But they ARE powers, very very strong ones.

[–] blame@hexbear.net 3 points 1 month ago

Alright well the fact remains that the british crown doesn't negotiate trade deals or anything else on behalf of Canada, the Canadian government does all of that itself. This objection to Trudeau meeting Xi because he's not the "real leader" is just pedantry. Yes the british crown maybe might be able to pull some power move but that's not how things operate routinely.