No one really answered CarolC's questions from a few days back.

The Governor General approves all federal legislation. No federal law is in effect until the G-G has signed it (although the Sovereign could do it him- or herself if he or she happened to be in Canada at the time -- but that rarely happens). The catch is that the G-G has no choice, but can delay legislation by stalling for a bit. Also, after an election the G-G appoints the new Prime Minister, who is almost invariably the leader of the party with the most elected members. It is possible, where there is a "minority government", i.e., no party has a clear majority, for the head of the second-place party to demonstrate that another party will co-operate with them, so the G-G may recognize that person as Prime Minister instead. This has happened in the past, occasionally. It's supposed to be the person who has the most support in Parliament who becomes Prime Minister. This is "responsible government", and in fact was invented in Canada, where it worked well enough that Britain adopted it.

Other than this, the G-G's functions are almost entirely ceremonial.

If you read about this when I wrote about it in a previous thread, skip the next bit. Even though I'm a year removed from my former job as an editor in the legal field, I can still be boring without trying too hard.

Re "patriation of the Constitution": Canada's first Constitution was an Act of the British Parliament (ironically, since Britain has no written Constitution), and could only be amended by Britain. In Pierre Trudeau's time, the present Constitution was developed, and "repatriated" from Britain, so it can be amended in Canada. The last formal tie with Britain was thus severed. However, Quebec, just to be difficult, refused to sign the Constitution (although it was adopted in the rest of the country according to the amending formula), and things like the Charter of Rights and Freedoms have no formal effect in Quebec. It's an nomalous position, but federal laws still seem to have effect in Quebec. They grumble about it from time to time, and every once in a while mount a referendum against it, when they think they can win. They haven't so far. But they still pretend the Constitution doesn't apply to them, even though they follow it.

Confused yet?