by Tod Maffin
Follow me on Bluesky (or elsewhere)
▶️ All my videos • 👾 Join My Discord
The U.S. President signed another executive order today. Something about birthright citizenship? Or transgender antifa cutlery? I'm losing track of his strokes.
Most of us up here in Canada just sort of roll our eyes, the way you do when a five-year-old learns his first swear word.
Sometimes we even think, "good thing we don't have executive orders here."
Except... uh... we kinda do, and they're even stronger.
The American executive order, when its leaders care about the law, is usually a fairly restrained thing, notwithstanding any compensating you're doing with the size of the sharpie. The president signs it, but an executive order only counts if it's tied to the Constitution or a law Congress already passed.
It can't invent new law.
It can't spend money Congress hasn't approved.
Courts can kill it.
And a future president can shred it on day one, which is of course how their country will collapse: an endless series of back-and-forth governments spending all their time undoing what the last guy did.
Truman learned this the hard way in 1952, when the Supreme Court told him he couldn't seize the country's steel mills on a whim.
T O D B I T
In 1933, Franklin Roosevelt's Executive Order 6102 forced Americans to hand over their gold in exchange for cash, and people who refused faced arrest.
Even President Trump's record-breaking 26 orders, signed on his first day back in office this term, are still, legally, just management memos wearing a tuxedo.
Canada's version, though, is the tux, the tux shop, and the whole tux district. It's called an Order in Council.
Meet Canada's actual power move
The Cabinet writes it, the Governor General approves it, and unlike its American cousin, it can create real, binding law.
Six years ago, one Order in Council made roughly 1,500 models of firearms illegal overnight. More than 2,500 assault-style firearms have now been banned outright. A separate freeze also blocks most Canadians from buying, selling, transferring, or importing a new handgun.
And we do these Orders in Council constantly.
T O D B I T
Canadians' right to unionize and force employers to bargain didn't come from an act of Parliament. It came from a 1944 wartime Order in Council known as P.C. 1003.
The paperwork nobody bothered reading
American presidents who've finished a full term over the past several decades average around 270 of these orders total.
Canada's federal government signs somewhere between 1,200 and 1,400 Orders in Council every single year. They're published in something called the Canada Gazette, which nobody reads except me, and I report on them most weeks right here.
Blame the founding paperwork
So why does Canada have such a strong version of the executive order?
It's mostly because, unlike the U.S., Canada fuses executive and legislative power instead of separating them.
The American president stands apart from Congress, built that way on purpose by people who had just fought a war against a king.
Our cabinet sits inside Parliament and effectively controls it, so Parliament hands cabinet enormous chunks of lawmaking power in advance and lets cabinet fill in the details sort of whenever it likes.
Efficiency without spectacle. Kinda works.
Trivia
In Canada's federal system, what gives a regulation its legal authority when it is made by Cabinet?
— 30 —
Join the discussion about this issue in Tod’s Clubhouse!
(Or join my Discord.)
The Weekly Poll
Should Canada adopt the American Executive Order system?
Last Week:
The Funny Bone
Canada adds 75k new jobs in July, U.S. lost 23k
by Greg Kearney; used under licence.
What You Missed This Week
The Good News ♥️
A 17-year-old from Quebec is hoping to inspire other women to set sail as she cruises into a 400 nautical mile competition as the youngest skipper.
A high school teacher is tackling food insecurity in downtown Calgary—serving nutritious meals through his Huggabowl food truck.
A road trip detour to Tumbler Ridge led this tourist from Taiwan to a 100-million-year-old dinosaur track.
A weapons tech in the Royal Canadian Navy and metal detector operator based in Nova Scotia found a tourist's lost wedding ring and returned it to him.
SCIENCE!!!!!! 🔭
Canadian Astronaut Joshua Kutryk is preparing for a mission to the International Space Station that could lead to medical breakthroughs.
Health Canada has authorized pharmaceutical company Moderna to move forward with a clinical trial for an mRNA vaccine targeting the Ebola virus.
A researcher on P.E.I. hopes a project with winsome flies will help crush the pesky Japanese beetles that have been attacking Island gardens for years.
The First Peoples 🪶
Gull Bay First Nation has called on the government of Ontario to extend the wildfire evacuation order.
Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan is looking to expand its gardening programs after landing a national award.
Two First Nations women from Alberta are celebrating their achievements after winning at the recent Miss Indigenous Canada competition.
Syilx Okanagan paddlers have completed a weeklong Unity Trek.
Canadian Content 🍁
Katherena Vermette’s novel Real Ones puts accountability and forgiveness on the table when a family clashes over faked Indigeneity.
SOCAN prize winner Emily Steinwell has released her sophomore album But, There's Beauty in the Fall From Grace.
The New Wave of Stand Up features Canada’s hottest new comics gathered for one hilarious night at the Just For Laughs Vancouver Festival; watch it now on CBC Gem.
Wild Things 🐻❄️
One in 50 million- A half-blue, half-orange lobster, split down the middle from head to tail, named Oscar, was caught in the waters near Blue Rocks, on Nova Scotia's South Shore.
A black bear was rescued by police after it scaled a telephone pole in Sault Ste. Marie, ON; the bear was safely escorted back to the woods.
A mountain marmot hitched a ride to a home in the Calgary area; the wayfaring rodent will be returned to the mountains after observation by the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society.
A female pygmy hippo was born at the Toronto Zoo.
Across Canada 📍
WestJet has reached an agreement with the union representing more than 4,000 flight attendants and cabin crew to end their strike.
Some Hershey’s chocolate distributed across Canada between May 6 and July 28, 2026 has been recalled as some may contain undeclared almonds.
BC Hydro is purchasing a natural gas-fired power plant in Campbell River to provide backup electricity during periods of high demand.
Sports 🏒
Team Canada closed out three days of judo competition at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games on Sunday with a gold and a bronze.
Aneesah Morrow made her on-court debut with the Toronto Tempo on Tuesday against the Golden State Valkyries.
PWHL Walter Cup winners the Montreal Victoire have signed forward Michelle Karvinen to a one-year standard player agreement.
Politics 🧑⚖️
Two candidates are vying to be the first woman to lead the Nova Scotia Liberal Party.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has called three byelections for early September.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada’s tone toward the United States is already “quite firm” and insisted trade negotiations with Washington remain “constructive”.
Made in Canada
ALDO is a Canadian footwear and accessories brand founded in Montreal in 1972 by Aldo Bensadoun. Coming from a family involved in the shoe business, Bensadoun built the company from a small footwear concession into an independent retailer.
The first ALDO store opened on Montreal’s St. Catherine Street, helping establish the brand in Canada.
Over the years, ALDO expanded internationally, becoming known for fashionable and affordable shoes, handbags, and accessories.
Today, the ALDO Group has a global presence, with stores and customers across numerous countries. Despite its international growth, the company remains strongly connected to its Montreal roots and is recognised as one of Canada’s best-known fashion retailers.
This is not sponsored. This brand learned we profiled them the same time you did.