The Queen is also Ontario’s official Head of Province. She is responsible for making decisions on behalf of the entire province. She takes her orders from the people of Ontario. The Lieutenant Governor is the Queen’s representative in Ontario. Anytime she is not physically present in Ontario, the Lieutenant Governor will make all decisions on her behalf. He takes all of his orders from the people of Ontario as well.

Dalton McGuinty is the current Premier of Ontario. Like the PM, the Premier is voted into power as a Member of Provincial Parliament, and elected leader by his or her peers in the party that they represent. Like the PM, the Premier has a Cabinet, a group of MPPs that he has chosen to be his advisors on specific topics. At the provincial level, there are cabinet members that specialize in health, policing, education and more.

Under the Provincial government, there are several departments that we call Ministries. Each ministry is responsible for a different job that falls under the responsibility of the province. Examples include the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health. We also have municipalities. Municipalities are comprised of either one big town or city (like Toronto) or a collection of smaller towns (like Halton, which has Burlington, Oakville, Milton, Acton and Georgetown. Municipalities are responsible for any of the services or aspects that affect their specific area.

Mayors are responsible for all of the municipality affairs. They are elected into power by the people in their city. Some municipalities have only one mayor while other may have 2 or 3, depending on how big they are. The mayor has the job of representing the people of his or her city at the municipal level. The mayor relies on the help of his or her city councillors to help run the city. Each city is split into wards and each councillor is responsible for representing the interests of their ward when working with the mayor. City councillors are also elected to their positions by the people.