In this paper, it is argued that the doctrine is a central feature of Canada's Cabinet-parliamentary system.

In Canada's Cabinet-parliamentary system, public servants are directly accountable to ministers but they are only indirectly accountable to the public.

As the quotation suggests, an element of secrecy is inherent in our cabinet-parliamentary system based as it is on Cabinet solidarity, ministerial accountability to Parliament and public service accountability to ministers.

In Canada's cabinet-parliamentary system, it is critical for full and frank discussion of policy options and for cabinet solidarity that cabinet ministers be able to deliberate in private and in confidence.

The constitutional conventions relating to the role of the Public Service within the cabinet‑parliamentary system stress the value of a non‑partisan, professional, and permanent public service appointed and operated on the basis of merit and competence.

Canada’s cabinet-parliamentary system focuses responsibility in the hands of small groups of partisan officeholders and then seeks to hold them continuously answerable for the exercise of governmental authority through a number of accountability mechanisms, such as the confidence convention and the daily Question Period in Parliament.