section_path: Style of address
section_name: Style of address
paragraph_text: Style of address
  
  Canada continues the Westminster tradition of using the title Prime Minister when one is speaking to the federal head of government directly; the Department of Canadian Heritage advises that the term Mr. Prime Minister should not be used in official contexts. The written form of address for the prime minister should use their full parliamentary title: The Right Honourable,, Prime Minister of Canada. However, while in the House of Commons during Question Period, other members of parliament may address the prime minister as the Right Honourable Member for or simply the Right Honourable Prime Minister. Former prime ministers retain the prefix the Right Honourable for the remainder of their lives; should they remain sitting MPs, they may be referred as the Right Honourable Member for, by their portfolio title (if appointed to one), as in the Right Honourable Minister of National Defence, or should they become opposition leader, as the Right Honourable Leader of the Opposition.
  
  In the decades following Confederation, it was common practice to refer to the prime minister as Premier of Canada, a custom that continued during the First World War, around the time of Robert Borden's premiership. While contemporary sources will still speak of early prime ministers of Canada as premier, the modern practice is such that the federal head of government is known almost exclusively as the prime minister, while the provincial and territorial heads of government are termed premiers (in French, premiers are addressed as premier ministre du, literally translated as prime minister of).