Capitals in titles of office or rank

Follow the general guidelines set out below.

DO capitalize:

• a formal title before a name:
  • Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq
  • Deputy Minister Ian Shugart
  • Professor Chu
• abbreviated titles before a name:
  • Dr. Bell
  • Profs. Chu and Lau
• a title following a name (except titles indicating professions):
  • Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health

  BUT

  • Kim Chu, professor of history
• a high-ranking title referring to a specific person:
  • the Prime Minister
  • the Governor General
  • the Colonel
  • the Bishop

DO NOT capitalize:

• plural titles:
  • the prime ministers of Canada and Britain
• titles preceded by an indefinite article:
  • a member of Parliament
• titles preceded by a possessive adjective:
  • our bishop
• titles preceded by an adjective:
  • former prime minister Kim Campbell the late justice Jules Deschênes
• executive titles:
  • general manager Charleston Green
  • ABC president Iona Carr

  Note: Organizations often prefer to capitalize executive titles in their own documents.

• names of occupations:
  • author Susanna Moodie
  • lawyer Robert Taschereau

In preparing this linguistic reminder, we consulted these sources:

The Canadian Style (1997)
The Canadian Press Stylebook (2008)
The Canadian Writer's Handbook (2008)
Editing Canadian English (2000)
The Gregg Reference Manual (Canadian ed., 2006)