DCHP-2
First Minister First minister, first minister DCHP-2 (July 2016)
Non-Canadianism
n. — Politics, Administration
the federal prime minister or a provincial/territorial premier.
The term first minister refers to either the prime minister or a provincial premier. The earliest Canadian attestations of the term appear to be used in the full title of "First Minister of the Crown" (see the 1847 and 1973 quotations). Appearing almost 100 years after the earliest found UK source in 1741 (see OED-3, s.v. "first" (4b), the term is Canadian only in a technical sense, i.e. the First Minister of a Canadian executive vs. another country's. The term is not very frequent in Canada (see Chart 1), which is in marked contrast to the plural form First Ministers. The most prevalent Canadian form is premier.
See also COD-2, s.v. "first minister" (1) and (2), which are marked as "Cdn".
