Is this because the chief of command of the Canadian armed forces is actually the British monarch?

Only half joking.

Since 1947 all such powers are vested in the Governor General. Or so Wikipedia tells me.

and those powers (as in Australia) are literally figurehead "Head of State" ceremonial | constitutional powers.

No actual authority to order military or police action, or even to lay out a new law, etc.

https://learn.parl.ca/understanding-comprendre/en/canada-sys...

Although (from above link)

   dissolving Parliament and calling an election

is a potential problem - we yanked that in Australia after the events known as "The Dismissal" in which a broadly popular Prime Minister was removed by the GG because ( .. long twisty stories of political issues | contraversy | conspiracy | possible CIA dabbling | etc ... ).

> we yanked that in Australia after the events known as "The Dismissal"

I don’t believe we did. The governor general still has the power to dissolve the house of representatives in the constitution which is remarkably hard to change.

> The Governor-General may appoint such times for holding the sessions of the Parliament as he thinks fit, and may also from time to time, by Proclamation or otherwise, prorogue the Parliament, and may in like manner dissolve the House of Representatives.

https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Senate/Powers_practi...

I'd have to dig about but I do recall there were changes to the fine print that added guard rails to the GG's powers to independantly do such things.

Eg: Most recently the GG "sanctified" | "blessed" | "made official" the extra and additional ministerial roles taken on by the former Prime Minister (Scotty from Marketing) but that wasn't (IIRC) an independent action by the GG, just an official Head of State recognition of a decision already made by the political body.

I think that the very fine print in Australia these days is that even if the GG refuses to perform these official blessings they go ahead anyway, and I don't think such things can be keep secret anymore either after Scotty's bit of non transparent role expansion.

I freely confess to be a lot more on the ball about all that 15 odd years back and really not caring much these days though.

I think you're going to be quite disappointed with the sheer massive powers the GG still retains without restraint :)

Convention is what keeps the GG doing what the PM asks. They can still go completely rogue until the sovereign removes them.

I think you are right the Canadian Armed Forces won't actually follow the orders of the King/Queen. But when I look for the actual reason, it basically amounts to "fuck you that's why" and that the monarch realizes they don't have the leverage. The military swears an oath to the Monarch and indeed the governor general is only acting, in theory, as an executor on behalf of the monarch and the monarch retains commander-in-chief in parallel.