Governance is the act of governing. It relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. It consists of either a separate process or part of management or leadership processes. These processes and systems are typically administered by a government.

In the case of a business or of a non-profit organisation, governance relates to consistent management, cohesive policies, guidance, processes and decision-rights for a given area of responsibility. For example, managing at a corporate level might involve evolving policies on privacy, on internal investment, and on the use of data.

To distinguish the term governance from government: "governance" is what a "government" does. It might be a geo-political government (nation-state), a corporate government (business entity), a socio-political government (tribe, family etc.), or any number of different kinds of government, but governance is the physical exercise of management power and policy, while government is the instrument (usually collective) that does it. The term government is also used more abstractly as a synonym for governance, as in the Canadian motto, "Peace, Order and Good Government".

Brent Rathgeber (born 24 July 1964 in Melville, Saskatchewan) is a lawyer and politician from Alberta, Canada. Formerly a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 2001 to 2004, he was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 2008 federal election.

Rathgeber won election to the provincial electoral district of Edmonton Calder in the 2001 Alberta general election after defeating Liberal incumbent Lance White.

In the 2004 Alberta general election, after only serving one term in office, he was defeated by David Eggen of the New Democratic Party.

He stood as the Conservative Party of Canada candidate for the federal electoral district of Edmonton—St. Albert in the 2008 election, and was elected with 61.6 per cent of the vote. In the 2011 federal election, he was re-elected and continues to serve as the MP for Edmonton-St. Albert.