some of its leaders called ?French domination.?
Our Constitution
For their part, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick
had no intention of being annexed or absorbed
The British North America Act, 1867, was the
by the Province of Canada, of which they knew
instrument that brought the federation, the
almost nothing and whose political instability
new nation, into existence. It was an act of the
and incessant ?French?English? strife they
British Parliament. But, except for two small
distrusted.
points, it was simply the statutory form of
resolutions drawn up by delegates from what
On the other hand, all felt the necessity of union
is now Canada. Not a single representative
for protection against the threat of American
of the British government was present at the
invasion or American economic strangulation
conferences that drew up those resolutions, or
(for six months of the year, the Province of
took the remotest part in them.
Canada was completely cut off from Britain,
its main source of manufactured goods, except
The two small points on which our Constitution
through American ports) and for economic
is not entirely homemade are, fi rst, the legal
growth and development. So the Fathers of
title of our country, ?Dominion,? and, second,
Confederation were equally insistent on a real
the provisions for breaking a deadlock between
federation, a real ?Union,? as they repeatedly
the Senate and the House of Commons.
called it, not a league of states or of sovereign
or semi-independent provinces.
The Fathers of Confederation wanted to call
the country ?the Kingdom of Canada.? The
The Fathers of Confederation were faced
British government was afraid of off ending the
with the task of bringing together small,
Americans so it insisted on the Fathers fi nding
sparsely populated communities scattered
another title. They did, from Psalm 72: ?He
over immense distances. Not only were these
shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and
communities separated by natural barriers that
from the river unto the ends of the earth.? It
might well have seemed insurmountable, but
seemed to fi t the new nation like the paper on
they were also divided by deep divergences of
the wall. They explained to Queen Victoria that
economic interest, language, religion, law and
it was ?intended to give dignity? to the Union,
education. Communications were poor and
and ?as a tribute to the monarchical principle,
mainly with the world outside British North
which they earnestly desire to uphold.?
America.
To meet a deadlock between the Senate and the
To all these problems, they could fi nd only one
House of Commons, the Fathers had made no
answer: federalism.
provision. The British government insisted that
8
A Federal State
liamentar
y of Par
o: Libr
Phot
The Constitution Act, 1982, came into force on April 17, 1982.
they produce something. So they did: sections
Britain],...I am sure that Her Majesty and the
