* The Fathers of Confederation evidently felt that Sable Island, ?the graveyard of the Atlantic,? was such a menace to shipping that it must be under the absolute control of the national government, just like lighthouses. So they placed it under the exclusive legislative jurisdiction of the national Parliament (by section 91, head 9, of the Constitution Act, 1867 ). They also (by the third schedule of that Act) transferred the actual ownership from the Province of Nova Scotia to the Dominion of Canada, just as they did with the Nova Scotia lighthouses.
22
Powers of the National and Provincial Governments
and
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ces/MCpl Mor
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The Constitution gives the federal Parliament exclusive power over national defence.
Powers of the National and Provincial Governments
23
How Canadians Govern Themselves
Canadian and
American Government
But under the Constitution, every province
except Quebec, New Brunswick and Manitoba
is absolutely free to have as many offi
cial
languages as it pleases, and they need not
include either English or French. For example,
Nova Scotia could make Gaelic its sole offi
cial
language, or one of two, three or a dozen offi
cial
languages in that province. Alberta could
make Ukrainian its sole offi
cial language, or
Ukrainian, Polish and classical Greek its three
offi
cial languages. Quebec, New Brunswick and
Canada and the United States are both
Manitoba also are free to have as many offi
cial
democracies. They are also both federal states.
languages as they please, but they must include
But there are important diff erences in the way
English and French.
Canadians and Americans govern themselves.
A second basic diff erence between our
One fundamental diff erence is that the United
Constitution and the American is, of course,
States is a country of one basic language.
that we are a constitutional monarchy and they
Canada is a country of two basic languages. The
are a republic. That looks like only a formal
Fathers of Confederation deliberately chose to
diff erence. It is very much more, for we have
make it so.
parliamentary-cabinet government, while the
Americans have presidential-congressional.
Our offi
cial recognition of bilingualism is
limited, but expanding. For example, it was
What does that mean? What diff erence does
at the specifi c request of the New Brunswick
it make?
government that the adoption of French and
English as the offi
cial languages of that province
was enshrined in the Constitution. Ontario,
First, in the United States the head of state
which has the largest number of French-
