ABSTRACT
The Dominion of Canada came into being on July 1, 1867, created by an Act of the British Parliament in Westminster, with the support and connivance of the Colonial Office of moves initiated within the British American colonies. Canada was to be governed by a Parliament in Ottawa, with the Queen, Senate and House of Commons as its three branches. It began as a federal, economic union among four colonies, the least number which could ensure viability. Those who worked to create Confederation had to take cognizance, on the one hand, of the culture, language, religion and institutions of Quebec, and, on the other, the suspicions of the powerful neighbour to the south, the United States, only recently emerged from a bloody civil war involving a constitution and the rights of individual states and already proclaiming ‘Manifest Destiny’. Because of the former only a federal, and not a legislative union was possible; because of the latter, the central government had to be made much more powerful than the local governments, which, in turn, must not possess residuary powers. The powers of each, at the insistence of the Canadians, must be spelled out; in the drafting of the Act by the law officers of the Crown in Westminster the word ‘exclusively’ was introduced to make their respective functions quite explicit. Under this Constitution, as subsequently amended by Britain at Canada's request, by Canada, and by provincial parliaments, Canada still functions. Her obsessions are still those concerning Quebec and the United States.
