Evolving Canadian Federalism

• Author: Kathy L. Brock/Geoffrey Hale
• Pages: 37-50

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Evolving Canadian Federalism

Introduction

Canada came into existence as a parliamentary federation amid

mixed reactions on  July . After years of negotiations in

the colonies resulting in the Quebec resolutions and subsequent

amendments at Charlottetown, the Confederation deal was f‌inal-

ized at the Westminster Palace hotel in London by the Canadian

delegation of sixteen political leaders from the four signing colonies.

ese sixty-nine resolutions served as the drafting instructions for

the British North America Act passed by the British Parliament. e

British government and Members of Parliament had relatively little

interest in the debate and made just a few fairly minor amend-

ments. ese changes included replacing “e Kingdom of Canada”

with the “Dominion of Canada” and alterations to the division of

powers that tended to expand federal jurisdiction slightly. Specif-

ically, they moved penitentiaries (previously provincial) and sea

coast and inland f‌isheries (previously concurrent) to federal juris-

diction, immigration and agriculture to concurrent jurisdiction

(previously provincial) with federal paramountcy, and added an

appeal to the federal government for provincial decisions regarding

denominational schools. However, they also gave provinces control