History and Overview
| Author | Steven Chaplin |
| Pages | 17-38 |
History and Overview
Preamble
It is only fitting that we begin our study of the Parliament in Can-
ada with the Preamble to the Constitution Act, 1867. It states that
Canada was formed “with a Constitution similar in Principle to
that of the United Kingdom.” ese are not mere words. ey have
significance for the way Canada governs itself. e Preamble puts
Parliament at the centre of the Constitution. To understand this, it
is necessary to consider how and why Parliament is at the centre of
the constitutional system of government in the United Kingdom.
English History — Early Development
A form of Parliament has existed in the United Kingdom for at
least a thousand years. Although the term Parliament, as a descrip-
tion of a governing body, does not find its way into the English
language until , the genesis of an assembly-based system of
governing pre-dates the Norman Conquest of . By the time
of Magna Carta, in , which some believe to be the root of Parlia-
ment, both the basic form and purpose of Parliament had been set.
e king governed with the advice of a council composed of barons
CANADA'S PARLIAMENT: A PRIMER
and senior clerics. e making of law (in the form of decrees) the
settling of major disputes, the determination of whether to wage
war, and the means of support, either by money or provision of
troops, was the business of the various assemblies held. What
Magna Carta did was to formalize the state of the system to that
point, and to have the king agree and sign it. An equally important,
but less known companion document, the Charter of the Forest, was
signed in , during the regency of Henry III, when major barons
acted on behalf of the underaged king.
Both Charters were arrived at following a series of unresolved
grievances between the barons and an unyielding King John. It
was because long-standing grievances had not been resolved that
the barons met King John at Runnymede in June to force the
king, by signing Magna Carta, to acknowledge their grievances and
to recognize the role that the barons had in deciding the aairs of
the kingdom. is was closely followed by a period when it was
necessary for the barons to act in the name of the young king. By
the time Henry III came of age the role of the barons in governing
had firmly rooted itself in the English Constitution. For example,
twenty-five great councils of barons to conduct the business of state
were held during the regency between and .
One of the key terms of the initial Magna Carta was that there
could be no taxation or supply of money without the approval of
the barons, and further that the barons as a council must be sum-
moned for this purpose. In , the council insisted that King
Henry III, now having reached majority age, agree to abide by all
the terms of the two Charters, or the council would not agree to
taxes. For the next fifty years or so, until these principles were fully
accepted, the barons demanded the agreement of the king to abide
by the terms of the Charters or they would not grant any money or
agree to taxes. In , the first Statute of Westminster was agreed to,
which cemented the concept of “parliamentary” consent for taxa-
tion as a cornerstone of the English constitution.
Initially, with few exceptions, only barons and the most sen-
ior bishops were summoned to the councils. However, in , a
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