Editing Canadian Confederation (section)

===British North America Acts===
{{main|British North America Acts}}
[[File:Proclamation Canadian Confederation.jpg|thumb|The proclamation of Canadian Confederation]]

Confederation was accomplished when the Queen gave royal assent to the ''British North America Act'' (''BNA Act'') on March 29, 1867, followed by a royal proclamation stating, "we do ordain, declare, and command that, on and after the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, the provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick shall form and be One Dominion, under the name of Canada."<ref>{{Harvnb|Bousfield|1991|p=17}}</ref> The act replaced the Act of Union 1840, which had unified Upper Canada and Lower Canada into the united Province of Canada; separate provinces were established under their current names of Ontario and Quebec, respectively. July 1 is now celebrated as [[Canada Day]], the country's official [[national day]].

Confederation is regarded as the creation of a kingdom in its own right{{refn|<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pch.gc.ca/pgm/ceem-cced/symbl/101/102-eng.cfm |last=Department of Canadian Heritage |title=Ceremonial and Canadian Symbols Promotion > The crown in Canada |publisher=Queen's Printer for Canada |access-date=February 19, 2009 |archive-date=August 27, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110827092532/http://www.pch.gc.ca/pgm/ceem-cced/symbl/101/102-eng.cfm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=Buck1>{{cite web |url=http://www.royal.gov.uk/MonarchAndCommonwealth/Canada/Canada.aspx |last=The Royal Household |title=The Queen and the Commonwealth > Queen and Canada |publisher=[[Queen's Printer]] |access-date=May 14, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.saintjohn.nbcc.nb.ca/heritage/CorporateSeal/heraldry.htm |title=Heritage Saint John > Canadian Heraldry |publisher=Heritage Resources of Saint John and New Brunswick Community College |access-date=July 3, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617120638/http://www.saintjohn.nbcc.nb.ca/heritage/CorporateSeal/heraldry.htm |archive-date=June 17, 2011}}</ref>}} and to have "successfully reconciled the physical absence of a geographically distant monarch with a continuing and pervasive presence through the medium of formal representatives and the manner and forms of legal and conventional rules and behaviour associated with British parliamentary and monarchical governance".<ref>{{harvnb| Newman| 2017| p=60}}</ref> Macdonald had spoken of "founding a great British monarchy" and wanted the newly created country to be called the ''Kingdom of Canada''.<ref>{{citation| last=John| first=Farthing| title=Freedom Wears a Crown| location=Toronto| year=1957}}</ref> The [[Secretary of State for the Colonies|Colonial Office]] opposed the term ''kingdom'' as "premature" and "pretentious" and felt it might antagonize the United States. The term ''[[dominion]]'' was chosen, instead, to indicate Canada's status as a self-governing polity of the British Empire, the first time it was used in reference to a country.<ref>{{citation| url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/dominion| last1=Forsey| first1=Eugene A.| last2=Hayday| first2=Matthew| title=Dominion of Canada| date=November 7, 2019| encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia| publisher=Historica Canada| access-date=June 5, 2023}}</ref> When the ''British North America Act, 1867'', was passed in the Parliament in [[Westminster]], the Queen said to Macdonald, "I am very glad to see you on this mission [...] It is a very important measure and you have all exhibited so much loyalty."<ref name=TCE/>

While the ''BNA Act'' eventually resulted in Canada having more autonomy than it had before, the country was still far from fully independent of the United Kingdom. Foreign policy remained in British hands, the [[Judicial Committee of the Privy Council]] remained Canada's highest court of appeal, and the constitution could be amended only in Britain. Gradually, Canada gained more autonomy; defence of British North America became a Canadian responsibility.<ref name=Dyck2011b>{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BUOoN8e5Ps0C&pg=PA106| last=Dyck| first=Rand| title=Canadian Politics| page=106| year=2011| publisher=Cengage Learning| isbn=978-0-17-650343-7}}</ref> According to the Supreme Court of Canada, Canadian "sovereignty was acquired in the period between its separate signature of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 and the Statute of Westminster, 1931",<ref>{{Cite web| url=https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/4737/index.do| title=Reference Re: Offshore Mineral Rights| year=1967| publisher=Supreme Court of Canada| location=Ottawa| page=816}}</ref> which gave the country nearly full independence. It was only because the federal and provincial governments were unable to agree on a formula for amending the constitution that the power to do so remained with the British Parliament. Once that issue was resolved, the constitution was [[patriation|patriated]] when [[Elizabeth II]] gave royal assent to the [[Canada Act, 1982]].

The [[constitution of Canada]] is made up of a number of codified acts and uncodified conventions; one of the principal documents is the ''[[Constitution Act, 1982]]'', which renamed the ''British North America Act, 1867'', to the ''[[Constitution Act, 1867]]''.<ref name=Okafọ2009>{{cite book |first=Nọnso |last=Okafọ |title=Reconstructing law and justice in a postcolony |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Y_8IkfVCesC&pg=PA76 |access-date=February 20, 2012 |date=October 22, 2009 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. |isbn=978-0-7546-4784-3 |pages=76–}}</ref><ref name=CA1982>[https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-13.html#h-59 ''Constitution Act, 1982'', s. 53(1) and Schedule, Item 1.]</ref> The act also details how power is distributed in both the provincial and federal jurisdictions. Two of the most important sections are 91 and 92. Section 91 gives Parliament jurisdiction over banking, interest rates, criminal law, the postal system, and the armed forces. Section 92 gives the provinces jurisdiction over property, contracts and torts, local works, and general business. Still, federal and provincial law may occasionally interfere with each other, in which case federal law prevails.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|title=''Constitution Act, 1867'' |encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/constitution-act-1867|access-date=February 21, 2021}}</ref>