Editing Canadian Confederation (section)

===Confederation===
Canada is a [[federation]],<ref>{{cite web |title=How Canadians Govern Themselves |url=http://www2.parl.gc.ca/sites/lop/aboutparliament/forsey/fed_state_01-e.asp |url-status=dead |publisher=Parliament of Canada |edition=7th |access-date=May 8, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110405194326/http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Sites/LOP/AboutParliament/Forsey/fed_state_01-e.asp |archive-date=April 5, 2011}}</ref> rather than a confederate association of sovereign states, which is what ''[[confederation]]'' means in contemporary political theory. The country, though, is often considered to be among the world's more [[decentralized]] federations.<ref>{{cite web |author=Government of Canada |title=Collaborative Federalism in an Era of Globalization |url=http://www.pco-bcp.gc.ca/aia/index.asp?lang=eng&Page=archive&Sub=speeches-discours&Doc=19990422-eng.htm |url-status=dead |publisher=Queen's Printer for Canada |date=April 22, 1999 |access-date=May 8, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315135026/http://www.pco-bcp.gc.ca/aia/index.asp?lang=eng&Page=archive&Sub=speeches-discours&Doc=19990422-eng.htm |archive-date=March 15, 2012}}</ref> Use of the term ''confederation'' arose in the Province of Canada to refer to proposals beginning in the 1850s to federate all of the British North American colonies, as opposed to only Canada West (now Ontario) and Canada East (now Quebec). To contemporaries of Confederation, the ''con-'' prefix indicated a strengthening of the centrist principle compared to the American federation.{{sfn|Waite|1962|pp=37–38, footnote 6}}

In this Canadian context, ''confederation'' describes the political process that united the colonies in 1867, events related to that process, and the subsequent incorporation of other colonies and territories.<ref>{{citation| url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/confederation/index-e.html| title=Canadian Confederation| author=Library and Archives Canada| chapter=How Canada came to be| publisher=Queen's Printer for Canada| access-date=June 29, 2011}}</ref> The word is now often used to describe Canada in an abstract way, such as in "the Fathers of Confederation"; provinces that became part of Canada after 1867 are also said to have [[#Joining Confederation|joined, or entered into, Confederation]] (but not ''the'' Confederation).<ref>{{cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/dissolutionsover00walk| url-access=registration| last=Walker| first=Edward W.| title=Dissolution: sovereignty and the breakup of the Soviet Union| page=174| date=May 1, 2003| publisher=Rowman & Littlefield| isbn=978-0-7425-2453-8}}</ref> The term is also used to divide [[Canadian history]] into pre-Confederation and post-Confederation periods.<ref>{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FamJrJEvymIC&pg=PR13| last1=Taylor| first1=Martin Brook| last2=Owram| first2=Doug| title=Canadian History: Beginnings to Confederation| page=13| date=May 17, 1994| publisher=University of Toronto Press| isbn=978-0-8020-6826-2}}</ref>