The Constitution of Canada

by Canada Government

Peace, order and good government. That is what the British founders wanted for the newly formed Confederation of Canada. The British North America Act of 1867 created the union of the four British provinces in North America, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, under a single federal government, under a Constitutional Monarchy with a Westminster style Parliament. The document laid out the responsibilities of the federal and provincial governments and a blueprint for the creation of new provinces in the territories to the north and west.

The Canadian Constitution of 1982 legally brought the Constitution of Canada to Canada itself. Formerly the Canadian constitution (BNA 1867) could only be amended by the Parliament in Great Britain. The new Constitution of 1982 introduced a charter of rights and freedoms, that were to be enjoyed by Canadian citizens.

These documents make up the legal foundation for the country we know as Canada. They were heavily influence by the Westminster model of parliamentary democracy, and the Anglo-Saxon political traditions like the Magna Carta, and the Bill of Rights 1687.

Genres: Law

106 pages, Paperback

Published November 20, 2020

About the author

The Government of Canada / Gouvernement du Canada is the federal executive of Canada, which includes ministers of the Crown and the federal civil service.

Corporately branded as the Government of Canada; there are over 100 departments and agencies, as well as over 300,000 persons employed in the Government of Canada. These institutions carry out the programs and enforce the laws established by the Parliament of Canada.

Reviews

[gemsbooknook Geramie Kate Barker · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Peace, order and good government. That is what the British founders wanted as a result of the newly formed Confederation of Canada. The British North America Act of 1867 created the union of the four British provinces in North America, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, under a single federal government, under a Constitutional Monarchy with a Westminster Parliament. The document laid out the responsibilities of the federal and provincial governments and a blueprint for the creation of new provinces in the territories to the north and west.
The Canadian Constitution of 1982 legally brought the Constitution of Canada to Canada itself. Formerly, the Canadian constitution (BNA 1867) could only be amended by the Parliament in Great Britain. The new Constitution of 1982 introduced a charter of rights and freedoms that were to be enjoyed by Canadian citizens.
These documents make up the legal foundation for the country we know as Canada. They were heavily influenced by the Westminster model of parliamentary democracy, and the Anglo-Saxon political traditions like the Magna Carta, and the Bill of Rights 1687.’
This was an interesting read.
I got the book in a pack with The Constitution of the United States of America, and I am very happy about that, as I would not have purchased it on its own, but I really enjoyed reading it.

As Canada, like Australia, is part of the Commonwealth, I was expecting that The Constitution of Canada would be more like The Constitution of Australia, and in many ways it was. However, there were quite a few elements that were surprising to me.

One of the things that surprised me was the year in which The Constitution of Canada was written. For some reason, I believed that Canada had been formed as a federation long before Australia was, so to see that there was only a couple of decades between the writing of The Constitution of Canada and The Constitution of Australia really surprised me.

The other thing that I found interesting, reading The Constitution of Canada, was how few provinces were included in it when it was first written. I had assumed that most, if not all, of the Canadian provinces would have been a part of creating this document in the same way that all except one state and one territory of Australia were included in the creation of The Constitution of Australia.

While The Constitution of Canada and The Constitution of Australia had a lot of things in common, the fact that there were so many differences makes me really glad that I read this book, as I learned a lot more from it than I had thought that I would.

The Constitution of Canada by The Founding Fathers was well worth the read.

Geramie Kate Barker
gemsbooknook.wordpress.com

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is required reading if you live in Canada. It lays out the legal foundation of the country and shapes everything from rights to governance.

That said, it is deeply colonial in both structure and worldview. Indigenous peoples are largely framed through a state-centric lens rather than as sovereign nations, and many foundational assumptions go unchallenged.

Important, necessary, but far from neutral and definitely not beyond critique.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

does the official bilingual policy mean that you have to read both the English & French versions to count it as reading the whole doc?

la politique officielle de bilingue signifie-t-elle que vous devez lire les versions anglaise et française pour que cela soit considéré comme une lecture de l'ensemble du document ?

[Angel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really thought the constitution of Canada in a book would have more pages... I was surprised that this was it, and then I would need another complete set of books for other items of interest. I get it but.. I was surprised.

[Kevin Hardy · Rating 1 out of 5]

A joke. Basic guidelines the government can ignore at will. Never actually ratified. Even if it was, words like "demonstrably" are used.
Nobody ever asks "who gets to decide what that means?"

[Ella Cavanaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

had lots of plots twists and l really enjoyed the part about wood and it and me swinging in my room loved the part where she adopted the dolphins