In March of 1867, the British House of Lords and the British House of Commons, with royal consent, enacted the British North America Act, 1867. The was the official birth of The Dominion of Canada.
Lets take a close look at the Act in particular. Please click here for the full Act and you can follow the description below. The Act is broken down into parts and sections. This will be an important feature that most Acts of Canada and the Provinces follow, which is modeled off the British system.
THE PREAMBLE
This first part is the ‘whereas’es and ‘therefore’es. This is the basic concept of the act. What the act is created to do.
Essentially here, the act is informing that
- it is the intention of the Province of Canada (see here), the Province of Nova Scotia and the Province of New Brunswick, to be united as a Federal Dominion, under the crown of Great Britain and Ireland. This intention removes the British Parliament from any decision making. Before this, the Parliament could over rule any decisions made by the provinces self governing bodies.
- is in the best interests of each province to create this union
- declaration of the government creation should be done as quickly as possible
- That a provision be made to for the expedient inclusion of other parts of the British North America, as deemed appropriate
- and finally, this is approved byt the Queen, with advice and consent of the houses of Lords and Commons