British North America Act
The British North America Acts (French Actes de l'Amérique du Nord britannique ), known in Canada as Constitution Acts, are laws that the British Parliament passed between 1867 and 1982 to regulate Canada's system of government . They form the most important part of the Canadian constitution .
The first and most important law is the Constitutional Act of 1867 , which created the self-governing Dominion Canada from the individual British provinces . The Westminster Statute gave Canada and the other Dominions full legislative sovereignty in 1931. Changes to the British North America Acts, which could only be passed by the British Parliament, remained an exception.
Because of the problems in Canada to agree on a process of change that would satisfy all provinces including Québec , that force stayed with the United Kingdom. It was not until 1982 that the opinion-forming process in Canada was so far completed that the British Parliament was able to pass the constitutional law of 1982 at a Canadian request : this also contains a procedure to be able to amend the constitution.
The British Parliament passed British North America Acts in 1867, 1871, 1886, 1907, 1915, 1916, 1930, 1940, 1943, 1946, 1949, 1949 (No. 2), 1951, 1960, 1964, 1974 and 1975. Important laws are:
- Act of 1867 : forms the basis of the Canadian Constitution . It defines the government of Canada , the Canadian House of Commons , the Senate , the judiciary, the tax system and the distribution of legislative competences between the federal government and the provinces.
- Act of 1871: gave Canada the sovereignty to create new provinces and territories and to change the boundaries of existing provinces.
- Act of 1886: Territories got MPs in the House of Commons and Senate.
- Act of 1907: obliged the federal government to financially support smaller and economically weaker provinces.
- 1915 Act: Expanded Senate by granting Western Canada 24 of its own senators; it also stipulated six senators for Newfoundland should it become a Canadian province.
- Act of 1940: Permitted the introduction of unemployment insurance nationwide.
- Act of 1949 (Newfoundland Act): Adopted the then British Dominion Newfoundland as the tenth province of Canada.
- 1965 Act: Set the maximum age for Canadian senators at 75.