Contents:
Constitution in Canada
Constitution of Canada
Constitution of Canada, group of written documents and unwritten conventions that outline the political and legal foundations of Canadian society. The constitution of Canada identifies the country’s political boundaries, describes fundamental rights guaranteed to Canadian citizens, and defines rules and procedures that guide the country’s political and legal systems. (1)
Currently, there are ten provinces and three territories within Canada. Establishing a new province would require Constitutional amendment. Once a province is established, per section 92 of the Constitution Act, 1867, a province has exclusive legislative authority. In contrast, territories only have that legislative authority given to them by Parliament, which may be limited.
Researching the Constitution of Canada
Canada’s Constitution can be found in Volume 4 of the Constitutions of the Countries of the World (ILS RR K3157 .A2 B58 1971). This volume contains a consolidation of the Constitution Acts of 1867 and 1982 as of April 1, 1999. As such, it takes into account the Constitution Act of 1999, Nuvanut. When Nuvanut became a new territory, the Constitution Act, 1867, Part 2, was amended to allow for an increase in Senators from 104 to 105, with the maximum number of senators being raised from 112 to 113, accordingly, and to allow for each of the three territories to have one representative each. Additionally, the Canada Department of Justice web site provides the text of the Constitution Acts of 1867 and 1982.
Note: We linked the resources to archive.org in an effort to decrease the number of broken links cited.
In this Section
- Constitution
- Constitution Origins
- Constitution Major Elements
- Constitution Documents
- Constitution Act of 1867
- Constitution Act of 1982
- Constitution Conventions
- Constitution Interpretation and Enforcement
Constitution
Definition of Constitution by Rand Dyck and Christopher Cochrane (in their book “Canadian Politics: Critical Approaches”) in the context of political science in Canada: The whole body of rules and principles according to which the state is governed that, in the Canadian case, consists of a conglomeration of documents and conventions.
Definition of Constitution
The Canada social science dictionary [1] provides the following meaning of Constitution: The set of arrangements by which a nation governs itself. In Canada the core of the constitution is the BNA Act and its amendments (now called the Constitution Act 1867) and the Constitution Act 1982. Most of what we take to be the constitution, however, is not contained in these documents: things like responsible government, political parties, cabinet, the bureaucracy are absent. Some of these matters are covered by laws like the Elections Act, the House of Commons Act, the Legislative Assembly Acts and the Public Service Acts . In Canada, constitutional convention, embodying political traditions and practices, is unusually important and Canada’s system of government cannot be understood simply from the written laws. For example, it is constitutional convention, but not law, that ministers must be members of the House of Commons or the Senate, or that the Governor General must appoint the leader of the largest party in the House of Commons as Prime Minister. It is appropriate to also include court judgments interpreting constitutional Acts and formal agreements between federal and provincial governments as parts of Canada’s constitutional arrangements.
Constitution: Resources
Notes and References
- Drislane, R., & Parkinson, G. (2016). (Concept of) Constitution. Online dictionary of the social sciences. Open University of Canada
Resources
See Also
- Politics
- Political Science
Resources
Notes and References
See Also
Citation Notes
The Canadian constitution is contained in both the Constitution Act 1982 (itself a schedule to a UK statute) and the Constitution Act 1867 (an imperial statute). The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is part I of the Constitution Act 1982.