HISTORY AND PRESENT GOVERNMENT

Canada has been a monarchy for centuries – first under the kings of France in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, then under the British Crown in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and now as a kingdom in her own right.

The territories which now form Canada came under British power at various times by settlement, conquest or cession.

French Canada, with all its dependencies, including New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, was formally ceded to Great Britain by France in 1763. Vancouver Island was acknowledged to be British by the Oregon Boundary Treaty of 1846, and British Columbia was established as a separate colony in 1858.

The British North America Act paved the way for the evolution of modern Canada. In 1869 Ruperts Land, or the Northwest Territories, was purchased from the Hudsons Bay Company and annexed to Canada as the Northwest Territories in 1870.

By the same action the Province of Manitoba was created from a small portion of this territory and all were admitted into the Confederation in July 1870. In July 1871, British Columbia was admitted, and Prince Edward Island followed in July 1873.

The provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were formed from the provisional districts of Alberta, Athabaska, Assiniboia and Saskatchewan and originally parts of the Northwest Territories and admitted on 1 September 1905.

Newfoundland formally joined Canada as its tenth province in 1949. In February 1931 Norway formally recognised Canadian title to the Sverdrup group of Arctic islands, giving Canada sovereignty over the whole Arctic sector north of the Canadian mainland.

In 1999 Nunavut became the largest and newest territory in Canada. Formed from the eastern part of the Northwest Territories, this huge Canadian arctic territory has only about 25,000 residents, about 80 percent of whom are Inuit.

By the British North American Act of 1867, Canada became the first Dominion within the British Empire. This meant it was a country of the British Empire and later the Commonwealth, with autonomy in domestic and foreign affairs.

The Act set out a constitution with the executive authority vested in the Sovereign, and carried on in her name by a Governor-General and Privy Council, with legislative power exercised by a Parliament of two Houses, a Senate and a House of Commons.

The Act also united Upper and Lower Canada (now Ontario and Quebec), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Over the following years other colonies and the Northwest Territories joined the Confederation, the last two being Newfoundland and Labrador in 1949, and Nunavut in 1999.

In 1926, the Imperial Conference in London confirmed the status of Canada, along with that of Australia, the Irish Free State, New Zealand, South Africa and Newfoundland, as self-governing Dominions under the British Crown.

The Statute of Westminster in 1931, an act of the British Parliament, gave legal form to this declaration. It gave Canada and other Dominions the authority to make their own laws.

Powers of the King were gradually transferred to the Governor-General, culminating in 1947 with the Letters Patent Constituting the Office of Governor-General, which authorized the Governor-General to exercise all the powers of the Sovereign in Canada, on the advice of the Canadian government.

There have been further constitutional changes in some of the Commonwealth realms during The Queen’s reign.

The UK Parliament’s Canada Act of 1982 enacted constitutional amendments which enabled the British North America Act to be replaced. It laid down that the future amendment of the constitution should be the prerogative of Canada.

Any change to the position of The Queen or her representatives in Canada now requires the unanimous consent of the Senate, the House of Commons and the assemblies of all the provinces.

Today the various provinces of Canada each have a separate Parliament and administration, with a Lieutenant-Governor representing The Queen, appointed by the Governor-General in Council, at the head of the executive.