Proclamation of the Constitution Act, 1867

The Constitution Act, 1867 is part of the Constitution of Canada and thus part of the supreme law of Canada.[1] It was the product of extensive negotiations by the governments of the British North American provinces in the 1860s.[2][3] The Act sets out the basic constitutional structure of Canada, including creating the federal government and defining the powers of the federal government and the provinces. Originally enacted in 1867 by the British Parliament under the name the British North America Act, 1867,[4] in 1982 the Act was brought under full Canadian control through the Patriation of the Constitution, and was renamed the Constitution Act, 1867.[5] Since Patriation the Act can only be amended in Canada, under the amending formula set out in the Constitution Act, 1982.[6]

The Proclamation reads:

By the QUEEN.

A PROCLAMATION for Uniting the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, into one Dominion, under the name of CANADA.

WHEREAS by an Act of Parliament, passed on the twenty-ninth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Our reign, intituled "An Act for the union of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and the Government thereof, and for purposes connected therewith," after divers recitals it is enacted that "it shall be lawful for the Queen, by and with the advice of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, to declare, by Proclamation, that on and after a day therein appointed, not being more than six months after the passing of this Act the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, shall form and be One Dominion under the name of Canada, and on and after that day those Three Provinces shall form and be One Dominion under that Name accordingly:" and it is thereby further enacted, that "Such Persons shall be first summoned to the Senate as The Queen by Warrant, under Her Majesty's Royal Sign Manual, thinks fit to approve, and their Names shall be inserted in The Queen's Proclamation of Union:"

We, therefore, by and with the advice of Our Privy Council, have thought fit to issue this Our Royal Proclamation, and We do ordain, declare, and command that on and after the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, shall form and be One Dominion, under the name of Canada.

And We do further ordain and declare that the persons whose names are herein inserted and set forth are the persons of whom We have by Warrant under Our Royal Sign Manual thought fit to approve as the persons who shall be first summoned to the Senate of Canada.

For the Province of Ontario

John Hamilton

Roderick Matheson

John Ross

Samuel Mills

Benjamin Seymour

Walter Hamilton Dickson

James Shaw

Adam Johnston Ferguson Blair

Alexander Campbell

David Christie

James Cox Aikins

David Reesor

Elijah Leonard

William MacMaster

Asa Allworth Burnham

John Simpson

James Skead

David Lewis Macpherson

George Crawford

Donald Macdonald

Oliver Blake

Billa Flint

Walter McCrea

George William Allan

For the Province of Quebec

James Leslie

Asa Belknap Foster

Joseph Noel Bossé

Louis A. Olivier

Jacques-Olivier Bureau

Charles Malhiot

Louis Renaud

Luc Letellier de St. Just

Ulric Joseph Tessier

John Hamilton

Charles Cormier

Antoine Juchereau Duchesnay

David Edward Price

Elzear H. J. Duchesnay

Leandre Dumouchel

Louis Lacoste

Joseph F. Armand

Charles Wilson

William Henry Chaffers

Jean Baptiste Guévremont

James Ferrier

Sir Narcisse Fortunat Belleau, Knight

Thomas Ryan

John Sewell Sanborn

For the Province of Nova Scotia

Edward Kenny

Jonathan McCully

Thomas D. Archibald

Robert B. Dickey

John H. Anderson

John Holmes

John W. Ritchie

Benjamin Wier

John Locke

Caleb R. Bill

John Bourinot

William Miller

For the Province of New Brunswick

Amos Edwin Botsford

Edward Barren Chandler

John Robertson

Robert Leonard Hazen

William Hunter Odell

David Wark

William Henry Steeves

William Todd

John Ferguson

Robert Duncan Wilmot

Abner Reid McClelan

Peter Mitchell

Given at Our Court at Windsor Castle, this twenty-second day of May, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, and in the thirtieth year of Our reign. GOD save the QUEEN.[7]

The Constitution Act, 1867 was passed by the British Parliament in March, 1867, receiving royal assent on March 29, 1867. However, it did not come into force immediately, as time was needed to prepare for the implementation of the new federal structure, particularly the selection of the new federal Cabinet.

Section 3 of the Act authorised the Queen, on the advice of the British government, to set the date for the coming into force of the Act. The Royal Proclamation was issued on May 22, 1867, setting July 1, 1867 as the day the Act would come into force and Canada would come into existence. Governor General Lord Monck appointed John A. Macdonald as the first prime minister of Canada. Macdonald then spent the months of May and June forming the new Cabinet, which required balancing a number of regional, sectarian, and linguistic issues. The new federal government then came into effect on July 1, 1867.[8]

Section 3 of the Act authorised the Queen to issue the Proclamation, acting on the advice of the British government.