Chapter 1 Parliamentary Institutions

On a craggy bluff high above the majestic Ottawa River stands the remarkable embodiment of our system of governance: Parliament. Yet, while the vast majority of Canadians recognize the Gothic architecture and many in their millions have made the pilgrimage to the nation’s capital and passed through the brass doors beneath the Peace Tower into the historic rotunda, it has long been evident to me that Canadians are eager to know more about their history, more about their country, and more about their parliamentary institutions and how they function.

SPEAKER JOHN A. FRASER

(The House of Commons at Work, p. ix)

The Parliament of Canada consists of the Crown, the Senate and the House of Commons. Canada’s Parliament was created by the Constitution Act, 1867,¹ a statute of the British Parliament² uniting the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Canada (Ontario and Quebec).³ The legislation which gave birth to this new political confederation, to be known as the Dominion of Canada, was passed by Westminster⁴ on March 29, 1867, and came into force on July 1 of that year. The Dominion’s first general elections were held later that summer and the House of Commons assembled at Ottawa for the first time on November 6, 1867. Members proceeded to elect James Cockburn as their Speaker⁵ and the next day, November 7, the Dominion Parliament met to hear the Governor General, Lord Monck, read Canada’s inaugural Speech from the Throne.⁶

While the law enacting Canada’s Parliament came into force on July 1, 1867, it would be misleading to conclude that Canadian parliamentary institutions were created at Confederation; they were then neither new nor untried. The provinces of Canada (Ontario and Quebec), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick each possessed sophisticated systems of governance, including legislative assemblies and upper houses, which functioned according to historic, well-understood principles of parliamentary law and practice. While these parliamentary traditions were largely British in origin, they had been adapted over the years as the local political situation required. This body of domestic practices, traditions, customs and conventions grew with the result that, at Confederation, Canada’s parliamentary system was well adapted to meet the needs of governing a young, diverse and growing nation.⁷

The oldest of Canada’s institutional structures, those found in the maritime provinces, evolved out of the myriad instructions and commissions issued by the imperial government to successive governors over the years of British colonial rule.⁸ By contrast, the institutional structure which emerged in the territory comprising present-day Ontario and Quebec was from the beginning laid out in statutes, a practice continued at Confederation with the enactment of the Constitution Act, 1867.

1.: Originally named the British North America Act, 1867, it was renamed the Constitution Act, 1867, in 1982 (Constitution Act, 1867 (UK), 30 & 31 Vict, c 3, reprinted in RSC 1985, Appendix II, No 5 [Constitution Act, 1867]). For consistency, all references will be to its new title.
2.: “From the earliest colonial times, the Parliament at Westminster had the power not only to make laws for the United Kingdom, but also to make laws for the overseas territories of the British Empire. In performing the latter function it was known as the imperial Parliament and its enactments were known as imperial statutes” (Peter Wardell Hogg, Constitutional Law of Canada, 5th ed. (Scarborough: Thomson Carswell, 2007), p. 47).
3.: The preamble of the Constitution begins with “Whereas the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have expressed their Desire to be federally united into One Dominion” and goes on to say, “And whereas such a Union would conduce to the Welfare of the Provinces” (Constitution Act, 1867, supra note 1).
4.: “A reference to the British Parliament, which is built on the site of Westminster Palace in London. Thus, references to ‘Westminster’ or ‘the Westminster model’ are references to the British Parliament and its practices” (John McMenemy, The Language of Canadian Politics: A Guide to Important Terms and Concepts, 4th ed. (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006), p. 406).
5.: Journals, November 6, 1867, p. 2. For further information on the election of the Speaker, see Chapter 7, “The Speaker and Other Presiding Officers of the House”.
6.: Journals, November 7, 1867, pp. 3–4. For further information on the Speech from the Throne, see Chapter 15, “Special Debates”.
7.: The following are some of the sources consulted on the evolution and function of Canadian parliamentary institutions: Sir John George Bourinot, Parliamentary Procedure and Practice in the Dominion of Canada, 2nd ed. (Montreal: Dawson Brothers, 1892); John George Bourinot, Parliamentary Procedure and Practice in the Dominion of Canada, 4th ed., ed. Thomas Barnard Flint (Toronto: Canada Law Book, 1916); Robert MacGregor Dawson, Dawson’s The Government of Canada, 6th ed., ed. Norman Ward (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987); Eugene Alfred Forsey, How Canadians Govern Themselves, 8th ed. (Ottawa: Library of Parliament, 2012); C. E. S. Franks, The Parliament of Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987); Hogg, Constitutional Law of Canada, 5th ed.; Robert J. Jackson and Doreen Jackson, Politics in Canada: Culture, Institutions, Behaviour and Public Policy, 7th ed. (Toronto: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009); James Russell Mallory, The Structure of Canadian Government, rev. ed. (Toronto: Gage, 1984); McMenemy, The Language of Canadian Politics, 4th ed.; John Benjamin Stewart, The Canadian House of Commons: Procedure and Reform (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1977); Richard J. Van Loon and Michael S. Whittington, The Canadian Political System: Environment, Structure and Process, 4th ed. (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1987); Michael S. Whittington and Richard J. Van Loon, Canadian Government and Politics: Institutions and Processes (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1996); and Norman Wilding and Philip Laundy, An Encyclopaedia of Parliament, 4th ed. (London: Cassell, 1972).
8.: Beamish Murdoch, A History of Nova-Scotia or Acadie, vol. 2 (Halifax: James Barnes, 1866), pp. 351–4. See also Sir John George Bourinot, A Manual of the Constitutional History of Canada from the Earliest Period to 1901 (Toronto: The Copp, Clark Company, Limited, 1901), p. 69.

For questions about parliamentary procedure, contact the Table Research Branch

613-996-3611

trbdrb@parl.gc.ca