Canada was nearly named the Kingdom of Canada in 1867

Canada became a self-governing federation on July 1, 1867, when the British North America Act came into effect and joined Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in the new Dominion of Canada, with a Parliament in Ottawa and Queen Victoria still head of state. The statute had received royal assent in London that March.

Few of the people affected chose it. The Canadian Museum of History notes that in most cases colonists did not vote to join; their elected representatives decided for them, and Indigenous peoples and women were not consulted.

Why it was called a dominion

The Fathers of Confederation wanted a grander name: the Kingdom of Canada. The British government, anxious not to antagonise the United States so soon after the American Civil War, feared an imperial-sounding title would offend Washington and insisted on something else. New Brunswick’s Samuel Leonard Tilley suggested “Dominion”, reportedly inspired by Psalm 72:8: “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea.”

The word was not new. Virginia had been called the “Old Dominion” since Charles II granted the title in the 17th century, so Canada was not the first place to carry it. Nor does the phrase “Dominion of Canada” actually appear in the 1867 Act; its preamble speaks only of the provinces’ wish to be “federally united into One Dominion”.

Self-government in 1867 was partial, since Canada’s constitution remained a British statute. In 1931 the Statute of Westminster described the dominions as independent countries equal to Britain. In 1982 the constitution was patriated, and a private member’s bill renamed Dominion Day as Canada Day.

The title has never been formally dropped. Federal institutions had largely stopped using “Dominion” by the early 1960s, and the Constitution Act, 1982 never mentions it. But the 1867 Act, renamed the Constitution Act, 1867, is still part of Canada’s constitution, so, as The Canadian Encyclopedia puts it, Dominion of Canada remains the country’s formal national title, however rarely anyone uses it.