The British North America Act created Canada
On this day · 29 March 1867
One British statute stitched three colonies into a single self-governing dominion and drew the blueprint for modern Canada.
On 29 March 1867, Queen Victoria gave royal assent to the British North America Act, the statute passed by the British Parliament that brought Canada into being. Its long title was plain about the goal: “An Act for the Union of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.” Three separate British colonies would now share one federal government.
The law fused the Province of Canada (split into Ontario and Quebec), Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into the Dominion of Canada. It built a Westminster-style Parliament of an appointed Senate and an elected House of Commons, and it carefully divided powers between the new national legislature and the provinces.
Assent came in March, but the country waited until summer to begin.
The act took effect on 1 July 1867 — the date now marked as Canada Day. Renamed the Constitution Act, 1867 when the constitution was patriated in 1982, it remains the foundation of Canada’s system of government more than a century and a half later.
Sources & references
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