Federal Government in Canada

CONTENTS. PAQP. LECTUREI. HISTORICA O L U TLINE OF POLITICADL EVELOPMEN . T .. 7 11. GENERALF EATURES OF THE FEDERALS YSTEM ... ...... 9 111. THE GOVERNMEN AN T D THE PARLIANEN .. T .. ........... 77 IV. THE PROVINCIAGLO VERNMEN A T N S D LEGISLATURES 1 .. 2 1 FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. LECTURE I. HISTOXICAL OUTLINE OF POLITICAL DEVEIAOPMENT. In the course of this tmd the following lectures, I propose to direct your attention to the Fedem1 constitution of the Dominion of Canada. My review of the systen o f govern ment which we now possess must necessarily be limited in its scope. I mn but give you an outIine of its leading features and a very imperfect insight into its practical operation. I do not pretend to do more than lay before you zl mere slretch perhaps not inore than iz tracing of the architects work-and point out the strength and harmony of the proportions of the national strncfur-e which Canadian statesmen are striving to perfect on the northern half of the continent. At the same time I shall erldesvor to indicate what seem, in the opinio is of competent authorities, to be such defects 2nd weaknesses as must d ways, sooner or later, show thenlselvev in the work of l urnan h ands. It is necessary that I shorrld at the outset briefly trace the various steps in the politiwl developmerit of British Earth America, so that you may the more clearly understand the These four Iwtures were read during the month of May, 1889, hefore Trinity University, Toronto, Canada, and are now printed for the first time with some notes and additions to the text. Federal Govmmt in Cunada. 464 origin and nature of our present system of government. Nor can well leave out of the consideration somereferences to the politicrtl institutions that existed in Can previous to 1759-60. Such a review mill not give any evidence of political progress, but it would be very incomplete if it did not lay before you the characteristics of a system of government which is not simply interesting from an antiquarian or his torical ioiut of view, but also on account of the comparisons it lea us to make between the absolutism it represented and the political freedom which h been the h u e of the fa11 of Quebec in 1759, and of the supremacy of England in Canada. But there is another important co lsideration which renders it absolutely ilecessary that I should give more than a passing allusion to the Frendi period of Canadian history. Though more than a century and a quarter has passed since those days of the French rEgime, many of the institutions which were inherited from old France have become permanently estab-Iislieil in the country, and me see constantly in the various politid systems formed in Canada from time to time the impress of those institutious and the influence of the people of French Canada. As the nlosi corlvenicxlt method of deaIing with this part of my subject, I shall leave the consideration of the political development of Nova Scotia and the other small provinces until the last lecture, when I come to rcvicm the present con stitution of their governments and lcgislatares...