Federal state

Canadians are governed by four separate authorities, federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal. Their different rights and responsibilities were set out in the British North America Act of 1867 (now referred to as the 1867 Constitution Act).

The federal government is responsible for matters concerning the whole country and Canada’s role abroad. These responsibilities include the national currency, navigation, citizenship, criminal laws, defence, foreign policy, and trading communications between provinces. The provinces have responsibility for highways, civil and property rights, healthcare, natural resources, education and civil government. For agriculture and immigration, the federal government and provincial governments share responsibility. Because Canada is a federation of provinces, each province can introduce policies best suited to their region under the overall framework of federal law, which means Canadian law is continually developing and innovating.

Every province has its dedicated Legislative Assembly, voted for by its citizens, which mirror Ottawa’s House of Commons. As the three northern territories have relatively small populations, they do not have the same status as provinces, but they do have governments and assemblies that perform in much the same way.