The Constitution Act of 1867 & Federalism in Canada.
As a former colony of the British Empire, Canada inherited the principle of legislative supremacy from the United Kingdom. This is explicit in the British North America Act of 1867, which states that Canada would have a constitution "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom." The principle of legislative supremacy asserts that the legislative branch of government (i.e. the House of Commons and provincial legislatures) is the highest legal and political body of the land. There are no higher laws than those enacted by the legislature. Human and civil rights were the jurisdiction of the legislatures and the Canadian courts were reluctant to interfere. In addition, Canada's constitution was under the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom Parliament. Canada could not change its constitution at home, but had to apply to the U.K legislature for any amendments.
The British North America Act, composed of 147 articles, was primarily focused on connecting provinces in a federal union and "the specific terms for the operation of federalism" . Federalism is a system of government where two levels of government exist, each sovereign in its sphere of jurisdiction, the result of centralizing and decentralizing forces which are at play at the time of the formation of the union and which continue to affect the union long after the system has been created. Additionally, federalism is usually adopted in countries that display differences of climate, geography, religion, language, culture and economies.
So to speak, the British North America Act specifically defined the powers of the federal and provincial governments and at the time of Confederation, legislative powers were threefold. Firstly, provincial legislatures could modify their own constitutions with the exception of the office of the Lieutenant-Governor . Secondly, the Parliament of Canada was accorded exclusive legislative powers and could amend select sections of which referred to its own constitution, including the office of the Lieutenant-governor, through recourse with the British Parliament .
