Opting out is a political expression that was formulated in Canada to describe the intention of a province to remove itself from a program administered by the federal government, or to exempt itself from a constitutional amendment that would transfer its legislative powers to Parliament.
Up until the 1960s, a province that did not participate in a shared-cost program would suffer a financial penalty for exercising this choice. The province of Quebec exercised this choice on occasion despite the financial cost. In the 1960s, negotiations between the federal and the Quebec governments led to tax abatements or fiscal compensation formulas which compensated the Quebec government when it opted out of federal programs.
Under the Constitution Act, 1982, the right for any province to opt out of future constitutional amendments that would transfer legislative powers from the provincial legislatures to Parliament is affirmed. Financial compensation is guaranteed for any province that opts out of such an amendment relating to education or other cultural matters. Under the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords, this financial compensation was to be extended to include any constitutional amendment that transferred any legislative powers, not just those relating to education or other cultural matters. However, neither the Meech Lake nor the Charlottetown Accords were ratified.
The Constitution of Canada is the supreme law in Canada. It outlines Canada's system of government and the civil and human rights of those who are citizens of Canada and non-citizens in Canada. Its contents are an amalgamation of various codified acts, treaties between the Crown and indigenous peoples, uncodified traditions and conventions. Canada is one of the oldest constitutional democracies in the world.
Canadian federalism involves the current nature and historical development of the federal system in Canada.
The Constitution Act, 1982 is a part of the Constitution of Canada. The Act was introduced as part of Canada's process of patriating the constitution, introducing several amendments to the British North America Act, 1867, including re-naming it the Constitution Act, 1867. In addition to patriating the Constitution, the Constitution Act, 1982 enacted the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; guaranteed rights of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada; provided for future constitutional conferences; and set out the procedures for amending the Constitution in the future.
The Canada Health Act (CHA) is a piece of Government of Canada legislation, adopted in 1984, which specifies the conditions and criteria with which the provincial and territorial health insurance programs must conform in order to receive federal transfer payments under the Canada Health Transfer. These criteria require universal coverage of all insured services.
The politics of Quebec are centred on a provincial government resembling that of the other Canadian provinces, namely a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. The capital of Quebec is Quebec City, where the Lieutenant Governor, Premier, the legislature, and cabinet reside.
The Charlottetown Accord was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada, proposed by the Canadian federal and provincial governments in 1992. It was submitted to a public referendum on October 26 and was defeated.
The Meech Lake Accord was a series of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada negotiated in 1987 by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and all 10 Canadian provincial premiers. It was intended to persuade the government of Quebec to symbolically endorse the 1982 constitutional amendments by providing for some decentralization of the Canadian federation.
The Victoria Charter was a set of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada in 1971. This document represented a failed attempt on the part of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to patriate the Constitution, add rights and freedoms to it and entrench English and French as Canada's official languages; he later succeeded in all these objectives in 1982 with the enactment of the Constitution Act 1982.
Elijah Harper was a Canadian politician and Chief of his Red Sucker Lake community. He was a key player in the rejection of the Meech Lake Accord, an attempt at Canadian constitutional reform.
The Constitutional debate of Canada is an ongoing debate covering various political issues regarding the fundamental law of the country. The debate can be traced back to the Royal Proclamation, issued on October 7, 1763, following the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1763) wherein France ceded most of New France to Great Britain in favour of keeping Guadeloupe.
Patriation is the political process that led to full Canadian sovereignty, culminating with the Constitution Act, 1982. The process was necessary because under the Statute of Westminster 1931, with Canada's agreement at the time, the British parliament had retained the power to amend Canada's Constitution Acts, and to enact more generally for Canada at the request and with the consent of the Dominion. That authority was removed from the UK by the passing of the Canada Act 1982 on March 29, 1982, by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, as requested by the Parliament of Canada.
Distinct society is a political term especially used during constitutional debate in Canada, in the second half of the 1980s and in the early 1990s, and present in the two failed constitutional amendments, the Meech Lake Accord and the Charlottetown Accord. "Distinct society" refers to the uniqueness of the province of Quebec within Canada, although here the meaning of "unique" is vague and controversial.
The constitutional history of Canada begins with the 1763 Treaty of Paris, in which France ceded most of New France to Great Britain. Canada was the colony along the St Lawrence River, part of present-day Ontario and Quebec. Its government underwent many structural changes over the following century. In 1867 Canada became the name of the new federal Dominion extending ultimately from the Atlantic to the Pacific and the Arctic coasts. Canada obtained legislative autonomy from the United Kingdom in 1931, and had its constitution patriated in 1982. Canada's constitution includes the amalgam of constitutional law spanning this history.
The History of the Quebec sovereignty movement covers various movements which sought to achieve political independence for Quebec, a province of Canada since 1867.
The Calgary Declaration, also known as the Calgary Accord, was an agreement made between most premiers of the provinces and territories of Canada regarding how to approach future amendments to the Constitution. It was signed in Calgary, Alberta, on September 14, 1997, by all Canadian premiers and territorial leaders except Quebec's Lucien Bouchard. The Declaration had followed controversial and divisive constitutional debate in Canada seen during the patriation of the Constitution in 1982, and the subsequent collapse of the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords.
Section 16.1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the newest section of the Charter. It was enacted by the Constitution Amendment, 1993 and guarantees equality between English-speaking and French-speaking New Brunswickers.
Before 1982, modifying the Constitution of Canada primarily meant amending the British North America Act, 1867. Unlike most constitutions, however, this Act had no amending formula: instead changes were enacted through Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom called the British North America Acts.
Since the Constitution of Canada was patriated, in 1982, only ten minor Amendments to the Constitution of Canada have been passed. There have, however, been a number of unsuccessful attempts to amend the Constitution in accordance with its amending formula.
The Allaire Report was a report written by the constitutional reform committee of the Liberal Party of Quebec, chaired by lawyer and politician Jean Allaire, recommending a significant transfer of powers from Canada's federal government to the Government of Quebec. Entitled "A Quebec Free to Choose", the report was published on January 29, 1991, and adopted as party policy by the Liberal Party at their 25th convention on March 9, 1991.
Indigenous or Aboriginal self-government refers to proposals to give governments representing the Indigenous peoples in Canada greater powers of government. These proposals range from giving Aboriginal governments powers similar to that of local governments in Canada to demands that Indigenous governments be recognized as sovereign, and capable of "nation-to-nation" negotiations as legal equals to the Crown, as well as many other variations.
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