CANADA: Struggling for Self-Mastery

Trudeau plots constitutional reform and possibly an election

Among Western democracies, Canada has a unique and slightly embarrassing distinction: it does not have power to amend all of its own constitution. Control over a key section of the country's founding document, the British North America Act of 1867, is still held by the British Parliament in Westminster. Reason: the critical passages refer to the division of powers between the federal government and Canada's ten powerful provinces, which have never been able to agree unanimously on a formula that would remove the last colonial trace from the country's political structure. Last...

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