Canada and the British immigrantWeaver, Emily P. (Emily Poynton)
History
Canada and the British immigrant
Weaver, Emily P. (Emily Poynton)
Canada -- Description and travel; Canada -- Economic conditions
The qualifications entitling persons to vote are the same with regard to
the Dominion House of Commons and the provincial legislatures. Women are
excluded from voting on any but municipal elections, and males must be
of the age of twenty-one years and be British citizens by birth or
naturalization. In Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British
Columbia the vote is given after a term of residence varying from six to
twelve months (practically to every adult male citizen, though he may be
utterly illiterate and ignorant of either the English or French
tongues). In the Maritime Provinces even an adult male citizen cannot
vote, unless he has been resident for twelve months in the province, and
has qualifications “based” on ownership of real property, position as
teacher or clergyman, personal property or income. The same applies to
Quebec, except that in that province the would-be voter may qualify in
one month’s residence.
By the British North America Act, the Dominion parliament has control of
all matters not specially assigned to the provincial legislatures. This
is another respect in which the Canadian constitution differs from that
of the United States, where “the residuum of power” was retained by the
States which entered into the Federal Union. In other words, in the
United States all matters not specially put under the jurisdiction of
the central authority remain to be dealt with by the individual states;
while in Canada the authority of the Dominion parliament extends to all
affairs not specially reserved to the jurisdiction of the provinces.
In general terms, the Dominion parliament has power to make laws
regarding affairs that concern all the provinces, but a number of
matters are specially enumerated as being within the jurisdiction of the
central government. These are as follows:—Public debt and property;
trade and commerce; taxation (any system) and the borrowing of money on
the public credit; the postal service; the census and statistics;
militia, military and naval service and defence; the fixing of salaries
for government officers; lighthouses and coast service; navigation and
shipping; fisheries; quarantine; currency and banking; weights and
measures; interest; legal tender; bankruptcy, and the general financial
and commercial system; patents and copyrights; Indians and reserves for
Indians; naturalization; marriage and divorce; the criminal law and
penitentiaries; the territories not within the boundaries of any
province and the establishment of new provinces.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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