Canada Day in London 2010

[NewGuise]

I'll spend the day driving across northern France toward Juno Beach...

[Chas]

Hate to nitpick, but Canada has not been a Dominion for some time now.

IT MOST CERTAINLY IS! I doesn't matter if the government doesn't call it such, but its status has never been changed by any Act of Parliament or Order in Council.

I personally prefer calling Canada eaither a Kingdom or a Realm--of which it is both. The Prime Minister of the time, William Lyon Mackenzie King, upon welcoming HM King George VI to Canada in 1939 ( the first visit by the Monarch to the country ), said "Welcome, Sire, to your Kingdom of Canada."

Correctly used "Dominion" means that the nation is self-governed with the monarch as head of state. It was the intent of the government at the time of the Canada Act of 1982 to ensure that Canadians understood the difference between former dependency on the British Parliament and the new autonomy. Dispensing with "Dominion of" as a descriptive on federal forms and other documents was touted to be an aid to that end. Instead it gave Canadians the impression that the name of the country had changed; it had not because the name never was "Dominion of Canada" even though Canada is one of Her Majesty's Dominions.

Rex

I am a great believer in "If you don't know - ask". Well I thought I knew, but I wasn't sure, so I asked. This is the reply that came back a few moments ago:

Hello Mr. Charles-Dunne,

The British North America Act, 1867 (also known as Constitution Act, 1867) identifies the official title of Canada as the "Dominion of Canada". While no legal document identifies the name of our country as anything other than Canada, "Dominion" and "Dominion of Canada" remain the official titles of our country.

Andrée St-Louis
Agente d'information et de distribution |Information and Distribution Officer
State Ceremonial | Cérémonial d'État
Patrimoine Canadien | Canadian Heritage
Gouvernement Canadien | Canadian Government

Regards

Chas

[Lallans]

...there's a London in England?

{old joke alert}

[Dixiecat]

Thank you for pointing out that little bit of history and fact. I understand that Canada is technically a dominion, but it's not been called that for a very long time. It's been a donkey's age since I've seen 'Dominion of' in front of 'Canada'. Which is what I meant in my earlier post, my pardon everyone.

[Lallans]

Thank you for pointing out that little bit of history and fact. I understand that Canada is technically a dominion, but it's not been called that for a very long time. It's been a donkey's age since I've seen 'Dominion of' in front of 'Canada'. Which is what I meant in my earlier post, my pardon everyone.

The common usage of 'Dominion' has indeed been dropped though, both observably and by official policy, as per this quote from the dreaded Wikipedia: "As Canada asserted its political autonomy from the United Kingdom, the federal government increasingly used simply Canada on state documents and treaties, a change that was reflected in the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day in 1982."

This all brings to mind the Father of Confederation who famously said he didn't want (Nova Scotia?) to become a "Damn-minion of Canada," and the more modern admonishment of "Don't call me Shirley!" Semantics!