Constitution Act, 1867

The Constitution Act, 1867, originally enacted by the United Kingdom Parliament as the British North America Act, 1867, created the Dominion of Canada effective 1 July 1867 by uniting the Province of Canada, split back into Ontario and Quebec, with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick into a single federal dominion. It laid out the framework of Canadian federal government, dividing legislative powers between the federal Parliament and the provincial legislatures, and it kept the British monarch as head of state, represented in Canada by a Governor General. The statute was renamed the Constitution Act, 1867 in 1982, when Canada patriated its constitution from Britain and adopted the Constitution Act, 1982 alongside it, and it remains part of Canada's constitution today, still the primary charter defining the federal division of powers between Ottawa and the provinces.