The provincial legislatures are miniatures of those of the Dominion. The forms like those of the Dominion Parliament are monarchical, the lieutenant-governor formally nominating the ministers, as does the governor-general those of the Dominion. The practical working is popu lar, elective and partisan. The party divisions run through the provinces severally as well as through the Dominion at large. Quebec and Nova Scotia, like the Dominion Parliament, have each two chambers; the rest have only one. The Federal government has a veto on provincial legislation.
The treatment of the Northwest territories, as provinces, presents a certain analogy to that of the Territories of the United States, execu tive and legislative powers being given to • a lieutenant-governor with an elective council subject to instructions by order under Federal council or by the Canadian Secretary of State.
The Parliament is by law bi-lingual; the French language as well as the English being recognized, though practically English prevails. The civil law, in which the Costume de Paris and the Code Napoleon are blended with the common and statutory law of Great Britain, remains the law of Quebec.
In its• generally democratic character the Canadian constitution approaches to that of the American republic, but in their structure they materially differ. The American constitution, in accordance with the principle laid down by Montesquieu Sq.v.), separates the executive from the legislative. The members of the President's council, miscalled a cabinet, have not seats in the legislature, nor is their contin uance in office dependent on its support. They are the nominees of the President alone. Under the Canadian constitution, as under the British, the members of the Cabinet have seats in the Parliament, on the confidence of which their tenure of office depends, and in which they in itiate and control legislation. the head of the American republic is elected for a term certain.
The terms of members and the times of election are fixed by law, whereas the Canadian Parlia ment is called in the name of the Crown by the Prime Minister, the head of the party in power, who wields in the interest of his party the pre rogative of summoning and of dissolution. The members of the Canadian Senate are chosen by the head of the party in power, whereas the American Senate, formerly elected by the leg islatures of the several States, are now (sime 1913) elected by popular vote. Thus the Cana dian constitution lends itself more aptly to the working of the party system of government, which, with all its accessories, political and moral, has prevailed, though the general influ ence of party cannot be stronger than it is in the United States.
In Great Britain the Cabinet, in which the real power of government resides, is a growth of political party unrecognized by law, while the Privy Council, recognized by law, has be come honorary. In Canada the Privy Council is the Cabinet, at the same time conferring the honorary rank, but the relation to the Crown, the relation to Parliament and the working of the system in both cases are the same.
The British North America Act does not, like the American constitution, prohibit the es tablishment of a particular religion by the •state. It leaves untouched to the Roman Catholic priesthood of Quebec the power of levying tithes on the people of their own com munion. In the section respecting education it perpetuates the privilege of denominational schools. Since confederation the government of Ontario has practically aided a denomi national university. But since the secularization of the clergy reserves and the opening of the University of Toronto, non-interference of the state with religion may be said to have been established as a general principle and may be regarded as practically part of the constitution. See the articles in this series: CONFEDERATION ;