IV.  Amerika.  1368  246.  Canada.

And  whereas  it  is  expedient  that  provision  be  made  for  the  eventual  admission
into  the  union  of  other  parts  of  British  North  America:

Be  it  therefore  enacted  and  declared  by  the  queen’s  most  excellent  majesty,
by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  lords  spiritual  and  temporal,  and  commons,
in  this  present  parliament  assembled,  and  by  the  authority  of  the  same  as  follows:

I.  Preliminary.

1.  This  act  may  be  cited  as  the  British  North  America  Act,  1867.

2.  The  provisions  of  this  act  referring  to  her  majesty  the  queen  extend  also
to  the  heirs  and  successors  of  her  majesty,  kings  and  queens  of  the  united  kingdom
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.

II.  Union.

3.  It  shall  be  lawful  for  the  queen,  by  and  with  the  advice  of  her  majesty’s
most  honourable  privy  council,  to  declare  by  proclamation  that,  on  and  after  a  day
therein  appointed,  not  being  more  than  six  months  after  the  passing  of  this  act,  the
provinces  of  Canada,  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick  shall  form  and  be  one  Dominion
under  the  name  of  Canada;  and  on  and  after  that  day  those  three  provinces  shall
form  and  be  one  Dominion  under  that  name  accordingly.

4.  The  subsequent  provisions  of  this  act  shall,  unless  it  is  otherwise  expressed
or  implied,  commence  and  have  effect  on  and  after  the  union,  that  is  to  say,  on  and
after  the  day  appointed  for  the  union  taking  effect  in  the  queen’s  proclamation;
and  in  the  same  provisions,  unless  it  is  otherwise  expressed  or  implied,  the  name
Canada  shall  be  taken  to  mean  Canada  as  constituted  under  this  act.

5.  Canada  shall  be  divided  into  four  provinces,  named  Ontario,  Quebec,  Nova
Scotia  and  New  Brunswick.

6.  The  parts  of  the  province  of  Canada  (as  it  exists  at  the  passing  of  this  act)
which  formerly  constituted  respectively  the  provinces  of  Upper  Canada  and  Lower
Canada  shall  be  deemed  to  be  severed,  and  shall  form  two  separate  provinces.  The
part  which  formerly  constituted  the  province  of  Upper  Canada  shall  constitute  the
province  of  Ontario;  and  the  part  which  formerly  constituted  the  province  of  Lower
Canada  shall  constitute  the  province  of  Quebec.

7.  The  provinces  of  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick  shall  have  the  same
limits  as  at  the  passing  of  this  act.

8.  In  the  general  census  of  the  population  of  Canada,  which  is  hereby  required
to  be  taken  in  the  year  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  seventy-one,  and  in  every
tenth  year  thereafter,  the  respective  populations  of  the  four  provinces  shall  be
distinguished.

III.  Executive  power.

9.  The  executive  government  and  authority  of  and  over  Canada  is  hereby
declared  to  continue  and  be  vested  in  the  queen.