Constituituinal Law

A. INTRODUCTION Sir John A. Macdonald believed that the Constitution Act, 1867, had been drafted in such a manner as to ensure that "'all conflict of jurisdiction' had been avoided" and that the courts would therefore assume a relatively minor role in the evolution of Canadian federalism. [Note 1: As quoted in W.P.M. Kennedy, "The Interpretation of the British North America Act" (1943) 8 Cambridge L.J. 146 at 151.] Sir John A.'s prediction proved to be wildly …

…lti- faceted and demand coordinated action from all levels of government. The great virtue of the existing division of powers, in my view, is its permissive and flexible character. The challenge is to develop institutions and mechanisms that can manage concurrency more effectively, rather than to devote efforts to rewriting the categories in the 1867 Act. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography** Patrick J. Monahan Constitutional Law (1997) PART ONE, INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1, AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE CANADIAN CONSTITUTION