Some Socials Essay I Uploaded to Join

The outcome of the British North America Act was not what John A. Macdonald had envisioned because he envisioned a unitary government in which the federal government held most, if not all the power. The division of powers that were divided amongst the nation and the provinces were not what he had pictured at all.

John A. Macdonald’s envision of confederation did not include the division of power to the nation and provinces which ended up being the outcome of the B.N.A Act. The powers got divided up into the powers of the national government and the powers of the provincial legislature. The national government controlled things like trade, defense, shipping navigation, currency, and banking while the provincial governments controlled things like, hospitals, courts, education, and local shops/institutions. This was not what John Mac hoped for when confederation was formed. He wanted to have a strong central government which controlled all of the power over all services and laws. You can simply imagine the debates and compromise John A. Macdonald and other political leaders had to go through. In addition, though some powers were being shared with both the national government and provincial legislature such as taxation and transportation, John A. Macdonald was envisioning the national government not only to overlook the provinces but to control each and every authority they had. Now the reason why John A. Macdonald had to approve of this compromise was because if he didn’t, the colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Canada East, and Canada West would not agree to form a union. There couldn’t be a strong central government for confederation or the other colonies wouldn’t go through with the plan. Because of this, federation was the outcome as the members in each colony (province) were granted some power, and certain powers belonged to the central government. These colonies were only going to support confederation if they held some power and that’s what John A....