CANADA 



1116 



CANADA 



THE DOMINION PARLIAMENT BUILDING 



As It stood before the fire referred to in the text. Rebuilding operations were in progress before the 

 end of 1916. 



Parliament. The legislative functions are 

 exercised by a Parliament of two houses. The 

 upper house is the Senate; the lower house 

 is the House of Commons. In nearly all re- 

 spects the rights and powers of the two houses 

 are exactly the same, but any bills for raising 

 revenue or appropriating funds must originate 

 in the House of Commons. The upper house 

 may reject such a bill as a whole or it may 

 accept it, but it is not allowed to amend it. 

 This differs from the practice in the United 

 States, where the Senate may amend financial 

 bills, although it may not originate them. The 

 powers of Parliament are listed in the British 

 North America Act under twenty-nine heads; 

 the provinces are not allowed to legislate on 

 these subjects: 



1. Public debt and property. 



2. Regulation of trade and commerce. 



3. Raising of money by any system of taxa- 

 tion. 



4. Borrowing of money on the public credit. 



5. Postal Service. 



6. Census and statistics. 



head of the government, for the Governor- 

 General almost never acts without his advice 

 and consent. Communication between the 

 Cabinet and the Governor-General takes place 

 through the Premier, although the individual 

 ministers may communicate with the Governor- 

 General on any important matters relating to 

 their departments. 



If the Premier dies or resigns, the Cabinet 

 is thereby dissolved, and the ministers hold 

 office only until a new Premier is appointed 

 and their successors are named. If the govern- 

 ment, that is, the Ministry, is defeated on some 

 important question in Parliament, there are 

 two courses open to the Premier and his min- 

 isters. They may resign, whereupon the Gov- 

 ernor-General selects a new Premier, usually 

 the leader of the opposition, or they may con- 

 vince the Governor-General that they still hold 

 public confidence and that the vote does not 

 represent popular sentiment. In this second 

 case the Governor-General may dissolve Par- 

 liament and call for a general election. 





