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Exterior and interior views of Canada’s circular
Parliamentary Library, the only survivor of a
fire that destroyed the Canadian Parliament
Buildings toward the end of World War I.
It stands today in the shadow of the new Parlia-
ment Buildings.
Vues extérieure et intérieure de la bibliothèque du
Parlement, le seul immeuble épargné par un
incendie qui détruisit les édifices parlementai-
res à la fin de la première Grande Guerre. A
l’ombre des nouveaux immeubles du Parlement
Canadien et de la Tour de la Paix, la vieille
bibliothèque résiste à toutes les vicissitudes.
amendments tend to overshadow those other constitutional principles whose
significance is not so clearly indicated. This written document has been
historically and legally indispensable, however, in that it created the Dominion
by uniting the four original provinces, and it has since then formed the common
tie binding together the nine provinces which today compose the federation.
The British North America Act does not pretend to be a comprehensive
document such as, for example, the constitution of the United States. There
are many vital things about the government of Canada which are not stated
or even hinted in the British North America Act.
For this reason any earnest student who would learn about Canadian govern-
ment by reading this document, which still wears the garments of one hundred
years ago, must interpret it in the light of the changes which have occurred
since 1848. These changes are to be found in large measure in the unwritten
constitution.
The House of Commons is the great democratic agency in the Government of
Canada. Through it public will finds expression and exercises its power.
The fundamental importance of the House of Commons is its representative
character. It can speak for the people. In its condensed form it represents
Canada’s varied interests, races, religions, classes and occupations, thus
serving as the people’s forum.
One of its greatest merits is that it is not a selection of the ablest or most
brilliant men in the country, but rather an assembly of diverse types and
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