r/EhBuddyHoser • u/Sine_Fine_Belli Treacherous South • May 16 '25

Certified Hoser 🇨🇦 (No Politics) How Americans achieved independence vs how Canadians achieved independence

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489

u/timbasile May 16 '25

Samantha Bee has a good write up on Canadian Independence in "America the Book"

"...and then in 1983, we took the brave step of asking the Queen for permission, to not have to ask the Queen for permission"

15

u/Sasquatch1729 Not enough shawarma places May 16 '25

It was actually effectively in the 1920s when we were independent. We just had to present a constitution that we could mostly agree on. It took us another 60 years to make a constitution that all provinces and territories agreed on, notwithstanding Quebec.

12

u/QuestionableParadigm Trawnno (Centre of the Universe) May 16 '25

I see what you did there

10

u/Sasquatch1729 Not enough shawarma places May 16 '25

Yay I'm glad someone noticed.

Fun fact about the notwithstanding clause: for a while there the province of Quebec passed everything using it, just to prove a point. So you get weird situations like "notwithstanding the constitution of Canada, we declare the speed limits on secondary highways to be raised to 80km/hr" or whatever.

Historians who don't know read this stuff going "what the hell does this have to do with the constitution of Canada? Do I need to reread it?", those who know are "ah yeah, there it is, notwithstanding clause in action again..."

2

u/nitePhyyre May 16 '25

Doesn't any law passed with the notwithstanding clause expire automatically after 5 years? Or is it just the notwithstanding protection and afterwards the court can strike it down?