Canada: THE DOMINION: The Meaning of Words

When Canadian confederation was agreed upon in 1866, the conferees in London had trouble common to parents everywhere: what to name the baby. Canadians would not take “colony,” and Britons vetoed “kingdom.” New Brunswick’s Sir Leonard Tilley found inspiration in Psalms 72:8—”He shall have dominion also from sea to sea.” From that, according to legend and Lady Tilley, the Dominion of Canada got its name.

Three generations of Canadians were proud of the word “Dominion.” In 1926 Prime Minister King accepted it in the Imperial Conference’s definition of Canada’s nationhood.* Of late there have been rumbles. (A bill to change “Dominion Day” to “Canada Day” passed the House two years ago, died in the Senate.) Last week tall, talkative Bona Arsenault, Liberal from Bonaventure, introduced a bill to strike out “Dominion” from all acts and regulations.

CCFers and many a Liberal cheered. From the Tories came a chorus of “No! No!” Arsenault’s private bill had little chance of passage. Snapped the Ottawa Journal: “… A very silly notion. Words or the lack of them do not make our independence.” But many loyal, pro-Empire Canadians agreed with Arsenault’s purpose, if not his motive: they were tired of explaining to Americans that “Dominion” does not imply “domination.”

* Embodied in the Statute of Westminster (1931): “Great Britain and the Dominions . . . are autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another …”