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The 1956 Suez Crisis was a military and political confrontation in Egypt that threatened to divide the United States and Great Britain, potentially harming the Western military alliance that had won the Second World War. Lester B. Pearson, who later became prime minister of Canada, won a Nobel Peace Prize for using the world’s first, large-scale United Nations peacekeeping force to de-escalate the situation.

Under Canada’s constitutional monarchy, the sovereign is head of state, the legal foundation of the executive branch of government and one part of Parliament — along with the Senate and House of Commons. The current sovereign of Canada is King Charles III. The sovereign is represented in Canada by the governor general, lieutenant-governors and territorial commissioners and acts on the advice of the prime minister, the head of government.

The derivation of the three Christian holidays needs no explanation. New Year's Day, January 1, marks the beginning of the new year.

In September 1869, berry pickers in Saint John, New Brunswick, discovered the remains of an adult and a child hidden in some bushes. The bodies were soon identified as belonging to Sarah Margaret “Maggie” Vail and her infant daughter, Ella May. Later that month, architect John A. Munroe was charged with the murder of Vail, with whom he had an affair. Although his lawyer argued that Munroe was incapable of murder given his education and social standing — an early example of the “character” defence — he was convicted in December 1869. Munroe eventually confessed to the murders and was executed in February 1870.

Lawyers practiced their profession in Québec well before the constitution of the Bar of Lower-Canada by a law passed on May 30, 1849 (the Upper-Canada Bar had obtained its charter in 1797).

Civil Code is a fundamental legislative enactment which contains a compendious statement of a country's private law. It is typically found in legal systems whose traditions are traceable to Roman law. In Canada, only Quebec has a Civil Code.

In a monarchy, the Crown is an abstract concept or symbol that represents the state and its government. In a constitutional monarchy such as Canada, the Crown is the source of non-partisan sovereign authority. It is part of the legislative, executive and judicial powers that govern the country. Under Canada’s system of responsible government, the Crown performs each of these functions on the binding advice, or through the actions of, members of Parliament, ministers or judges. As the embodiment of the Crown, the monarch — currently Queen Elizabeth II — serves as head of state. The Queen and her vice-regal representatives — the governor general at the federal level and lieutenant-governors provincially — possess what are known as prerogative powers; they can be made without the approval of another branch of government, though they are rarely used. The Queen and her representatives also fulfill ceremonial functions as Head of State.

​Representative government is a political system in which an elected assembly governs. Members of the assembly act as the people's representatives in government.

Before 1870, the defence of Canada was a costly burden for France and then for Great Britain, invariably against enemies to the south, be they Iroquois, English or the American invaders of 1775-76 (see AMERICAN REVOLUTION) or of 1812-14.

The League of Nations was an organization of 63 countries established in 1919, after the First World War. Canada was a founding member. The League ultimately failed in its aim of collective security. It was replaced by the United Nations at the end of the Second World War. However, the League of Nations did establish a new model for international organizations. League membership brought Canada its first official contact with foreign governments and helped to establish its position as a sovereign state. It also introduced Canada to the opportunities and challenges of international co-operation and peacekeeping.

New Brunswick, the province with the highest level of linguistic duality in Canada, adopted the Official Languages of New Brunswick Act (OLNBA) in 1969, a few months before the federal government enacted its own Official Languages Act. New Brunswick’s recognition of two linguistic communities (1981), mechanisms for enforcement of the law and redress for infractions (2002), and regulations on bilingual commercial signage (2009) have been the boldest measures in support of bilingualism of any province in the country. Francophones in New Brunswick represented 32.4 per cent of the population in 2016.

The Ministry of Overseas Military Forces was established in November 1916 to administer Canadian forces in the UK, especially in the training of reinforcements, and to act as the communications channel between the Militia Department, the British War Office, and the Canadian Corps in France.

The movement of individuals of one country into another for the purpose of resettlement is central to Canadian history. The story of Canadian immigration is not one of orderly population growth; instead, it has been — and remains one — about economic development as well as Canadian attitudes and values. It has often been unashamedly economically self-serving and ethnically or racially discriminatory despite contributing to creating a multicultural society (see Immigration Policy in Canada; Refugees to Canada). Immigration has also contributed to dispossessing Indigenous peoples of their ancestral lands.

A statue of Edward Cornwallis, the colonial founder of Halifax, was erected in the city’s downtown in 1931 as a celebration of British settlement. It later became an object of controversy in the midst of a growing public debate about Cornwallis’s treatment of the Mi’kmaq people.

McKee’s Purchase of 1790 (also known as the McKee Treaty and Treaty 2) was an early land agreement between Indigenous peoples and British authorities in Upper Canada (later Ontario). It is the southernmost Upper Canada treaty and consisted of a large strip of territory from the southwestern shore of Lake Erie north to the Thames River and east to a point southwest of modern-day London, Ontario. This land was made available for settlement by Loyalists who were displaced by the American Revolution.

The Niagara Purchase of 1781, also known as Treaty 381, was one of the first land agreements between Indigenous peoples and British authorities in Upper Canada (later Ontario). It resulted in a six-and-a-half kilometre-wide strip along the west bank of the Niagara River, which connects Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, being made available for settlement by Loyalists who were displaced by the American Revolution. The Niagara Purchase was one of many agreements made in the 1700s and 1800s, which are collectively known as the Upper Canada Land Surrenders.

Monarchism is support for Canada’s system of government as a constitutional monarchy. Monarchism is distinct from royalism in that it is support for monarchy as a political institution, rather than for an individual monarch. Monarchism played a key role in the development of Canada and continues to be part of political and popular discourse.

The Constitution of Canada is the country’s governing legal framework. It defines the powers of the executive branches of government and of the legislatures at both the federal and provincial levels. Canada’s Constitution is not one legal document. It is a complex mix of statutes, orders, British and Canadian court decisions, and generally accepted practices known as constitutional conventions. The Constitution has been in constant evolution from colonial times to the present day. The story of the Constitution is the story of Canada itself. It reflects the shifting legal, social and political pressures facing Canadians, as well as their choices as a society.