National Historic Sites of Canada
National Historic Sites of Canada are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, as being of national historic significance. Parks Canada, a federal agency, manages the National Historic Sites program; as of October 2018, there are 987 National Historic Sites, 171 of which are administered by Parks Canada. The sites are located across all ten provinces and three territories, with two sites located in France. There are related federal designations for National Historic Persons. Sites and Persons are each marked by a federal plaque of the same style, but the markers do not indicate which designation a subject has been given; the Rideau Canal is a National Historic Site. Emerging Canadian nationalist sentiment in the late 19th century and early 20th century led to an increased interest in preserving Canada's historic sites. There were galvanizing precedents in other countries. With the support of notables such as Victor Hugo and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, the Commission des monuments historique was created in France in 1837.
In the United Kingdom, the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty was created in 1894 to protect that country's historic and natural heritage. While there was no National Park Service in the United States until 1916, battlefields of the Civil War were designated and managed by the War Department: Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Shiloh, Gettysburg and Chalmette. Domestically, Lord Dufferin, the Governor General from 1872 to 1878, initiated some of the earliest, high-profile efforts to preserve Canada's historic sites, he was instrumental in stopping the demolition of the fortifications of Quebec City, he was the first public official to call for the creation of a park on the lands next to Niagara Falls. The 1908 tricentennial of the founding of Quebec City, the establishment that same year of the National Battlefields Commission to preserve the Plains of Abraham, acted as a catalyst for federal efforts to designate and preserve historic sites across Canada. At the same time, the federal government was looking for ways to extend the National Park system to Eastern Canada.
The more populated east did not have the same large expanses of undeveloped Crown land that had become parks in the west, so the Dominion Parks Branch looked to historic features to act as focal points for new national parks. In 1914, the Parks Branch undertook a survey of historic sites in Canada, with the objective of creating new recreational areas rather than preserving historic places. Fort Howe in Saint John, New Brunswick was designated a national historic park in 1914, named the "Fort Howe National Park"; the fort was not a site of significant national historic importance, but its designation provided a rationale for the acquisition of land for a park. Fort Anne in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia was designated in 1917. In 1919, William James Roche, the Minister of the Interior, was concerned over the fate of old fur trade posts in Western Canada, he was being lobbied by historical associations across Canada for federal funds to assist with the preservation and commemoration of local landmarks.
At the same time, the Department of Militia and Defence was anxious to transfer old forts, the associated expenses, to the Parks Branch. Roche asked James B. Harkin, the first Commissioner of Dominion Parks, to develop a departmental heritage policy. Harkin believed that the Parks Branch did not have the necessary expertise to manage historic resources. On Harkin's recommendation, the government created the Advisory Board for Historic Site Preservation in 1919 in order to advise the Minister on a new program of National Historic Sites. Brigadier General Ernest Alexander Cruikshank, a noted authority on the War of 1812 and the history of Ontario, was chosen as the Board's first chairman, a post he held for twenty years; the first place designated and plaqued under the new program was the "Cliff Site" in Port Dover, where two priests claimed sovereignty over the Lake Erie region for Louis XIV of France in 1670. Due to a lack of resources, the HSMBC limited itself to recommending sites for designation, the focus of the program was on commemoration rather than on preservation.
Benjamin Sulte, a member of the HSMBC, wrote to Harkin in 1919 about the significant ruins at the Forges du Saint-Maurice, demonstrating his preference for the installation of a plaque over restoration: "All that can be done in our days is to clear away the heap of stones, in order to reach the foundation walls and plant a sign in the centre of the square thus uncovered."In the early years of the program, National Historic Sites were chosen to commemorate battles, important men, the fur trade and political events. Of the 285 National Historic Sites designated by 1943, 105 represented military history, 52 represented the fur trade and exploration, 43 represented famous individuals (almo
Geological Survey of Canada
The Geological Survey of Canada is a Canadian federal government agency responsible for performing geological surveys of the country, developing Canada's natural resources and protecting the environment. A branch of the Earth Sciences Sector of Natural Resources Canada, the GSC is the country's oldest scientific agency and was one of its first government organizations. In September 1841, the Province of Canada legislature passed a resolution that authorized the sum of £1,500 sterling be granted to the government for the estimated expense of performing a geological survey of the province. In 1842, the Geological Survey of Canada was formed to fulfill this request. William Edmond Logan was in Montreal at the time and made it known that he was interested in participating in this survey. Gaining recommendations from prominent British scientists, Logan was appointed the first GSC director on April 14, 1842. Four months Logan arrived in Kingston, Ontario, to compile the existing body of knowledge of Canada's geology.
In the spring of 1843, Logan established the GSC's headquarters in Montreal (in his brother's warehouse and in a rented house on Great St. James Street. One of the prominent cartographers and the chief topographical draughtsman was Robert Barlow, who began his work in 1855. Chemist T. Sterry Hunt joined in the early days and the Survey added paleontological capability in 1856 with the arrival of Elkanah Billings. After Aylesworth Perry was appointed as acting librarian in 1881 he prepared the catalogue of reference works on geology, metallurgy and natural history. George Mercer Dawson became a staff member in 1875, progressed to assistant director in 1883 and to director of the Geological Survey of Canada in 1895; the Geological Survey of Canada first began allowing women to conduct fieldwork in the early 1950's. Dr. Alice Wilson, the first of these women, lobbied for the inclusion of paleontologist Frances Wagner shortly afterward. Around this same time, the GSC employed a third woman Dr. Helen Belyea.
The Canadian National Seismograph Network is monitored by the Geological Survey of Canada. The Geological Survey Canada operates a network of 14 magnetic observatories throughout Canada, located as follows: Nunavut: Alert, Baker Lake, Cambridge Bay, Iqaluit, Resolute Bay, Sanikiluaq Northwest Territories: Yellowknife British Columbia: Victoria Alberta: Meanook Manitoba: Brandon, Churchill Ontario: Ottawa Newfoundland and Labrador: St. John's Geology of Canada Former Geological Survey of Canada Building Notes Bibliography Life of a Rock Star 1935 Dr. Alfred Jolliffe, Geological Survey of Canada NWT Historical Timeline, Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre Sir William E. Logan and the Geological Survey of Canada, including Logan's journals and photographs
Arachnid
Arachnids are a class of joint-legged invertebrate animals, in the subphylum Chelicerata. All adult arachnids have eight legs, although the front pair of legs in some species has converted to a sensory function, while in other species, different appendages can grow large enough to take on the appearance of extra pairs of legs; the term is derived from the Greek word ἀράχνη, from the myth of the hubristic human weaver Arachne, turned into a spider. Spiders are the largest order in the class, which includes scorpions, mites and solifuges. In 2019, a molecular phylogenetic study placed horseshoe crabs in Arachnida. All extant arachnids are terrestrial, living on land. However, some inhabit freshwater environments and, with the exception of the pelagic zone, marine environments as well, they comprise over 100,000 named species. All adult arachnids have eight legs, arachnids may be distinguished from insects by this fact, since insects have six legs. However, arachnids have two further pairs of appendages that have become adapted for feeding and sensory perception.
The first pair, the chelicerae, serve in defense. The next pair of appendages, the pedipalps, have been adapted for feeding, and/or reproductive functions. In Solifugae, the palps are quite leg-like; the larvae of mites and Ricinulei have only six legs. However, mites are variable: as well as eight, there are adult mites with six or four legs. Arachnids are further distinguished from insects by the fact, their body is organized into two tagmata, called the prosoma, or cephalothorax, the opisthosoma, or abdomen. The cephalothorax is derived from the fusion of the cephalon and the thorax, is covered by a single, unsegmented carapace; the abdomen is segmented in the more primitive forms, but varying degrees of fusion between the segments occur in many groups. It is divided into a preabdomen and postabdomen, although this is only visible in scorpions, in some orders, such as the Acari, the abdominal sections are fused. A telson is present in scorpions, where it has been modified to a stinger, in the Schizomida, whip scorpions and Palpigradi.
Like all arthropods, arachnids have an exoskeleton, they have an internal structure of cartilage-like tissue, called the endosternite, to which certain muscle groups are attached. The endosternite is calcified in some Opiliones. Most arachnids lack extensor muscles in the distal joints of their appendages. Spiders and whipscorpions extend their limbs hydraulically using the pressure of their hemolymph. Solifuges and some harvestmen extend their knees by the use of elastic thickenings in the joint cuticle. Scorpions and some harvestmen have evolved muscles that extend two leg joints at once; the equivalent joints of the pedipalps of scorpions though, are extended by elastic recoil. There are characteristics that are important for the terrestrial lifestyle of arachnids, such as internal respiratory surfaces in the form of tracheae, or modification of the book gill into a book lung, an internal series of vascular lamellae used for gas exchange with the air. While the tracheae are individual systems of tubes, similar to those in insects, ricinuleids and some spiders possess sieve tracheae, in which several tubes arise in a bundle from a small chamber connected to the spiracle.
This type of tracheal system has certainly evolved from the book lungs, indicates that the tracheae of arachnids are not homologous with those of insects. Further adaptations to terrestrial life are appendages modified for more efficient locomotion on land, internal fertilisation, special sensory organs, water conservation enhanced by efficient excretory structures as well as a waxy layer covering the cuticle; the excretory glands of arachnids include up to four pairs of coxal glands along the side of the prosoma, one or two pairs of Malpighian tubules, emptying into the gut. Many arachnids have the other type of excretory gland, although several do have both; the primary nitrogenous waste product in arachnids is guanine. Arachnid blood is variable in composition, depending on the mode of respiration. Arachnids with an efficient tracheal system do not need to transport oxygen in the blood, may have a reduced circulatory system. In scorpions and some spiders, the blood contains haemocyanin, a copper-based pigment with a similar function to haemoglobin in vertebrates.
The heart is located in the forward part of the abdomen, may or may not be segmented. Some mites have no heart at all. Arachnids are carnivorous, feeding on the pre-digested bodies of insects and other small animals. Only in the harvestmen and among mites, such as the house dust mite, is there ingestion of solid food particles, thus exposure to internal parasites, although it is not unusual for spiders to eat their own silk. Several groups secrete venom from specialized glands to kill prey or enemies. Several mites and ticks are parasites. Arachnids produce digestive juices in their stomachs, use their pedipalps and chelicerae to pour them over their dead prey; the digestive juices turn the prey into a broth of nutrients, which the arachnid sucks into a pre-buccal cavity located in front of the mouth. Behind the mouth is a muscular, sclerotised pharynx, which acts as a pump, sucking the food through the mouth and on into the oesophagus and stomach. In some arachnids, the oesophagus a
Slug
Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word slug is often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a reduced shell, or only a small internal shell sea slugs and semislugs. Various taxonomic families of land slugs form part of several quite different evolutionary lineages, which include snails. Thus, the various families of slugs are not related, despite a superficial similarity in the overall body form; the shell-less condition has arisen many times independently during the evolutionary past, thus the category "slug" is a polyphyletic one. Of the six orders of Pulmonata, two – the Onchidiacea and Soleolifera – comprise slugs. A third family, the Sigmurethra, contains various clades of semi-slugs and slugs; the taxonomy of this group is in the process of being revised in light of DNA sequencing. It appears that pulmonates are paraphyletic and basal to the opisthobranchs, which are a terminal branch of the tree.
The family Ellobiidae are polyphyletic. Subinfraorder Orthurethra Superfamily Achatinelloidea Gulick, 1873 Superfamily Cochlicopoidea Pilsbry, 1900 Superfamily Partuloidea Pilsbry, 1900 Superfamily Pupilloidea Turton, 1831 Subinfraorder Sigmurethra Superfamily Acavoidea Pilsbry, 1895 Superfamily Achatinoidea Swainson, 1840 Superfamily Aillyoidea Baker, 1960 Superfamily Arionoidea J. E. Gray in Turnton, 1840 Superfamily Athoracophoroidea Family Athoracophoridae Superfamily Orthalicoidea Subfamily Bulimulinae Superfamily Camaenoidea Pilsbry, 1895 Superfamily Clausilioidea Mörch, 1864 Superfamily Dyakioidea Gude & Woodward, 1921 Superfamily Gastrodontoidea Tryon, 1866 Superfamily Helicoidea Rafinesque, 1815 Superfamily Helixarionoidea Bourguignat, 1877 Superfamily Limacoidea Rafinesque, 1815 Superfamily Oleacinoidea H. & A. Adams, 1855 Superfamily Orthalicoidea Albers-Martens, 1860 Superfamily Plectopylidoidea Moellendorf, 1900 Superfamily Polygyroidea Pilsbry, 1894 Superfamily Punctoidea Morse, 1864 Superfamily Rhytidoidea Pilsbry, 1893 Family Rhytididae Superfamily Sagdidoidera Pilsbry, 1895 Superfamily Staffordioidea Thiele, 1931 Superfamily Streptaxoidea J.
E. Gray, 1806 Superfamily Strophocheiloidea Thiele, 1926 Superfamily Parmacelloidea Superfamily Zonitoidea Mörch, 1864 Superfamily Quijotoidea Jesús Ortea and Juan José Bacallado, 2016 Family Quijotidae The external anatomy of a slug includes the following: Tentacles Like other pulmonate land gastropods, the majority of land slugs have two pairs of'feelers' or tentacles on their head; the upper pair is light sensing and has eyespots at the ends, while the lower pair provides the sense of smell. Both pairs are retractable. Mantle On top of the slug, behind the head, is the saddle-shaped mantle, under this are the genital opening and anus. On one side of the mantle is a respiratory opening, easy to see when open, but difficult to see when closed; this opening is known as the pneumostome. Tail The part of a slug behind the mantle is called the'tail'. Keel Some species of slugs, for example Tandonia budapestensis, have a prominent ridge running over their back along the middle of the tail; this ridge is called a'keel'.
Foot The bottom side of a slug, flat, is called the'foot'. Like all gastropods, a slug moves by rhythmic waves of muscular contraction on the underside of its foot, it secretes a layer of mucus that it travels on, which helps prevent damage to the foot tissues. Around the edge of the foot in some slugs is a structure called the'foot fringe'. Vestigial shell Most slugs retain a remnant of their shell, internalized; this organ serves as storage for calcium salts in conjunction with the digestive glands. An internal shell is present in the Parmacellidae. Adult Philomycidae and Veronicellidae lack shells. Slugs' bodies are made up of water and, without a full-sized shell, their soft tissues are prone to desiccation, they must generate protective mucus to survive. Many species are most active just after rain because of the moist ground. In drier conditions, they hide in damp places such as under tree bark, fallen logs and man-made structures, such as planters, to help retain body moisture. Like all other gastropods, they undergo torsion during development.
Internally, slug anatomy shows the effects of this rotation—but externally, the bodies of slugs appear more or less symmetrical, except for the positioning of the pneumostome, on one side of the animal the right-hand side. Slugs produce two types of mucus: one is thin and watery, the other thick and sticky. Both kinds are hygroscopic; the thin mucus spreads from the foot's centre to its edges, whereas the thick mucus spreads from front to back. Slugs produce thick mucus that coats the whole body of the animal; the mucus secreted by the foot contains fibres that help prevent the slug from slipping down vertical surfaces. The "slime trail" a slug leaves behind has some secondary effects: other slugs coming across a slime trail can recognise the slime trail as produced by one of the same species, useful in finding a mate. Following a slime trail is part of the hunting behaviour of some carnivorous slugs. Body mucus provides some protection against predators, as it can make the slug hard to pick up and hold by a bird's beak, for example, the mucus itself can be
Gothic Revival architecture in Canada
Gothic Revival architecture in Canada is an influential style, with many prominent examples. The Gothic Revival was imported to Canada from Britain and the United States in the early 19th century, rose to become the most popular style for major projects throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries; the Gothic Revival period lasted longer and was more embraced in Canada than in either Britain or the United States, only falling out of style in the 1930s. The late 19th and early 20th centuries was the period when many major Canadian institutions were founded. Throughout Canada many of the most prominent religious and scholastic institutions are housed in Gothic Revival style buildings. In the 1960s and 1970s several scholars, most notably Alan Gowans, embraced Canadian Gothic Revival architecture as one of the nation's signature styles and as an integral part of Canadian nationalism. While abandoned in the modernist period, several postmodern architects have embraced Canada's neo-Gothic past.
Gothic Architecture is a name given in retrospect to many of the major projects of the High Middle Ages. As this period covered the 13th and 14th centuries, there are no authentic Gothic buildings in Canada; the style was quite out of favour in the 17th century, when Europeans first began erecting structures in Canada, the style is absent from the early settlements in New France and the Maritimes. In the 18th century, a growing spirit of Romanticism and interest in the Medieval past led to a revival of Gothic styles in Britain; the style made its way to Canada in the early 19th century. One of the first appearances is in an 1811 proposal by Jeffry Wyatt for a new legislature in Quebec City. One of the first major Gothic Revival structures in Canada was Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal, designed in 1824 by the Irish-American James O'Donnell; the largest church in North America upon its completion, it was one of the first architectural works of international note to be built in Canada. It was one of the first Catholic Gothic Revival structures, as the movement would not spread from Britain to France and continental Europe until several years later.
As the most prominent church in the colony its form was much imitated by local church builders, who constructed miniature versions of the basilica across Quebec. Protestants embraced the style; as early as the late 18th century, certain Gothic elements had appeared in a church in Nova Scotia, though the Georgian and Neo-classical styles remained dominant for several decades. The first stone neo-Gothic structure in the Maritimes is St. John's Church in Saint John, New Brunswick, it dates to 1824, the same year work began on Notre-Dame. In the 1830s and 1840s four prominent neo-Gothic Churches were built in Quebec City, representing each of that city's major Protestant denominations. By the 1840s the Gothic Revival style had become universal among Anglicans and used for most other Christian denominations as well; as in much of the English speaking world the lancet windows and buttresses of the Gothic Revival style soon became permanently associated in most people's mind with ecclesiastical buildings.
It was soon embraced for secular purposes as well, such as government buildings and universities. Canadian universities modeled themselves on the great British universities and Cambridge, this extended to embracing the Collegiate Gothic architecture used in their construction. Two of the first Gothic Revival colleges were Trinity College in Toronto and Bishop's University in Quebec. In the half of the 19th century, Gothic Revival architecture became the dominant style for major Canadian buildings; as the style became accepted and popular, architects became more willing to experiment and modify its conventions. While previous Gothic Revival architects had attempted to recapture the style of the Middle Ages, the new architects retained the Medieval motifs, but recombined them in new ways. One of the most important examples of this style anywhere in the world were the Parliament Buildings designed by Thomas Fuller. While the style and design of the building is unquestionably Gothic, it resembles no building constructed during the Middle Ages.
The forms were the same. The Parliament Buildings departed from Medieval models by integrating a variety of eras and styles of Gothic architecture, including elements of Gothic architecture from Britain, the Low Countries, Italy all in one building. In his Hand Book to the Parliamentary and Departmental Buildings, Joseph Bureau wrote, "The style of the Buildings is the Gothic of the 12th and 13th Centuries, with modification to suit the climate of Canada; the ornamental work and the dressing round. The plain surface is faced with a cream-colored sandstone of the Potsdam formation, obtained from Nepean, a few miles from Ottawa; the spandrils of the arches, the spaces between window-arches and the sills of the upper windows, are filled up with a quaint description of stonework, composed of stones of irregular size and colour neatly set together." This style was embraced for religious architecture. In most towns in Ontario, in many parts of the newly settled west and the Maritimes, elaborate High Gothic churches were built.
Unlike in the earlier era, the French Catholic church in Quebec did not embrace this style. During this period the church leadership favoured a neo-baroque style more linked to the architecture of New France; the Victorian High Gothic period saw a willingness to combine the neo-Gothic with other styles. Two important examples of a mix between Gothic and Romanesque styles are University College in Toronto and the British Columbia Parliament
Scottish baronial architecture
Scottish Baronial is an architectural style that developed during the 16th and 17th century and was revived in the 19th century. The style of the first period, the original Scottish Baronial style, was limited to small castles and tower houses in Scotland and Ulster, it introduced Renaissance elements to buildings that preserved many of the features of the Scottish medieval castles and tower houses. The style of the second period, the Scottish Baronial Revival, was considered a British national idiom and was used for public buildings, country houses and follies throughout the British Empire. European architecture of the 19th century was dominated by revivals of various historic styles; this current took off in the middle of the 18th century with the Gothic Revival in Britain. The Scottish Baronial Revival is associated with the Gothic Revival because it includes so many medieval features. However, it originated as a vernacular variety of Scottish Renaissance architecture; the Scottish Baronial Style is called Scotch Baronial, Scots Baronial or just Baronial Style.
The name was invented in the 19th century and may come from Robert William Billings's book "Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland", published in 1852. Before, the style does not seem to have had a name; the buildings produced by the Scottish Baronial Revival by far outnumber those of the original Scottish Baronial Style. The original and the revival styles are discussed separately below; the original Scottish Baronial Style was part of the Scottish Renaissance. It developed in the 16th century and was abandoned by about 1660; the style kept many of the features of the high-rising medieval Gothic castles and introduced Renaissance features. The high and thin-walled medieval fortifications had been made obsolete by gunpowder weapons but were associated with chivalry and landed nobility. High roofs and turrets were kept for status reasons. Renaissance elements were introduced; this concerned the windows that became bigger, had straight lintels or round bows and lacked mullions. The style drew on peel towers, retaining many of their external features.
French Renaissance kept the steep roofs of medieval castles as can be seen for example at Azay-le-Rideau, the original Scottish Baronial style might have been influenced by French masons brought to Scotland to work on royal palaces. The style was quite limited in scope: a style for lesser Scottish landlords; the walls are rubble work and only quoins, window dressings and copings are in ashlar. Sculpted ornaments are sparsely used. In most cases the windows lack pediments; the style uses corbelled turrets sometimes called tourelles, bartizans or pepperpot turrets. The corbels supporting the turret are roll-moulded, their roofs were conical. Gables are crow-stepped. Round towers supporting square garret chambers corbelled out over the cylinder of their main bodies are particular the Scottish Baronial style, they can be seen at Claypotts, Colliston, Auchans and Fiddes. Such castles or tower houses are built on asymmetric plans; this is a Z-plan as at Claypotts Castle, or on an L-plan as at Colliston.
Roof lines are irregular. The original Scottish Baronial Style coexisted in Scotland with northern Renaissance architecture, preferred by the wealthier clients. William Wallace's work at the North Range of Linlithgow Palace and at Heriot's Hospital are examples of a contemporaneous Scottish Renaissance architecture; the Baronial style as well as the Scottish Renaissance style gave way to the grander English forms associated with Inigo Jones in the part of the seventeenth century. The Gothic Revival in architecture has been seen as an expression of romanticism and according to Alvin Jackson, the Scots Baronial Style was "a Caledonian reading of the gothic"; some of the earliest evidence of a revival in Gothic architecture is from Scotland. Inveraray Castle, built starting from 1746 with design input from William Adam, incorporates turrets; these were conventional Palladian style houses that incorporated some external features of the Scots baronial style. William Adam's houses in this style include Mellerstain and Wedderburn in Berwickshire and Seton House in East Lothian, but it is most seen at Culzean Castle, remodelled by William Adam from 1777.
Large windows of plate glass are not uncommon. Bay windows have their individual roofs adorned by pinnacles and crenulations. Porches and porte-cocheres, are given the castle treatment. An imitation portcullis on the larger houses would be suspended above a front door, flanked by heraldic beasts and other medieval architectural motifs. Important for the adoption of the style in the early nineteenth century was Abbotsford House, the residence of the novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott. Rebuilt for him from 1816, it became a model for the Scottish Baronial Revival style. Common features borrowed from 16th- and 17th-century houses included battlemented gateways, crow-stepped gables, spiral stairs, pointed turrets and machicolations. Orchardton Castle near Auchencairn, Scotland is a superb example dating from the 1880s. Important for the dissemination of the style was Robert Billings' four-volume work Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland, it was applied to many modest dwellings by architects such as William Burn, David Bryce, Edward Blore, Edward Calvert and Robert Stodart Lorimer and in urban contexts, including the building of Cockburn Street in Edinburgh as well as the National Wallace Monument at Stirling (1
Parliament of Canada
The Parliament of Canada is the federal legislature of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, the national capital. The body consists of the Canadian monarch, represented by the Governor General; each element has its own officers and organization. By constitutional convention, the House of Commons is dominant, with the Senate and monarch opposing its will; the Senate reviews legislation from a less partisan standpoint and the monarch or viceroy provides royal assent to make bills into law. The Governor General summons and appoints the 105 senators on the advice of the Prime Minister, while the 338 members of the House of Commons—called members of parliament —each represent an electoral district referred to as a riding, are directly elected by Canadian voters; the Governor General summons Parliament, while either the viceroy or monarch can prorogue or dissolve Parliament, the latter in order to call a general election. Either will read the Throne Speech; the most recent Parliament, summoned by Governor General David Johnston in 2015, is the 42nd since Confederation.
The Parliament of Canada is composed of three parts: the monarch, the Senate, the House of Commons. Each work in conjunction within the legislative process; this format was inherited from the United Kingdom and is a near-identical copy of the parliament at Westminster, the greatest differences stemming from situations unique to Canada, such as the impermanent nature of the monarch's residency in the country and the lack of a peerage to form the upper chamber. Only those who sit in the House of Commons are called members of parliament. Though legislatively less powerful, senators take higher positions in the national order of precedence. No individual may serve in more than one chamber at the same time; the sovereign's place in the legislature, formally called the Queen-in-Parliament, is defined by the Constitution Act, 1867, various conventions. Neither she nor her viceroy, participates in the legislative process, save for signifying the Queen's approval to a bill passed by both houses of parliament, known as the granting of Royal Assent, necessary for a bill to be enacted as law.
All federal bills thus begin with the phrase "Now, Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows..." and, as such, the Crown is immune from acts of parliament unless expressed otherwise in the act itself. The governor general will perform the task of granting Royal Assent, though the monarch may do so, at the request of either the Cabinet or the viceroy, who may defer assent to the sovereign as per the constitution; as both the monarch and his or her representatives are traditionally barred from the House of Commons, any parliamentary ceremonies in which they are involved take place in the Senate chamber. The upper and lower houses do, each contain a mace, which indicates the authority of the Queen-in-Parliament and the privilege granted to that body by her, both bearing a crown at their apex; the original mace for the Senate was that used in the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada after 1849, while that of the House of Commons was inherited from the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, first used in 1845.
Following the burning of the Centre Block on 3 February 1916, the City of London, donated a replacement, still used today. The temporary mace, made of wood, used until the new one arrived from the United Kingdom in 1917, is still carried into the Senate each 3 February; the Senate's 1.6-metre-long mace comprises gold. The Senate may not sit. Members of the two houses of parliament must express their loyalty to the sovereign and defer to her authority, as the Oath of Allegiance must be sworn by all new parliamentarians before they may take their seats. Further, the official opposition is formally called Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, to signify that, though they may be opposed to the incumbent Cabinet's policies, they remain dedicated to the apolitical Crown; the upper house of the Parliament of Canada, the Senate, is a group of 105 individuals appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister. Senators served for life until 1965, when a constitutional amendment imposed a mandatory retirement age of 75.
Senators may, resign their seats prior to that mark, can lose their position should they fail to attend two consecutive sessions of parliament. The Senate is divided amongst four geographic regions: 24 for Ontario, 24 for Quebec, 24 for the Maritimes, 24 for the Western provinces. Newfoundland and Labrador, which became a Canadian province in 1949, is represented by six senators, is not part of a senatorial division. Further, Canada's three territories—the Northwest Territories and Nunavut—are allocated one senator each. An additio
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National Historic Sites of Canada by location
