CHAP. 1] THE DOMINION OF CANADA 771
§ 12. THE ALTERATION OF THE CONSTITUTION
Very different principles apply to the alteration of a
constitution which is the result of a federal compact from
those which apply to the alteration of an ordinary constitu-
tion. As was recognized in an ample manner in 1907, on the
Occasion of the amendment of the British North America Act
in accordance with the wishes of the Federal and Provincial
Governments in the matter of the financial subsidies to the
provinces, the Act is a formal instrument of constitution
which can be amended by the Imperial Parliament, and will
80 be amended, but only in accordance with the wishes of
the people of the Dominion as a whole, not at either federal
or provincial bidding! Of course, this is not to say that
the Constitution is rigid in an extreme sense : the Imperial
Parliament can by a simple Act alter every and any part of
it, and there is no chance of such disadvantages resulting as
have resulted in the United States, where the Federal Govern-
ment has admittedly too little power to enforce matters of
external affairs affecting the subjects committed by the
Constitution to the provinces, as was seen in the affair of the
riots at Vancouver on the Pacific coast in 1907,2 against
Asiatics, when the Imperial Government found that the
Dominion Government had adequate means to procure full
satisfaction to the parties aggrieved; while for a long time
the situation in California remained extremely grave. On
the other hand, it should be noted that the Constitution itself
gives adequate powers for ordinary alteration of those points
which can be considered of real importance : for example,
the Dominion Parliament was given by the Acts of 1871 and
1886 power to provide adequately for the government of the
New provinces to be created, and of territories not in the
Provincial system, and for the representation of both pro-
vinces and territories in the Parliament of Canada, although
in the original Act no adequate provision was made in these
regards. Further, the Canadian Parliament can decide all
* British Columbia Sess. Pap.,'1908, C. 1,
! Canadian Annual Review, 1907, Pp. 384-9,
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