What makes Canada a confederation rather than a federation?
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Canada isn’t actually a confederation, it’s a federation. A confederation is by definition a union of sovereign states with a weak central government, but the provinces of Canada are not sovereign states.
The “Canadian Confederation” actually refers to the legal process by which the provinces of Canada (modern-day Ontario and Quebec), New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia were united under a single federal government back in 1867, and by which later provinces and territories were added to the Union.
Switzerland also calls itself a confederation even though it’s not, it just kept the name from when it used to be a proper confederation between 1291 and 1848.
There are a few examples of historical confederations which have since split apart, including Serbia and Montenegro, the United Arab Republic (Egypt and Syria), and Senegambia (Senegal and Gambia). The United States was a confederation under it’s first government, the Articles of Confederation. In 1999 Russia and Belarus signed a treaty to form a confederation called the “Union State” but pretty much nothing concrete has been implemented.
Intergovernmental unions like the European Union or the African Union have been called confederations, although that can be controversial.
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