Is it still correct to use “Dominion of Canada” as Canadas proper, long-form name?
A. No. The Canadian government no longer regards “Dominion of Canada” as the country’s proper name, and has deliberately not used the title in several decades. Presumably there is no higher authority than the Canadian government capable telling us what is and is not Canada’s proper name, but regardless, most other bodies respect this convention as well. For example, the CIA World Factbook lists “Canada” as the country’s “conventional short form” name, noting that there is no “conventional long form.” So too do most other encyclopedias in both the United States and Canada. Q. But I have heard people say it is still technically Canada’s legal name, if it is not widely used. A. It depends on your method of determining what a country’s “legal” name is. The country’s constitution would be the most obvious place to look, but the phrase “Dominion of Canada” does not appear anywhere in the original 1867 British North America Act (now known as the Constitution Act). The word “Dominion” only app
