Ontario Flashcards
6 cards from real CANADIAN practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 6 Ontario flashcards as text
Under the Constitution Act, 1867, how many seats is Ontario guaranteed in the Canadian Senate, regardless of population changes?
Answer: 24
The Constitution Act, 1867 divides the Senate into four regional divisions, each allocated 24 seats. Ontario forms one of those divisions with a guaranteed 24 Senate seats. This fixed allocation ensures regional balance in the upper chamber and cannot be reduced without a constitutional amendment.
Before Confederation in 1867, the territory that became Ontario was known by what name under the Act of Union, 1841?
Answer: Canada West
The Act of Union (1841) merged Upper Canada and Lower Canada into the Province of Canada, renaming Upper Canada as 'Canada West' and Lower Canada as 'Canada East.' Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada West was renamed Ontario and Canada East became Quebec.
Who served as Ontario's first Premier following Confederation in 1867?
Answer: John Sandfield Macdonald
John Sandfield Macdonald — a distinct person from Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald — served as Ontario's inaugural Premier from 1867 to 1871. He had previously been Premier of the Province of Canada and led a Liberal-Conservative coalition government in the new province.
Ontario's French Language Services Act (1986) requires the provincial government to provide French-language services in designated areas. What threshold triggers designation of an area?
Answer: At least 5,000 francophone residents or 10% of the local population
Under Ontario's French Language Services Act, a community is designated — and therefore entitled to French-language provincial services — when its francophone population reaches at least 5,000 people OR comprises at least 10% of the total local population, whichever is met first.
Ontario's Human Rights Code, enacted in 1962, holds a notable distinction in Canadian legal history. What is it?
Answer: It was the first provincial human rights code in Canada
Ontario's Human Rights Code (1962) was the first provincial human rights statute in Canada, consolidating scattered anti-discrimination protections into a single comprehensive law. It served as the legislative model for human rights codes subsequently adopted by other provinces and informed the later Canadian Human Rights Act (1977).
In 2018, the Ontario government invoked Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms — the 'notwithstanding clause' — to override a court ruling. What legislation prompted this rare invocation?
Answer: A law reducing Toronto City Council from 47 to 25 seats mid-election
Premier Doug Ford's government passed the Better Local Government Act (Bill 5), cutting Toronto City Council nearly in half from 47 to 25 seats during an active municipal election. When a court struck it down as a violation of freedom of expression under the Charter, the provincial government invoked Section 33 to override the ruling — one of the very few uses of the notwithstanding clause by any Canadian government.