This article originally appeared in the National Post.
By Peter MacKinnon, December 11, 2025
Dec. 11 is the anniversary of the Statute of Westminster. Other than the reappearance of the Union Jack on a few of the country’s flagpoles, the day will pass unheralded, largely unnoticed, by Canada’s leaders and 40 million citizens.
The statute is a cornerstone of our autonomy and democracy. Passed by Britain’s Parliament in 1931, it recognized our independence and admission into the family of nations. It did not happen out of the blue; it was hard won by Canadians in the 1917 Battle of Vimy Ridge, by other distinct contributions in the First World War, the peace process that followed, and by the leaders of our country and other English colonies who insisted upon emergence from colonies to nations to a Commonwealth of Nations.
The statute was a moment but its substance and symbolism extended well beyond the immediate, to the origins of Westminster more than 1500 years earlier. Originally a precinct of ancient London it passed from ecclesiastical origins to the seat of England’s government, in particular to the Crown and Parliament. The story of Westminster is a long and often bloody one before parliamentary supremacy, the rule of law and constitutional monarchy were established and became mature institutions and democratic ways.
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Peter MacKinnon is a former law professor who has served as the president of three Canadian universities and a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
