Origins of ‘Peace, Order and Good Government’ in the Canadian Constitution

The Library of Parliament blog HillNotes has published a post about The Origins of ‘Peace, Order and Good Government’, an expression from the Constitution Act, 1867 that should be well-known to Canadian law librarians.

But where does it come from?:

"The phrase 'peace, order and good government' is found in the opening to section 91 of the British North America Act, now the Constitution Act, 1867. "

"Sections 91 and 92 set out the distribution of federal and provincial powers. The reference to peace, order and good government establishes that the federal Parliament can make

Laws for the Peace, Order, and good Government of Canada, in relation to all Matters not coming within the Classes of Subjects by this Act assigned exclusively to the Legislatures of the Provinces. "

"This provision, commonly referred to as the POGG power, allocates residuary jurisdiction for the areas of law not otherwise set out in sections 91 and 92 to the federal Parliament. (In contrast, the constitutions of Australia and the United States, for example, allocate residuary powers to the state legislatures)."

"Over the past 150 years, the POGG power has been interpreted and used as a basis for federal legislation where there is a gap in the distribution of federal and provincial powers, for matters of national concern, and for emergency matters."

"Yet the genesis of the POGG power is hardly orderly."