I was scratching my head a bit to figure out which day mattered the most. 1867 was when Canada was granted "home rule", ie the ability to operate our own federal government. Only a few things (eg. constitutional changes) still required approval from the British parliament. We were still a monarchy in every respect, with the Queen or her representative (usually the representative, natch
) forming and dissolving each parliament.
In 1982 our constitution was modified so that we we became fully independent from the British parliament but still remained a monarchy, sharing our Queen with Britain and the other Commonwealth countries. We still require royal assent to change our constitution and each successive government serves at the pleasure of our Queen (King).
In theory, I believe we could adopt our own "uniquely Canadian" Queen/King. Jean Chretien was obviously pushing for the job, and we all live in fear of having Celine Dion rise to royalty. I'm still hoping for Shania Twain but she spends even less time in Canada these days than the Queen of England (and Canada, and...).
EDIT -- I missed one important step. Between 1867 and 1932 we had our own government but the British government could also impose laws on Canada, and our laws could be struck down if they were deemed to be inconsistent with British laws. In 1932 we were granted legislative independence, ie Britain could no longer impose laws on Canada, and our laws were no longer required to be consistent with British law.
