A strange assortment of lobbyists is converging on the British Parliament at Westminster. They include partisans of French language and culture in Quebec, support ers of local control over oil and gas resources in Alberta, and advocates of native rights in the Yukon. Since it has been assumed for many years that Canada is an independent country, one is justified in asking why any of this is the business of M.P.s from Birmingham, Glasgow, and Londonderry.

The business is the Canadian constitution, and, legally speaking, there is no more appropriate forum for it. The Canadian constitution–more precisely the British North America Act of 1867 as amended–is a statute of the United Kingdom, and its amendment is within the authority of the body that enacted it.