Over time, however, judicial interpretation and the growth of provincial rights moved the country toward a more federal system.
French Canadians thereafter fell back on the provincial rights of Quebec to maintain the rights of French Canadians a reaction with serious consequences for the Canadian federation.
With Alberta and Quebec (and now Newfoundland?) jealous of provincial rights, such a law could trigger a constitutional squabble something for which Canada's prime minister, Jean Chrétien, may have no stomach.
He lobbied for constitutional amendments designed to guarantee provincial rights.
Aside from his role as a national spokesman for provincial rights, Macdonald presided over an administration that invested heavily in education.
The federal Conservatives proposed remedial legislation to override Manitoba, but they were blocked by the Liberals, led by Wilfrid Laurier, who opposed the remedial legislation because of his belief in provincial rights.
In 1910, however, Liberal MLA Alwyn Bramley-Moore (who was a staunch provincial rights advocate and who many years later would be called "Alberta's first separatist" by the Edmonton Journal) moved a resolution calling on the Sifton government to "take such steps as may be deemed necessary to acquire the control of all such natural resources as are of purely local concern".
Mr Lougheed condemned this as an infringement on the provincial constitutional right to control and benefit from its natural resources, and cut oil production by 15%.
In an exhibition hangar near Lyon airport as thousands of supporters waved French flags, a well-heeled country gentleman seen as the figurehead of the traditional Catholic provincial French right, took to the stage with a contented smile.
But this doesn't mean it will be unduly easy for Fillon, a former prime minister who has spent 35 years in politics and is a figurehead of the old-school Catholic, provincial French right.
