Branch-Plant Imperialism

The British North America Act was derived from a political theory of branch-plant imperialism: lower levels of government, the colonial legislatures, were formerly weak and dependent on Britain; now they were to be weak and dependent on Ottawa, which in turn was ultimately answerable to Westminster. The federation of the colonies was a highly centralized one. In fact, the degree of independence exercised by the colonial (provincial) legislatures was reduced by the results of Confederation, which represented a regression from the degree of autonomy that Reform administrations had succeeded in achieving.

--R. T. Naylor, The Banks and Finance Capital, vol. 1 of The History of Canadian Business, 1867-1914 (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006), 5-6.