Queen Elizabeth II, in her address to Canada on Dominion Day in 1959, pointed out that the confederation of Canada on 1 July 1867 had been the birth of the "first independent country within the British Empire".
伊丽莎白女王二世在1959年在自治领日向加拿大发言时指出，加拿大于1867年7月1日組成联邦意味着“大英帝国第一個独立国家”的诞生。