It's kind of ironic when you considered how the Canadian government started.
"A fourth basic difference between the American and Canadian systems is in the type of federalism they embody. The American system was originally highly decentralized. The federal Congress was given a short list of specific powers; everything not mentioned in that list belonged to the states “or to the people” (that is, was not within the power of either Congress or any state legislature). “States’ rights” were fundamental. The Fathers of Confederation, gazing with horror at the American Civil War, decided that “states’ rights” were precisely what had caused it, and acted accordingly."
Here,”
said Sir John A. Macdonald,
“we have adopted a different system. We have expressly declared that all subjects of general interest not distinctly and exclusively conferred upon the local governments and legislatures shall be conferred upon the general government and legislature. We have thus avoided that great source of weakness that has been the disruption of the United States. We hereby strengthen the central Parliament, and make the Confederation one people and one government, instead of five peoples and five governments, with merely a point of authority connecting us to a limited and insufficient extent.”
https://lop.parl.ca/about/parliament/senatoreugeneforsey/book/chapter_4-e.html
