Bellechasse (Province of Canada electoral district)

Boundaries

In 1840 the British Parliament passed the Union Act, 1840, which merged the two provinces of Upper Canada and Lower Canada into the Province of Canada, with a single Parliament. The separate parliaments of Lower Canada and Upper Canada were abolished.

The Union Act provided that the pre-existing electoral boundaries of Lower Canada and Upper Canada would continue to be used in the new Parliament, unless altered by the Union Act itself. The Bellechasse electoral district of Lower Canada was not altered by the Act, and therefore continued with the same boundaries which had been set by a statute of Lower Canada in 1829:

The electoral district of Bellechasse thus included the County of Bellechasse (now part of the Bellechasse Regional County Municipality), and some adjacent areas. The elections were held at Saint Vallier and Saint Gervais.

Members of the Legislative Assembly (1841–1867)

Bellechasse was a single-member constituency.

The following were the members of the Legislative Assembly for Bellechasse. The party affiliations are based on the biographies of individual members given by the National Assembly of Quebec, as well as votes in the Legislative Assembly. "Party" was a fluid concept, especially during the early years of the Province of Canada.

Notes

Abolition

The district was abolished on July 1, 1867, when the British North America Act, 1867 came into force, splitting the Province of Canada into Quebec and Ontario. It was succeeded by electoral districts of the same name in the House of Commons of Canada and the Legislative Assembly of Quebec.

References

References

1. [https://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/PreConfederation/ua_1840.html ''Union Act, 1840''], 3 & 4 Vict., c. 35, s. 2.
2. [https://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/PreConfederation/ua_1840.html ''Union Act, 1840''], ss. 16, 18.
3. [http://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_00926_39/470?r=0&s=1 ''An Act to make a new and more convenient subdivision of the Province into Counties, for the purpose of effecting a more equal Representation thereof in the Assembly than heretofore''], SLC 1829, c. 73, s. 1, para. 6.
4. [http://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_00926_39/488?r=0&s=1 ''An Act to make a new and more convenient subdivision of the Province into Counties, for the purpose of effecting a more equal Representation thereof in the Assembly than heretofore''], s. 3.
5. [https://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/PreConfederation/ua_1840.html ''Union Act, 1840''], s. 18.
6. J.O. Côté, [https://archive.org/details/politicalappoint00cotj_0/page/43 ''Political Appointments and Elections in the Province of Canada, 1841 to 1860''] (Quebec: St. Michel and Darveau, 1860), pp. 43–58.
7. [http://www.assnat.qc.ca/en/membres/notices/index.html Québec Dictionary of Parliamentary Biography, from 1764 to the present].
8. Paul G. Cornell, [https://archive.org/details/alignmentofpolit0000corn ''Alignment of Political Groups in Canada, 1841–67''] (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962; reprinted in paperback 2015), pp. 93–111.
9. [https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/section-6.html#h-2 ''British North America Act, 1867''] (now the ''Constitution Act, 1867''), s. 6.
10. [https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/section-40.html#h-6 ''Constitution Act, 1867''], s. 40, para. 2.
11. [https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/section-80.html#h-12 ''Constitution Act, 1867''], s. 80.