Carleton (Province of Canada electoral district)

Carleton was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada West. It was based on Carleton County, fronting on the Ottawa River.

This article is about the pre-Confederation electoral district. For the successor federal electoral district, see Carleton (Ontario electoral district). For the successor provincial electoral district, see Carleton (Ontario provincial electoral district).
Carleton
Canada West
Province of Canada electoral district
Defunct pre-Confederation electoral district
LegislatureLegislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
District created1841
District abolished1867
First contested1841
Last contested1863

Carleton electoral district was created in 1841, upon the establishment of the Province of Canada by the merger of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. It was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly. It was abolished in 1867, upon the creation of Canada and the province of Ontario.

Boundaries

Carleton electoral district was located in eastern Canada West (now the province of Ontario), on the Ottawa River, which formed the boundary with Canada East (now the province of Quebec). It was based on the boundaries of Carleton County. The electoral district surrounded Bytown, the county seat, but Bytown was not part of Carleton electoral district, being represented by its own electoral district.

The Union Act, 1840 had 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.[1] The Union Act provided that the pre-existing electoral boundaries of Upper Canada would continue to be used in the new Parliament, unless altered by the Union Act itself.[2]

Carleton had been an electoral district in the Upper Canada Parliament and was continued with the same boundaries. The boundaries for Carleton had been set by a statute of Upper Canada in 1838:

That the said Townships of Gloucester, Nepean, Osgoode, North Gower, March, Torbolton, Fitzroy, Huntly, Goulbourn and Marlborough, together with the Islands lying wholly or in greater part opposite thereto, do constitute and form the County of Carleton ...[3]

The only change from those boundaries was that the county seat, Bytown, was no longer included in Carleton. The Union Act provided that Bytown was its own electoral district in the new Parliament.[4] The boundaries of Bytown electoral district were defined by the Governor General, and any parts of the town which were not included in Bytown electoral district were included in Carleton.[5]

In the run-up to the first general election, in 1841, the Governor General, Lord Sydenham, took personal credit for the creation of Bytown as a separate electoral district from Carleton.[6]

Members of the Legislative Assembly

Carleton was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly.[2] The following were the members for Carleton.

Parliament Years Member[7] Party[8]
1st Parliament
1841–1844		 1841–1844 James Johnston Unionist; Compact Tory
2nd Parliament
1844–1847		 1844–1846 Reformer
1846–1847 George Lyon Conservative
3rd Parliament
1848–1851		 1848–1851 Edward Malloch Conservative
4th Parliament
1852–1854		 1852–1854
5th Parliament
1854–1857		 1854–1857 William Frederick Powell Conservative
6th Parliament
1858–1861		 1858–1861
7th Parliament
1861–1863		 1861–1863
8th Parliament
1863–1866		 1863–1866

Abolition

The district was abolished on July 1, 1867, when the British North America Act, 1867 came into force, creating Canada and splitting the Province of Canada into Quebec and Ontario.[9] It was succeeded by electoral districts of the same name in the House of Commons of Canada[10] and the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.[11]

References
  1. Union Act, 1840, 3 & 4 Vict., c. 35, s. 2.
  2. Union Act, 1840, s. 16.
  3. An Act to erect certain Townships now forming part of the Districts of Bathurst, Johnstown and Ottawa, into a separate District, to be called the District of Dalhousie, and for other purposes therein-mentioned, SUC 1838, c. 25, s. 2.
  4. Union Act, 1841, s. 17.
  5. Union Act, 1841, s. 21.
  6. Irving Martin Abella, "The 'Sydenham Election' of 1841", Canadian Historical Review (1966) 47:326-343, pp. 330-331. [Subscription needed.]
  7. J.O. Côté, Political Appointments and Elections in the Province of Canada, 1841 to 1860, (Quebec: St. Michel and Darveau, 1860), pp. 43-58.
  8. For party affiliations, see Paul G. Cornell, Alignment of Political Groups in Canada, 1841-67 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962; reprinted in paperback 2015), pp. 93-111.
  9. British North America Act, 1867 (now the Constitution Act, 1867), s. 6.
  10. Constitution Act, 1867, s. 40, para. 2
  11. Constitution Act, 1867, s. 70.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: An Act to erect certain Townships now forming part of the Districts of Bathurst, Johnstown and Ottawa, into a separate District, to be called the District of Dalhousie, and for other purposes therein-mentioned, SUC 1838, c. 25.

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