Haldimand (Province of Canada electoral district)

Haldimand was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada West. It was based on Haldimand County. The electoral district was created in 1841, upon the establishment of the Province of Canada by the union of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. Haldimand was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly. It was abolished in 1867, upon the creation of Canada and the province of Ontario.

This article is about the pre-Confederation electoral district. For the successor federal electoral district, see Haldimand (electoral district). For the successor provincial electoral district, see Haldimand (provincial electoral district).
Haldimand
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

Boundaries

Haldimand electoral district was located on the north shore of Lake Erie, and was based on Haldimand County, on the Niagara Peninsula.

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]

The Upper Canada electoral district of Haldimand was not altered by the Act. It was therefore continued with the same boundaries in the new Parliament. Those boundaries had been set by a statute of Upper Canada in 1798:

That the tract of land on each side of the Grand river, now in the occupation of the Six Nation Indians, and lying to the southward and southeast of Dundas Street, do constitute and form the County of Haldimand.[3]

In 1826, the townships of Walpole and Rainham were annexed to Haldimand from the County of Norfolk, to be closer to the new district town and courthouse.[4]

Members of the Legislative Assembly

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

Parliament Years Member[5] Party[6]
1st Parliament
1841–1844		 1841–1844 David Thompson Reformer

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.[7] It was succeeded by electoral districts of the same name in the House of Commons of Canada[8] and the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.[9]

References
  1. Union Act, 1840, 3 & 4 Vict. (UK), c. 35, s. 2.
  2. Union Act, 1840, s. 16.
  3. An act for the better division of this province, SUC 1798 (38 Geo. III), c. 5, s. 31. Reprinted in The Statutes of Upper Canada to the Time of Union, Revised and Published by Authority, Vol. I - Public Acts (Toronto: Robert Stanton, Queen's Printer, 1843).
  4. An Act to establish the District Town of the District of London in a more central position than at present, and to Annex the Townships of Walpole and Rainham to the County of Haldimand, in the District of Niagara, SUC 1826 (7 Geo. IV), c. 13, s. 3.
  5. J.O. Côté, Political Appointments and Elections in the Province of Canada, 1841 to 1860, (Quebec: St. Michel and Darveau, 1860), pp. 43-58.
  6. 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.
  7. British North America Act, 1867 (now the Constitution Act, 1867), s. 6.
  8. Constitution Act, 1867, s. 40, para. 2
  9. Constitution Act, 1867, s. 70.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: An act for the better division of this province, SUC 1798 (38 Geo. III), c. 5.

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