Hamilton (Province of Canada electoral district)

Hamilton was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada West, based on the town of Hamilton. It was created in 1841, upon the establishment of the Province of Canada by the union of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. Hamilton 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 Hamilton (electoral district). For the successor provincial electoral district, see Hamilton (provincial electoral district).
Hamilton
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

Hamilton electoral district was based largely on the municipal boundaries of the town of Hamilton, located at the western end of Lake Ontario in the central area of Canada West (now the province of Ontario). Hamilton was the major centre of the 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 town of Hamilton would constitute one electoral district in the Legislative Assembly of the new Parliament,[2] but gave the Governor General of the Province of Canada the power to draw the boundaries for the electoral district.[3]

The first Governor General, Lord Sydenham, issued a proclamation shortly after the formation of the Province of Canada in early 1841, establishing the boundaries for the electoral district:

The Town of Hamilton shall be bounded and limited as follows:—commencing at the north-east corner of broken lot number thirteen, in the first concession of the Township of Barton, at the water's edge of Burlington Bay ; thence along the shore of the said Bay, to the north-west corner of lot number sixteen ; thence southerly along the allowance for road between lots numbers sixteen and seventeen, to the allowance for road in rear of the third concession ; thence easterly along the said allowance, to the allowance for road between lots numbers thirteen and twelve ; thence along the said allowance to Burlington Bay, to the place of beginning.[4]

Members of the Legislative Assembly

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

Parliament Years Member[5] Party[6]
1st Parliament
1841–1844		 1841–1844 Sir Allan MacNab Unionist; Compact Tory

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. 17.
  3. Union Act, 1840, s. 21.
  4. Proclamation, February 27, 1841. Reproduced in the Journal of the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada, 1841, pp. ix–xi.
  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: Proclamation, Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, July 16, 1792.

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