Rouville (Province of Canada electoral district)

Rouville was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada East, in a rural area south of Montreal. It was created in 1841 and was based on the previous electoral district of the same name for the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. It was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly.

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

The electoral district was abolished in 1867, upon the creation of Canada and the province of Quebec.

Boundaries

The electoral district of Rouville was south of Montreal (now in Le Haut-Richelieu Regional County Municipality), extending to the border with the United States.

The Union Act, 1840 merged the two provinces of Lower Canada and Upper 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 Lower Canada and Upper Canada would continue to be used in the new Parliament, unless altered by the Union Act itself.[2] The Rouville 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 County of Rouville shall be bounded on the north west by the River Richelieu, or Chambly, together with all the Islands in the said river nearest to the said County, on the east and north east by the Counties of Missisquoui [sic] and Richelieu, and on the south by the southern boundary of the Province, comprising the seigniories of Rouville, Chambly East, Monnoir, and its augmentation, Bleury, Sabrevois, Noyan and Foucault.[3]

Members of the Legislative Assembly

Rouville was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly.[2] The following were the members of the Legislative Assembly from Rouville.

Parliament Years Members[4] Party[5]
1st Parliament
1841–1844		 1841–1842 Melchior-Alphonse d'Irumberry de Salaberry[6] Unionist and Tory
1842–1843
(by-election)		 William Walker[7] Anti-unionist and Tory
1843—1844
(by-election)		 Timothée Franchère[8] Groupe canadien-français

Significant elections

In the first general election for the new Parliament, the Rouville seat was won by Melchior-Alphonse de Salaberry, who narrowly defeated Timothée Franchère. The election was marked by considerable violence, with one death.[9] De Salaberry was a strong supporter of the government of Lord Sydenham, the Governor General. He was also one of only two Canadiens elected who supported the union.[9] (The other was Alexandre-Maurice Delisle, elected in Montreal County.)

However, the next year, De Salaberry accepted the lucrative position of Clerk of the Court for the district of Richelieu. Since this position was an office of profit under the Crown, the law required that de Salaberry vacate his seat.[9] De Salaberry stood as a candidate in the resulting by-election, but was defeated by William Walker. Although Walker supported the British connection, he was a strong opponent of the union, and a fierce critic of Lord Sydenham's government.[10] The by-election thus shifted the position in the Legislative Assembly somewhat.

The situation changed again in the next year, 1843. Walker was forced to resign his seat due to ill-health (and indeed died the following year).[10] In the resulting by-election, Franchère was elected. Since he opposed the union and supported the Groupe canadien-français, the by-election again shifted the overall standings in the Legislative Assembly.

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.[11] It was succeeded by electoral districts of the same name in the House of Commons of Canada[12] and the Legislative Assembly of Quebec.[13]

References
  1. Union Act, 1840, 3 & 4 Vict., c. 35, s. 2.
  2. Union Act, 1840, s. 18.
  3. 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. 20.
  4. J.O. Côté, Political Appointments and Elections in the Province of Canada, 1841 to 1860 (Quebec: St. Michel and Darveau, 1860), pp. 43–58.
  5. For party affiliations, see biographies of individual members: Québec Dictionary of Parliamentary Biography, from 1764 to the present.
  6. Côté, Appointments and Elections, p. 59, note (38).
  7. Côté, Appointments and Elections, p. 59, note (39).
  8. Côté, Appointments and Elections, p. 59' note (40).
  9. "Salaberry (Irumberry de Salaberry), Melchior-Alphonse de", Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
  10. "Walker, William", Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
  11. British North America Act, 1867 (now the Constitution Act, 1867), s. 6.
  12. Constitution Act, 1867, s. 40, para. 2
  13. Constitution Act, 1867, s. 80.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Statutes of Lower Canada, 13th Provincial Parliament, 2nd Session (1829), c. 74

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