Terrebonne (Province of Canada electoral district)

Terrebonne was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada East, immediately north-west of Montreal. It was created in 1841, based on the previous electoral district of the same name for the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada.

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

Terrebonne was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly. It was abolished in 1867, upon the creation of Canada and the province of Quebec.

Boundaries

Terrebonne electoral district was located to the north-west of Montreal (now included in the city of Terrebonne).

The Union Act, 1840 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 Lower Canada and Upper Canada would continue to be used in the new Parliament, unless altered by the Union Act itself.[2]

The Lower Canada electoral district of Terrebonne was not altered by the Act, and therefore continued with the same boundaries in the new Parliament. Those boundaries had been set by a statute of Lower Canada in 1829:

The County of Terrebonne shall be bounded on the north east by the south west boundary line of the Seigniory of Lachenaie to the depth thereof, thence westward along the rear boundary line thereof, thence westward along the rear boundary line of the augmentation of Terrebonne to the south west boundary of the Township of Kilkenny, thence along the said boundary north westerly to the depth thereof, and thence on the same course to the northern boundary of the Province, on the south west by the said County of the Two Mountains, on the north west by the northern boundary of the Province, and on the south east by that part of the River Ottawa commonly called Rivière des Prairies, together with the Island and Seigniory of Isle Jesus, and all the Islands in the said River, nearest to the said County and in whole or in part, fronting the same; which County so bounded comprehends the Seigniories of Isle Jesus, Terrebonne, Des Des Plaines, augmentation of Terrebonne, Blainville, part of Mille Isles and its augmentation, and the Township of Abercrombie.[3]

Members of the Legislative Assembly

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

Parliament Years Member[4] Party[5]
1st Parliament
1841–1844		 1841–1844 Michael McCulloch Unionist; Tory

Significant elections

The first general election in 1841 was marked by considerable threats of violence by opponents of responsible government. The danger of violence was so great that Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, an advocate for responsible government and candidate in Terrebonne, was forced to withdraw his candidacy to avoid bloodshed.[6] Robert Baldwin, one of the leaders of the reform movement in Canada West, proposed that Lafontaine then stand for election in a by-election in York County. Lafontaine did so and was elected as a member from Canada West. Baldwin's support was one of the starting points for the beginning of the alliance between Baldwin and Lafontaine, which ultimately led to the establishment of responsible government in the Province of Canada in 1848.[7]

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.[8] It was succeeded by electoral districts of the same name in the House of Commons of Canada[9] and the Legislative Assembly of Quebec.[10]

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. 29.
  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. See biographies of individual members for party affiliation: Québec Dictionary of Parliamentary Biography, from 1764 to the present.
  6. Irving Martin Abella, "The 'Sydenham Election' of 1841", Canadian Historical Review (1966) 47:326-343, at p. 342. [Subscription needed.]
  7. James Marsh, "Editorial: Baldwin, LaFontaine and Responsible Government", Canadian Encyclopedia, October 15, 2019.
  8. British North America Act, 1867 (now the Constitution Act, 1867), s. 6.
  9. Constitution Act, 1867, s. 40, para. 2
  10. 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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