Three Rivers (Province of Canada electoral district)

Three Rivers (French name: Trois-Rivières) was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada East. It was centered on the town of Trois-Rivières (known at that time as "Three Rivers" in English). The district was created in 1841, based in part on the previous electoral district of the same name in the Parliament of Lower Canada.

This article is about the pre-Confederation electoral district. For the predecessor Lower Canada electoral district, see Trois-Rivières (Lower Canada electoral district). For the successor federal electoral district, see Trois-Rivières (electoral district). For the successor provincial electoral district, see Trois-Rivières (provincial electoral district).
Three Rivers
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 contested1865

Three Rivers electoral district was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly. The district was abolished in 1867, upon the creation of Canada and the province of Quebec.

Boundaries

Three Rivers electoral district was located on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River, midway between Quebec City and Montreal. It was created in 1841, upon the establishment of the new Province of Canada. Although it was centered on the town of Trois-Rivières, in the same way as the predecessor electoral district of the same name for Lower Canada, its boundaries had been significantly altered by the Governor General, Lord Sydenham, to favour voters of British background over the francophone Canadiens. Sydenham wanted to ensure members were elected who would support the new union and his government and drew the boundaries with this goal. It was an example of a linguistic and ethnic gerrymander.[1][2]

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.[3] 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.[4]

Three Rivers was one of the electoral districts specifically defined in the Union Act. The Act provided that the town would continue as a separate electoral district, electing one member to the Legislative Assembly.[5] However, instead of continuing the district under the previous boundaries, the Act gave the Governor General the power to draw new boundaries for the district.[6] The Governor General exercised this power by a proclamation on March 4, 1841, only four days before the elections were to begin on March 8.[7][8]

The boundaries set by the Proclamation were as follows:

The Town of Three Rivers, for the purposes aforesaid, shall be bounded and limited as follows, to wit:— shall comprehend all the tract or parcel of land, (being part and parcel of the aforesaid County of Saint Maurice,) bounded in front by the River St. Lawrence, and in rear by a line parallel to the general course of the said front, at a distance of one hundred and sixty chains from the westerly point of the mouth of the River Saint Maurice; on the easterly side by the said River Saint Maurice, and on the westerly side by a line rectangular to the aforesaid rear line, running from a point therein at the distance of one hundred and sixty chains from the westerly bank of the River Saint Maurice until it strikes the River St. Lawrence.[7]

The effect of these boundaries was to contract the electoral district, excluding the outlying areas of the town, which had a largely French-speaking population, thus diluting the voting strength of the francophone voters.[1]

Members for Three Rivers (1841-1867)

Three Rivers was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly.[4] The following were the members for Three Rivers.

Members[9] Party[10] Election[11]
  Charles Richard Ogden [12]Tory Party1841
  Edward Greive [13]Tory Party1844
  Joseph-Édouard Turcotte [14]Moderate Reformer1845
  None[15]N/A1848
  Antoine PoletteModerate Reformer1848
  Antoine PoletteModerate Reformer1851
  Antoine PoletteParti bleu1854
  William McDonell Dawson[16]Tory Party1858
  Joseph-Édouard TurcotteParti bleu1861
  Joseph-Édouard Turcotte [17]Parti bleu1863
  Louis-Charles Boucher de NivervilleParti bleu1865

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.[18] It was succeeded by electoral districts of the same name in the House of Commons of Canada[19] and the Legislative Assembly of Quebec.[20]

References
  1. Irving Martin Abella, "The 'Sydenham Election' of 1841" (1966), 47 Canadian Historical Review 326, p. 334 [subscription needed].
  2. Paul G. Cornell, Alignment of Political Groups in Canada 1841-1867 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962), p. 4.
  3. Union Act, 1840, 3 & 4 Vict., c. 35, s. 2.
  4. Union Act, 1840, s. 18.
  5. Union Act, 1840, s. 20.
  6. Union Act, 1840, s. 21.
  7. "Proclamation, March 4, 1841", Journals of the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada, 1st Parliament, 1st Session, 1841, p. xiv.
  8. Abella, "The 'Sydenham Election' of 1841", p. 337.
  9. J.O. Côté, Political Appointments and Elections in the Province of Canada, 1841 to 1860, (Quebec: St. Michel and Darveau, 1860), pp. 43-58.
  10. See biographies of individual members for party affiliation: Québec Dictionary of Parliamentary Biography, from 1764 to the present.
  11. By-elections are indicated with Italic font.
  12. Ogden was a Cabinet Member in 1841 and 1842.
  13. Greive died in office in 1845.
  14. Turcotte ran in the district of St. Maurice in 1848 and lost.
  15. The election was not held.
  16. In 1861, Dawson was defeated in the district of Trois-Rivières, but was election in the district of Ottawa.
  17. Turcotte died in office in 1864.
  18. British North America Act, 1867 (now the Constitution Act, 1867), s. 6.
  19. Constitution Act, 1867, s. 40, para. 2
  20. Constitution Act, 1867, s. 80.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Proclamation, March 4, 1841", Journals of the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada, 1st Parliament, 1st Session, 1841, p. xiv.

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.