Prince Edward (Province of Canada electoral district)

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

Prince Edward was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada West (now Ontario). It was created in 1841, upon the establishment of the Province of Canada by the union of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. Prince Edward was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly. It was abolished in 1867, upon the creation of Canada and the province of Ontario.

Boundaries

Prince Edward electoral district was based on Prince Edward County, which occupied a large presque-isle on the north shore of Lake Ontario, south of the Bay of Quinte. The portage or carrying-place on the isthmus is now a National Historic Site.[1]

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.[2] 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.[3]

Prince Edward had been an electoral district in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada,[4] and its boundaries were not altered by the Union Act. Those boundaries had originally been set by a proclamation of the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe, in 1792:

That the tenth of the said counties be hereafter called by the name of the county of Prince Edward; which county is to be bounded on the south by lake Ontario, on the west by the carrying-place on the isthmus of the Presque isle d'Quinte, on the north by the bay of Quinte, and on the east, from point Pleasant to point Traverse, by its several shores and bays, including the late township of Ameliasburg, Sophiasburg, and Marysburg. The said county of Prince Edward is to comprehend all the islands in the said lake Ontario and bay of Quinte nearest to the said county, in the whole or greater part fronting the same.[5]

The boundaries had been further defined by a statute of Upper Canada in 1798:

That the townships of Ameliasburg, Hallowell, Sophiasburg and Marysburg, with such of the Islands in the Bay of Quinté and Lake Ontario as are wholly or in greater part opposite thereto, and such as were not formerly included in the County of Ontario, do constitute and form the County of Prince Edward.[6]

Since Prince Edward was not changed by the Union Act, those boundaries continued to be used for the new electoral district. Prince Edward was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly.[3]

Members of the Legislative Assembly

Prince Edward was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly.[3] The following were the members for Prince Edward.

Parliament Years Members[7] Party[8]
1st Parliament
1841–1844 		1841–1844 John Philip Roblin[a] Unionist; Moderate Reformer
2nd Parliament
1844–1847 		1844–1846

Notes

  1. ^ Resigned in May 1846 following appointment as Collector of Customs at Picton, Canada West.[9]

Abolition

Prince Edward electoral 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.[10] It was succeeded by the electoral districts of Prince Edward in both the House of Commons of Canada[11] and the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.[12]

References

  1. ^ Parks Canada: Carrying Place of the Bay of Quinte National Historic Site.
  2. ^ Union Act, 1840, 3 & 4 Vict. (UK), c. 35, s. 2.
  3. ^ a b c Union Act, 1840, s. 16.
  4. ^ Journal of the House of Assembly of Upper Canada, from the eighth day of November, 1836, to the fourth day of March, 1837, p. 15 (November 8, 1836).
  5. ^ Proclamation, Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, July 16, 1792; reprinted in Statutes of the Province of Upper Canada; Together with Such British Statutes, Ordinances of Quebec, and Proclamations, as Relate to the Said Province (Kingston: F. M. Hill, 1831), p. 24.
  6. ^ An act for the better division of this province, SUC 1798 (38 Geo. III), c. 5, s. 17. 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).
  7. ^ J.O. Côté, Political Appointments and Elections in the Province of Canada, 1841 to 1860, (Quebec: St. Michel and Darveau, 1860), pp. 43-58.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ Côté, Political Appointments and Elections, p. 60, note (78).
  10. ^ British North America Act, 1867 (now the Constitution Act, 1867), s. 6.
  11. ^ Constitution Act, 1867, s. 40, para. 2
  12. ^ Constitution Act, 1867, s. 70.

Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Proclamation, Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, July 16, 1792.
Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: An act for the better division of this province, SUC 1798, c. 5, s. 17.