Simcoe (Province of Canada electoral district)

Simcoe
Canada West
Province of Canada electoral district
Defunct pre-Confederation electoral district
LegislatureLegislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
District created1841
District abolished1853
First contested1841
Last contested1851

Simcoe 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. Simcoe was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly. It was abolished in the redistribution of 1853, when it was split into Simcoe North and Simcoe South.

Boundaries

Simcoe electoral district was based on Simcoe County, in the central portion of what is now southern Ontario.

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 pre-existing electoral boundaries of Upper Canada would continue to be used in the new Parliament, unless altered by the Union Act itself.[2]

Simcoe County had been an electoral district in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada,[3] and its boundaries were not altered by the Union Act. Those boundaries had originally been set by a statute of Upper Canada in 1798:

That Matchedash, Gloucester, or Penetangueshine, together with Prince William Henry's Island, and all the land lying between the Midland District and a line produced due north from a certain fixed boundary (at the distance of about fifty miles north-west from the outlet of Burlington Bay) till it intersects the northern limits of the province, do constitute and form the County of Simcoe.[4]

In 1837, the Legislature further defined the boundaries of Simcoe County as follows:

That the County of Simcoe, from and after the issuing of the said Proclamation, shall consist of the Townships of West Gwillimbury, Tecumseth, Adjala, Mono, Mulmer, Tosorontio, Essa, Innisfil, Nottawasaga, Sunnidale, Vespra, Oro, Orillia, (North and South division,) Medonte, Flos, Tiny, Tay and Matchedash, together with the Islands in Lakes Huron and Simcoe lying wholly or in greater part opposite thereto...[5]

Since Simcoe was not changed by the Union Act, those boundaries continued to be used for the new electoral district. Simcoe was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly.[2]

Members of the Legislative Assembly

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

Parliament Years Members[6] Party[7]
1st Parliament
1841–1844 		1841–1844 Elmes Yelverton Steele Unionist; moderate Reformer

Abolition

Simcoe electoral district was abolished in the re-distribution of 1853, when it was split into Simcoe North and Simcoe South.[8]

References

  1. ^ Union Act, 1840, 3 & 4 Vict. (UK), c. 35, s. 2.
  2. ^ a b c Union Act, 1840, s. 16.
  3. ^ 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).
  4. ^ An act for the better division of this province, SUC 1798 (38 Geo. III), c. 5, s. 23.
  5. ^ An Act to authorise the erection of the County of Simcoe into a separate District by the name of the District of Simcoe, SUC 1837, c. 32, s. 2.
  6. ^ J.O. Côté, Political Appointments and Elections in the Province of Canada, 1841 to 1860, (Quebec: St. Michel and Darveau, 1860), pp. 43-58.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ Parliamentary Representation Act, SUC 1853, c. 152.

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. 23.
Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: An Act to authorise the erection of the County of Simcoe into a separate District by the name of the District of Simcoe, SUC 1837, c. 32, s. 2.