Canada East and Canada West each elected 42 members to the assembly for the first four parliaments. In 1853, following the 1851 Canadian census, the number of seats in the assembly was increased by the 4th Parliament of the Province of Canada from 84 to 130, 65 for each section, even though Canada West had a slightly larger population. The Parliamentary Representation Act of June 1853 was to take effect with the election for the 5th Parliament of the Province of Canada.[1][2]
The upper house of the legislature was called the Legislative Council. The two houses, the lower house and the upper house, constituted the Parliament of the Province of Canada. (See List of Parliaments below)
The first session of parliament began in Kingston in Canada West in 1841. The second parliament and the first sessions of the third parliament were held in Montreal. On April 25, 1849, rioters protesting the Rebellion Losses Bill burned the parliament buildings. The remaining sessions of the third parliament were held in Toronto. Subsequent parliaments were held in Quebec City and Toronto, except for the last session June–August 1866 of the eighth and final parliament, which was held in the newly built Parliament building in Ottawa, the capital chosen for the Dominion of Canada.
The British North America Act of 1867 divided the Province of Canada into the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, each province having its own Legislative Assembly, as well as representation in the Parliament of Canada.
Seat of Government and Parliament Buildings
Parliament for the United Provinces of Canada drifted around the cities of Toronto, Kingston, Montreal, Quebec City and Ottawa. For exhaustive detail on how Parliament tried to resolve the issue of a permanent capital, see below David B. Knight, Choosing Canada's Capital: Conflict Resolution in a Parliamentary System (Carleton Library Series, 1991).
1843 Parliament moves to Montreal and sites at renovated St. Anne's Market; burned down in 1849; rebuilt as market only and burned down again in 1902; site later was a parking lot and now public square called Place d'Youville.
1866 Parliament assembles in Ottawa on Parliament Hill in the original Centre Block for one sitting June–August 1866. This Centre Block became the Parliamentary building of the Parliament of Canada July 1, 1867. It was destroyed by fire in 1916 and replaced by the current Centre Block.
The role of speaker began a tradition of alternating between English and French Canada. This tradition carried onto the role of the Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada.
Upper Canadian politics in the 1850s, Underhill (and others), University of Toronto Press (1967)
Alfred Todd. General Index to the Journals of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada in the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Parliaments 1852–1866. (Ottawa: Hunter Rose & Co., 1867)https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_00957/3.
David B. Knight, Choosing Canada's Capital: Conflict Resolution in a Parliamentary System (McGill-Queens University Press, 1991) https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt80qgn.