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Three Rivers (Province of Canada electoral district)

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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 (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.

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

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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 of the Legislative Assembly (1841–1867)

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Three Rivers was a single-member constituency.[4]

The following were the members of the Legislative Assembly for Three Rivers. The party affiliations are based on the biographies of individual members given by the National Assembly of Quebec, as well as votes in the Legislative Assembly. "Party" was a fluid concept, especially during the early years of the Province of Canada.[9][10][11]

Parliament Members Years in Office Party
1st Parliament
1841–1844 		Charles Richard Ogden 1841–1844 Unionist; "British" Tory
2nd Parliament
1844–1847 		Edward Greive[a] 1844–1845 Tory
Denis-Benjamin Viger[b] 1845–1847
(by-election) 		"British" Tory
3rd Parliament
1848–1851[c] 		Antoine Polette 1848–1857 French-Canadian Group
4th Parliament
1851–1854 		Ministerialist, then temporary opposition moderate
5th Parliament
1854–1857 		Moderate, then Bleu
6th Parliament
1858–1861 		William McDonell Dawson 1858–1861 Conservative
7th Parliament
1861–1863 		Joseph-Édouard Turcotte 1861–1864 Bleu
8th Parliament
1863–1867 		Joseph-Édouard Turcotte[d]
Louis-Charles Boucher de Niverville[e] 1865–1867
(by-election) 		Confederation; Bleu

Notes

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  1. ^ Died in office, June 1845: Côté, Political Appointments and Elections, pp. 47, 60, note (83).
  2. ^ Elected in by-election, July 14, 1845: Côté, Political Appointments and Elections, pp. 47, 60, note (84).
  3. ^ No member was returned in the general election; Antoine Polette was elected in a by-election, April 26, 1848: Côté, Political Appointments and Elections, pp. 51, 61, note (122).
  4. ^ Died in office, December 20, 1864: "Biography of Joseph-Édouard-Turcotte". Dictionnaire des parlementaires du Québec de 1792 à nos jours (in French). National Assembly of Quebec.
  5. ^ Elected in by-election, January 16, 1865: J.O. Côté, Political Appointments and Elections in the Province of Canada from 1841 to 1865, 2nd ed. (Ottawa: G.E. Desbarats, 1865), p. 117.

Abolition

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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.[12] It was succeeded by electoral districts of the same name in the House of Commons of Canada[13] and the Legislative Assembly of Quebec.[14]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b 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. ^ a b Union Act, 1840, s. 18.
  5. ^ Union Act, 1840, s. 20.
  6. ^ Union Act, 1840, s. 21.
  7. ^ a b "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. ^ Québec Dictionary of Parliamentary Biography, from 1764 to the present.
  11. ^ Paul G. Cornell, Alignment of Political Groups in Canada, 1841–67 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962; reprinted in paperback 2015), pp. 93–111.
  12. ^ British North America Act, 1867 (now the Constitution Act, 1867), s. 6.
  13. ^ Constitution Act, 1867, s. 40, para. 2
  14. ^ Constitution Act, 1867, s. 80.

Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is 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.

46°18′N 72°36′W / 46.3°N 72.6°W / 46.3; -72.6

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