Verchères (Province of Canada electoral district)

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

Verchères
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 contested1863

Verchères was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada East, primarily south of Montreal. It was created in 1841, based on the previous electoral district of the same name for the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada.

Verchères was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly. It was abolished in 1867, upon the creation of Canada and the province of Quebec.

Boundaries[]

Verchères electoral district was located primarily south of Montreal, on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River and bordered by the Richelieu River (now in the Montérégie administrative district). It also included some communities on the western tip of the Island of Montreal.

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.[1] 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.[2]

The Lower Canada electoral district of Verchères was not altered by the Act. It was therefore continued with the same boundaries in the new Parliament. Those boundaries had been set by a statute of Lower Canada in 1829:

The County of Verchères shall be bounded on the north west by the River Saint Lawrence, on the south east by the River Richelieu or Chambly, on the south west by the seigniories of Boucherville, Montarville and Chambly, and on the north east by that part of the south west boundary of the seigniory of Saint Ours between the River Saint Lawrence and the River Richelieu, comprising all the Islands in the said River Saint Lawrence, and the said River Richelieu or Chambly, in front of and nearest to the said County, in whole or in part fronting the same; which County so bounded comprehends the Seigniories of Contrecour, Bellevue, Verchères, Saint Blain, Guillodière, La Trinité or Cap Saint Michel, Varennes, Beloeil and its augmentation, Cournoyer and all the Islands in the said River Saint Lawrence opposite the same, Isle Bouchard excepted.[3]

Members of the Legislative Assembly[]

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

Parliament Years Member[4] Party[5]
1st Parliament
1841–1844
1841
 Henri Desrivières[note 1] Groupe canadien-français
1841–1844 James Leslie[note 2] James Leslie (Canadian politician).jpg Anti-union; Reformer

Notes[]

  1. ^ Resigned on November 6, 1841, to allow James Leslie to stand as a candidate.[6][7]
  2. ^ Elected in by-election December 28, 1841.[8]

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.[9] It was succeeded by electoral districts of the same name in the House of Commons of Canada[10] and the Legislative Assembly of Quebec.[11]

References[]

  1. ^ Union Act, 1840, 3 & 4 Vict., c. 35, s. 2.
  2. ^ a b Union Act, 1840, s. 18.
  3. ^ An Act to make a new and more convenient subdivision of the Province into Counties, for the purpose of effecting a more equal Representation thereof in the Assembly than heretofore, SLC 1829, c. 73, s. 1, para. 21.
  4. ^ J.O. Côté, Political Appointments and Elections in the Province of Canada, 1841 to 1860, (Quebec: St. Michel and Darveau, 1860), pp. 43-58.
  5. ^ See biographies of individual members for party affiliation: Québec Dictionary of Parliamentary Biography, from 1764 to the present.
  6. ^ Côté, Political Appointments and Elections, p. 60, note (50).
  7. ^ National Assembly of Quebec: Henri Desrivières.
  8. ^ Côté, Political Appointments and Elections, p. 60, note (51).
  9. ^ British North America Act, 1867 (now the Constitution Act, 1867), s. 6.
  10. ^ Constitution Act, 1867, s. 40, para. 2
  11. ^ Constitution Act, 1867, s. 80.

Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Statutes of Lower Canada, 13th Provincial Parliament, 2nd Session (1829), c. 74.

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