Rimouski (Province of Canada electoral district) explained

Rimouski
Province:Province of Canada
Prov-Status:defunct
Prov-Created:1841
Prov-Abolished:1867
Prov-Election-First:1841
Prov-Election-Last:1863

Rimouski was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada East (now Quebec), in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region. It was created in 1841 and was based on the previous electoral district of the same name for the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. It was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly.

The electoral district was abolished in 1867, upon the creation of Canada and the province of Quebec.

Boundaries

The electoral district of Rimouski was on the south shore of the River Saint Lawrence at the beginning of the Gaspé peninsula (now in the Bas-Saint-Laurent administrative region).

1841 to 1854

The Union Act, 1840, passed by the British Parliament, merged the two provinces of Lower Canada and Upper 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 Rimouski electoral district of Lower Canada was not altered by the Act, and therefore continued with the same boundaries which had been set by a statute of Lower Canada in 1829:

1854 to 1867

In 1853, the Parliament of the Province of Canada passed a new electoral map. The boundaries of Rimouski were altered to some extent by the new map, which came into force in the general elections of 1854:

Members of the Legislative Assembly (1841–1867)

Rimouski was a single-member constituency in the Legislative Assembly.[2] [3]

The following were the members of the Legislative Assembly for Rimouski. 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.[4] [5] [6]

ParliamentMembersYears in OfficeParty
1st Parliament
1841–1844
Michel Borne1841–1842Anti-unionist; French-Canadian Group
Robert Baldwin1843–1844
(by-election)
Ultra Reformer
2nd Parliament
1844–1847
Louis Bertrand1844–1847French-Canadian Group
3rd Parliament
1848–1851
Joseph-Charles Taché1848–1854French-Canadian Group
4th Parliament
1851–1854
Ministerialist
5th Parliament
1854–1857
Joseph-Charles Taché1854–1857Bleu
Michel Guillaume Baby1857
(by-election)
Bleu
6th Parliament
1858–1861
Michel Guillaume Baby1858–1861Bleu
7th Parliament
1861–1863
George Sylvain1861–1867Moderate
8th Parliament
1863–1867
Confederation; Bleu

Notes

Significant elections

In 1842, Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin formed the first joint ministry in the Province of Canada, and were appointed to the Executive Council by the Governor General. At that time, the law required that if members of the Legislative Assembly took a position under the Crown, the members' seats were vacated and they had to stand for re-election. Lafontaine was easily re-elected in his riding, but Baldwin was defeated in his riding of Hastings in Canada West.[7]

To ensure his colleague could re-enter the Legislative Assembly, Lafontaine arranged for Michel Borne, the member for Rimouski, to resign his seat so Baldwin could stand for election there. (Borne was in his sixties and had infrequent attendance at Parliament.) Baldwin, an anglophone from Canada West, was elected by acclamation by the heavily francophone, but pro-reform, voters of Rimouski.[7] [8] [9]

The by-election was important for the success of the Lafontaine-Baldwin alliance, and also as an early step in building political parties within the Province of Canada based on common political views, rather than purely ethnic affiliations.[10]

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

See also

Notes and References

  1. https://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/PreConfederation/ua_1840.html Union Act, 1840
  2. https://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/PreConfederation/ua_1840.html Union Act, 1840
  3. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_00925_1/600 An Act to enlarge the Representation of the People of this Province in Parliament
  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. http://www.assnat.qc.ca/en/membres/notices/index.html Québec Dictionary of Parliamentary Biography, from 1764 to the present
  6. Paul G. Cornell, Alignment of Political Groups in Canada, 1841–67 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962; reprinted in paperback 2015), pp. 93–111.
  7. J.M.S. Careless, The Union of the Canadas — The Growth of Canadian Institutions, 1841–1857 (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1967), p. 75.
  8. Cornell, Alignment of Political Groups in Canada, 1841–67, pp. 93, 94.
  9. Book: Roy, Pierre Georges . Toutes petites choses du régime anglais . 1946 . 55. fr.
  10. James H. Marsh, "Editorial: Baldwin, LaFontaine, and Responsible Government", Canadian Encyclopedia, October 15, 2019.
  11. https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/section-6.html#h-2 British North America Act, 1867
  12. https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/section-40.html#h-6 Constitution Act, 1867
  13. https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/section-80.html#h-12 Constitution Act, 1867