Bonaventure (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 Bonaventure (federal electoral district). For the successor provincial electoral district, see Bonaventure (provincial electoral district).
Bonaventure
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

Bonaventure was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada East. It was created in 1841, 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 district was located in the Gaspé peninsula. It was abolished in 1867, upon the creation of Canada and the province of Quebec.

Boundaries[edit]

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 Beauhanois 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:

The County of Bonaventure shall be bounded on the east and north, by the County of Gaspé, and shall consist of such part of the Inferior District of Gaspé, as is included between the said County of Gaspé and the District of Quebec, including all the Islands in front thereof, in whole or in part, nearest to the said County, which County so bounded, comprises the Seigniory of Shoolbred, the Indian Village of Mission and the settlements above and below the same on the north of the River Ristigouche, the townships or settlements of Carlton, Maria, Richmond, Hamilton, including Bonaventure, Cox including the Town of New Carlisle, Hope including Paspebiac, La Nouvelle and Port Daniel.[3]

The electoral district covered territory in the Gaspé Peninsula, now included in the Bonaventure Regional County Municipality and the Avignon Regional County Municipality. The elections were held at Richmond and at Hope.[4]

Members of the Legislative Assembly (1841–1867)[edit]

Bonaventure was a single-member constituency.[5]

The following were the members of the Legislative Assembly for Beauharnois. 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.[6][7][8]

Parliament Member Years in Office Party
1st Parliament
1841–1844 		John Robinson Hamilton 1841–1844 Anti-unionist and Independent
2nd Parliament
1844–1847 		John Le Boutillier 1844–1847 "British" Tory
3rd Parliament
1848–1851 		William Cuthbert 1848–1851 "British" Tory
4th Parliament
1851–1854 		David Le Boutillier 1851–1854 Ministerialist
5th Parliament
1854–1857 		John Meagher 1854–1861 Ministerialist
6th Parliament
1858–1861 		Bleu
7th Parliament
1861–1863 		Théodore Robitaille 1861–1867 Bleu
8th Parliament
1863–1867 		Bleu

Abolition[edit]

The district was abolished on July 1, 1867, when the British North America Act, 1867 came into force, 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]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Union Act, 1840, 3 & 4 Vict., c. 35, s. 2.
  2. ^ Union Act, 1840, ss. 16, 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. 2.
  4. ^ 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. 3.
  5. ^ Union Act, 1840, s. 18.
  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. ^ Québec Dictionary of Parliamentary Biography, from 1764 to the present.
  8. ^ Paul G. Cornell, Alignment of Political Groups in Canada, 1841–67 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962; reprinted in paperback 2015), pp. 93–111.
  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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