Bellechasse was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada East. It was created by the Union Act, 1840 in 1841, based on the previous electoral district of the same name for the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. It was located in the current Chaudière-Appalaches area.
Bellechasse was represented by one Member at the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada. It was abolished in 1867, upon the creation of Canada and the province of Quebec.
Boundaries
In 1840 the British Parliament passed the Union Act, 1840, which 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.Union Act, 1840, 3 & 4 Vict., c. 35, s. 2.
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.Union Act, 1840, ss. 16, 18. The Bellechasse 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 electoral district of Bellechasse thus included the County of Bellechasse (now part of the Bellechasse Regional County Municipality), and some adjacent areas. The elections were held at Saint Vallier and Saint Gervais.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, s. 3.
Members of the Legislative Assembly (1841–1867)
Bellechasse was a single-member constituency.Union Act, 1840, s. 18.
The following were the members of the Legislative Assembly for Bellechasse. 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.J.O. Côté, Political Appointments and Elections in the Province of Canada, 1841 to 1860 (Quebec: St. Michel and Darveau, 1860), pp. 43–58.Québec Dictionary of Parliamentary Biography, from 1764 to the present.Paul G. Cornell, Alignment of Political Groups in Canada, 1841–67 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962; reprinted in paperback 2015), pp. 93–111.
Parliament Members Years in Office Party 1st Parliament1841-1844 Augustin-Guillaume Ruel 1841–1842 Anti-unionist; French-Canadian Group Abraham Turgeon 1842–1844(by-election) French-Canadian Group 2nd Parliament1844–1847Augustin-Norbert Morin1844–1851French-Canadian Group 3rd Parliament1848–1851 4th Parliament1851–1854 Jean Chabot 1851–1854 Ministerialist 5th Parliament1854–1857Octave-Cyrille Fortier1854–1861 Ministerialist 6th Parliament1858–1861 Bleu 7th Parliament1861–1863 Édouard Rémillard 1861–1867 Rouge 8th Parliament1863–1867 Confederation; Liberal
Notes
Abolition
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.British North America Act, 1867 (now the Constitution Act, 1867), s. 6. It was succeeded by electoral districts of the same name in the House of Commons of CanadaConstitution Act, 1867, s. 40, para. 2. and the Legislative Assembly of Quebec.Constitution Act, 1867, s. 80.
See also List of elections in the Province of Canada
References