Kamouraska (Province of Canada electoral district)

Kamouraska was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada East, in a rural area in the Gaspé 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 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.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 Kamouraska 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 Kamouraska was in the historic Beauce region, on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence (now the Kamouraska Regional County Municipality and the Chaudière-Appalaches administrative region). The elections were held in the town of Kamouraska.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.

Members of the Legislative Assembly

Kamouraska was a single-member constituency.Union Act, 1840, s. 18.

The following were the members of the Legislative Assembly from Kamouraska. "Party" was a fluid concept, especially during the early years of the Province of Canada. 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.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.

ParliamentMemberYears in OfficePartyFor party affiliations, see biographies of individual members: Québec Dictionary of Parliamentary Biography, from 1764 to the present. 1st Parliament1841–1844 Amable Berthelot 1841–1847 Anti-unionist; French-Canadian Group 2nd Parliament1844–1848 French-Canadian Group 3rd Parliament1848–1851 1848–1851 Pierre Canac, dit Marquis French-Canadian Group, then Ministerialist

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.

References