L'Islet was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada East, on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River, north-east of Quebec City. 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 L'Islet 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:

L'Islet electoral district was located on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence, to the north-east of Quebec City (now in L'Islet Regional County Municipality). The elections were held in the town of L'Islet.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 (1841–1867)

L'Islet was a single-member constituency.Union Act, 1840, s. 18.

The following were the members of the Legislative Assembly from L'Islet. 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 Member Years in Office Party 1st Parliament1841–1844 Étienne-Paschal Taché 1841–1846 Anti-unionist; French-Canadian Group 2nd Parliament1844–1847 Étienne-Paschal Taché French-Canadian Group Charles-François Fournier 1847 French-Canadian Group 3rd Parliament1848–1851 Charles-François Fournier 1847–1863 French-Canadian Group, then Ministerialist 4th Parliament1851–1854 Ministerialist 5th Parliament1854–1857 Ministerialist, then Bleu 6th Parliament1858–1861 Bleu 7th Parliament1861–1863 Bleu 8th Parliament1863–1867 Louis-Bonaventure Caron 1863–1867 Anti-Confederation; Rouge

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