Ottawa County was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada. It was located in Canada East (now Quebec), in the Outaouais region, on the north bank of the Ottawa River. 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 of the Legislative Assembly.

In 1853, the provincial Parliament redrew the electoral map. The boundaries for Ottawa County were altered to some extent in the new map, which came into force for the 1854 general elections.

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

Boundaries 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.Union Act, 1840, 3 & 4 Vict. (UK), c. 35, s. 2.

The Ottawa County electoral district was located in the Outaouais region in the western part of Canada East (now Quebec). The Ottawa River formed the southern boundary of the electoral district, and also the boundary with Canada West.

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 Ottawa County 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 Ottawa County 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)

Ottawa County was a single-member constituency in the Legislative Assembly.Union Act, 1840, s. 18.An Act to enlarge the Representation of the People of this Province in Parliament, s. 3.

The following were the members of the Legislative Assembly from Ottawa County. 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 Charles Dewey Day 1841–1842 Unionist and Government Tory Denis-Benjamin Papineau 1842–1844 (by-election) French-Canadian Group 2nd Parliament 1844–1847 Denis-Benjamin Papineau 1844–1847 "British" Tory 3rd Parliament 1848–1851 John Egan 1848–1854 "English" Liberal (1848) Moderate independent (1849–1851) 4th Parliament 1851–1854 "English" moderate 5th Parliament 1854–1857 Alanson Cooke 1854–1857 Rouge 6th Parliament 1858–1861 Denis-Émery Papineau 1858–1861 Rouge 7th Parliament 1861–1863 William McDonell Dawson 1861–1863 Conservative 8th Parliament 1863––1867 Alonzo Wright 1863–1867 Confederation; Conservative

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