Verchères was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada East, primarily south of Montreal. It was created in 1841, based on the previous electoral district of the same name for the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada.

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

Verchères was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly. It was abolished in 1867, upon the creation of Canada and the province of Quebec.

Boundaries

Verchères electoral district was located primarily south of Montreal, on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River and bordered by the Richelieu River (now in the Montérégie administrative district).

1841 to 1854

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. (UK), 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, s. 18.

The Lower Canada electoral district of Verchères was not altered by the Act. It was therefore continued with the same boundaries in the new Parliament. Those boundaries 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 Verchères 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)

Verchères was a single-member constituency.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 for Verchères. 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 Parliament1841–1844Henri Desrivières Anti-unionist; French-Canadian Group James Leslie French-Canadian Group 2nd Parliament 1844–1847 James Leslie "English" Liberals 3rd Parliament 1848–1851 James Leslie "English" Liberals George-Étienne Cartier French-Canadian Group 4th Parliament 1851–1854 George-Étienne Cartier Ministerialist 5th Parliament 1854–1857 Parti bleu 6th Parliament 1858–1861 7th Parliament1861–1863 Alexandre-Édouard Kierzkowski Liberal Charles-François Painchaud Liberal-Conservative 8th Parliament 1863–1867 Félix Geoffrion Anti-Confederation; Rouge

Notes

Abolition

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