Carleton was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada West. It was based on Carleton County, fronting on the Ottawa River.
Carleton electoral district was created in 1841, upon the establishment of the Province of Canada by the merger of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. It was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly. It was abolished in 1867, upon the creation of Canada and the province of Ontario.
Boundaries
Carleton electoral district was located in eastern Canada West (now the province of Ontario), on the Ottawa River, which formed the boundary with Canada East (now the province of Quebec). It was based on the boundaries of Carleton County. The electoral district surrounded Bytown, the county seat, but Bytown was not part of Carleton electoral district, being represented by its own electoral district.
The Union Act, 1840 had 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 Upper Canada would continue to be used in the new Parliament, unless altered by the Union Act itself.Union Act, 1840, s. 16.
Carleton County had been an electoral district in the Legislative Assembly of Upper CanadaJournal of the House of Assembly of Upper Canada, from the eighth day of November, 1836, to the fourth day of March, 1837, p. 15 (November 8, 1836). and was continued with the same boundaries. The boundaries for Carleton had been set by a statute of Upper Canada in 1838:
The only change from those boundaries was that the county seat, Bytown, was no longer included in Carleton. The Union Act provided that Bytown was its own electoral district in the new Parliament.Union Act, 1841, s. 17. The boundaries of Bytown electoral district were defined by the Governor General, and any parts of the town which were not included in Bytown electoral district were included in Carleton.Union Act, 1841, s. 21.
In the run-up to the first general election, in 1841, the Governor General, Lord Sydenham, took personal credit for the creation of Bytown as a separate electoral district from Carleton.Irving Martin Abella, "The 'Sydenham Election' of 1841", Canadian Historical Review (1966) 47:326-343, pp. 330-331. [Subscription needed.]
Members of the Legislative Assembly
Carleton was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly. The following were the members for Carleton.
Parliament Years MemberJ.O. Côté, Political Appointments and Elections in the Province of Canada, 1841 to 1860, (Quebec: St. Michel and Darveau, 1860), pp. 43-58. PartyFor party affiliations, see Paul G. Cornell, Alignment of Political Groups in Canada, 1841-67 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962; reprinted in paperback 2015), pp. 93-111. 1st Parliament1841–1844 1841–1844 James Johnston Unionist; Compact Tory2nd Parliament1844–1847 1844–1846 Reformer 1846–1847 George Lyon Conservative 3rd Parliament1848–1851 1848–1851 Edward Malloch Conservative 4th Parliament1852–1854 1852–1854 5th Parliament1854–1857 1854–1857 William Frederick Powell Conservative 6th Parliament1858–1861 1858–1861 7th Parliament1861–1863 1861–1863 8th Parliament1863–1866 1863–1866
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 Ontario.Constitution Act, 1867, s. 70.
References