Haldimand (Province of Canada electoral district)

Haldimand was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada West. It was based on Haldimand County. The electoral district was created in 1841, upon the establishment of the Province of Canada by the union of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. Haldimand 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

Haldimand electoral district was located on the north shore of Lake Erie, and was based on Haldimand County, on the Niagara Peninsula.

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. (UK), 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.

Haldimand County had been an electoral district in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada,Journal 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 its boundaries were not altered by the Union Act. Those boundaries had been set by a statute of Upper Canada in 1798:

In 1826, the townships of Walpole and Rainham were annexed to Haldimand from the County of Norfolk, to be closer to the new district town and courthouse.Act to establish the District Town of the District of London in a more central position than at present, and to Annex the Townships of Walpole and Rainham to the County of Haldimand, in the District of Niagara, SUC 1826 (7 Geo. IV), c. 13, s. 3.

Since Haldimand electoral district was not changed by the Union Act, those boundaries continued to be used for the new electoral district. Haldimand was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly.

Members of the Legislative Assembly

Haldimand was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly. The following were the members for Haldimand.

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 David Thompson Reformer

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

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