Halton West was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada West. It was created in 1841, upon the establishment of the Province of Canada by the union of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. It was based on the western portion of Halton County, termed a riding.
Halton West 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
Halton West electoral district was located in the western portions of Halton County (now partly in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and partly in Wellington County). Its formal name was the West Riding of Halton County.
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.
Halton County had been an electoral district in the Upper Canada Parliament, but it was changed by the Union Act. The county had originally been split off from York County in 1816, and defined by statute as follows:
Block number one on the Grand River was the Township of Dumfries; block number two was the Township of Waterloo; block number three was the Township of Woolwich; and block number four was the Township of Nichol.An Act to erect and form a new district..., s. 10.
In 1841, the County of Halton was split into two ridings for the new Parliament of the Province of Canada. The Union Act defined Halton West as follows:
Members of the Legislative Assembly
Halton West was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly. The following were the members for Halton West.
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 Durand Jr. Anti-unionist; Ultra-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