Beauce (Province of Canada electoral district)

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Coordinates: 46°11′31″N 70°46′16″W / 46.192°N 70.771°W / 46.192; -70.771
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This article is about the pre-Confederation electoral district. For the successor federal electoral district, see Beauce (electoral district). For the successor provincial electoral district, see Beauce (provincial electoral district).
Beauce
Province of Canada electoral district
Defunct pre-Confederation electoral district
LegislatureLegislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
District created1853
District abolished1867
First contested1854
Last contested1863

Beauce was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada in Canada East, in a rural area south of Quebec City bordering on the United States. From 1841 to 1854, Beauce county had been included in the riding of Dorchester. In 1853, the provincial Parliament enacted a redistribution statute which enlarged the Legislative Assembly, from forty-two seats to sixty-five. The Beauce area was split off from Dorchester and made a separate riding. It was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly.

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

Boundaries[edit]

The electoral district of Beauce was in a rural area south of Quebec City, bordering on the United States. Its territory is now included in the regional county municipalities of Beauce-Sartigan, Beauce-Centre and La Nouvelle-Beauce.

The county of Beauce had been an electoral district in the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada from 1829 to 1838, when the Lower Canada Parliament was suspended after the Lower Canada Rebellion. 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.[1] The Union Act provided that Beauce would be merged with the county of Dorchester to form the Dorchester riding, represented by one member.[2][3]

In 1853, the Parliament of the Province of Canada expanded the Legislative Assembly, to take effect in the next general elections in 1854. Canada East's representation was expanded from forty-two seats to sixty-five seats. As part of the redistribution, the Beauce region was split off from the Dorchester riding and created as a separate riding.[4] The boundaries of the new riding of Beauce were as follows:

1(11) The County of Beauce shall be bounded on the north-east by the County of Dorchester, on the east by the province line, on the west by the limits of the District of Quebec as far as the Township of Colraine, and on the north-west by the southern limits of the Townships of Colraine, Thetford and Broughton, again on the south-west by the south-eastern limits of the Township of Broughton and of the Parish of Saint Sylvestre, as far as the County of Dorchester, and on the north-east by the said County of Dorchester; the said County so bounded comprising the Parishes of Saint Elzéar, Sainte Marie, Saint Joseph, Saint Frederick, Saint François, Saint George, the Seigniory of Aubin-Delisle, part of the Townships of Metgermette and Clinton, the Kennebec Road Settlements, and the Townships of Jersey, Linière, Marlow, Rixborough, Spaulding, Ditchfield, Woburn, Gayhurst, Dorset, Shenley, Aylmer, Price, Lambton, Forsyth, Adstock and Tring.[5]

Members of the Legislative Assembly (1854–1867)[edit]

Beauce was a single-member constituency, represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly.[6]

The following were the members of the Legislative Assembly for Beauce. 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.[7][8][9]

Parliament Members Years in Office Party
5th Parliament
1854–1857 		Dunbar Ross 1854–1861 English Ministerialist
6th Parliament
1858–1861 		English Liberal
7th Parliament
1861–1863 		Henri-Elzéar Taschereau 1861-1867 Bleu
8th Parliament
1863–1867 		Anti-Confederation; Bleu

Abolition[edit]

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.[10] It was succeeded by electoral districts of the same name in the House of Commons of Canada[11] and the Legislative Assembly of Quebec.[12]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Union Act, 1840, 3 & 4 Vict. (UK), c. 35, s. 2.
  2. ^ Union Act, 1840, s. 19.
  3. ^ Canada 125: Constitutions 1763–1982 – Evolution of a Democracy (PDF). Méridien. 1992. p. 117. ISBN 2894150911. Union Act, 1840 (XIX) ... that the Counties of Dorchester and Beauce shall be united into and form One County, to be called the County of Dorchester...
  4. ^ Paul Cornell, Alignment of Political Groups in Canada, 1841–67 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962; reprinted in paperback 2015), p. 36.
  5. ^ An Act to enlarge the Representation of the People of this Province in Parliament, SProvC 1853, c. 152, s. 1(11).
  6. ^ An Act to enlarge the Representation of the People of this Province in Parliament, s. 3.
  7. ^ J.O. Côté, Political Appointments and Elections in the Province of Canada, 1841 to 1860 (Quebec: St. Michel and Darveau, 1860), pp. 43–58.
  8. ^ Québec Dictionary of Parliamentary Biography, from 1764 to the present.
  9. ^ Cornell, Alignment of Political Groups in Canada, 1841–67, pp. 93–111.
  10. ^ British North America Act, 1867 (now the Constitution Act, 1867), s. 6.
  11. ^ Constitution Act, 1867, s. 40, para. 2.
  12. ^ Constitution Act, 1867, s. 80.

46°11′31″N 70°46′16″W / 46.192°N 70.771°W / 46.192; -70.771

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