Bytown (Province of Canada electoral district)

Bytown was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada. The district represented the town of Bytown, in Canada West, which was re-named Ottawa in 1855. The electoral district was created in 1841, upon the establishment of the Province of Canada, from the merger of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. It was renamed to Ottawa following the renaming of the city.

Bytown
Canada West

Province of Canada electoral district
Defunct pre-Confederation electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
District created	1841
District abolished	1867
First contested	1841
Last contested	1863

Bytown 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

Bytown electoral district was primarily centred on the town of Bytown, Canada West (now Ottawa, Ontario). It was located on the south shore of the Ottawa River, which was the boundary with Canada East, now the province of Quebec.

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.[1] Prior to the Union, Bytown had been included in the electoral district of the County of Carleton in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, but the Union Act provided that Bytown would constitute a separate electoral district in the Legislative Assembly of the new Parliament.[2]

The Union Act gave the Governor General of the Province of Canada the power to draw the boundaries for the electoral district.[3] The first Governor General, Lord Sydenham, issued a proclamation shortly after the formation of the Province of Canada in early 1841, establishing the boundaries for the electoral district:

The Town of Bytown shall be bounded and limited as follows to wit: —commencing on the western shore of the River Rideau in the limit between lots lettered E. and F. in the broken concession D. on the River Rideau, in the Township of Nepean ; then south sixty-six degrees west, one hundred and seventy-five chains, more or less, to the limit between lots numbers thirty-nine and forty, in the first concession from the Ottawa, of the said Township of Nepean ; then north sixteen degrees west, ninety-one chains, more or less, to the River Ottawa ; then easterly and north-easterly, following the waters of the same with the stream, to the mouth of the River Rideau ; then following the waters of the said River Rideau against the stream, to the place of beginning.[4]

Members of the Legislative Assembly

Bytown was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly.[2] The following were the members for Bytown.

Parliament	Years	Member[5]	Party[6]
1st Parliament 1841–1844	1841–1844	Stewart Derbishire	Moderate Reformer
2nd Parliament 1844–1847	1844–1847	William Stewart	Conservative
3rd Parliament 1848–1851	1848–1851	John Scott	Conservative
4th Parliament 1852–1854	1852–1854	Daniel McLachlin	Reformer
5th Parliament 1854–1857	1854–1857	Agar Yielding	Conservative
6th Parliament 1858–1861	1858–1861	Richard William Scott	Liberal-Conservative
7th Parliament 1861–1863	1861–1863
8th Parliament 1863–1866	1863–1866	Joseph Merrill Currier	Conservative

Significant elections

In the first general election of 1841, Lord Sydenham was actively involved. He took all possible steps to ensure that a majority of the members elected to the Legislative Assembly would be supporters of the union of the Canadas. During a tour of Canada West, he stopped in Bytown and urged two of the leading candidates for the seat to withdraw in favour of his preferred candidate, Stewart Derbishire, even though Derbishire had no connection to Bytown. As part of his arguments, Sydenham told them that it was due to his influence that Bytown had received its own seat, separate from Carleton County.[7] The candidates withdraw, and Derbishire was elected.[8]

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

References

1. Union Act, 1840, 3 & 4 Vict., c. 35, s. 2.
2. Union Act, 1840, s. 17.
3. Union Act, 1840, s. 21.
4. Proclamation, February 27, 1841. Reproduced in the Journal of the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada, 1841, pp. ix–xi.
5. J.O. Côté, Political Appointments and Elections in the Province of Canada, 1841 to 1860, (Quebec: St. Michel and Darveau, 1860), pp. 43-58.
6. For 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.
7. Irving Martin Abella, "The 'Sydenham Election' of 1841", Canadian Historical Review (1966) 47:326-343. [Subscription needed.]
8. There is a conflict in the sources as to whether Derbishire was opposed or acclaimed in the election. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography indicates that although several candidates withdrew under Sydenham's influence, one candidate refused to withdraw and was defeated by Derbishire: R. Forbes Hirsch, "Stewart, William", Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. VIII (1851-1860). However, Cornell in his study of elections to the Parliament of the Province of Canada states that Derbishire was elected by acclamation: Paul G. Cornell, Alignment of Political Groups in Canada 1841-67 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962; reprinted in paperback, 2015), at p. 6.
9. British North America Act, 1867 (now the Constitution Act, 1867), s. 6.
10. Constitution Act, 1867, s. 40, para. 2
11. Constitution Act, 1867, s. 70.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Journal of the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada, 1st Parliament (1841)