Glengarry (Province of Canada electoral district)

Glengarry was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada West, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River, bordering on Canada East. It was created in 1841, upon the establishment of the Province of Canada by the union of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. Glengarry was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly. It was abolished in 1867, upon the creation of Canada and the province of Ontario.

This article is about the pre-Confederation electoral district. For the successor federal electoral district, see Glengarry (electoral district). For the successor provincial electoral district, see Glengarry (provincial electoral district).
Glengarry
Canada West
Province of Canada electoral district
Defunct pre-Confederation electoral district
LegislatureLegislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
District created1841
District abolished1867
First contested1841
Last contested1863

Boundaries

Glengarry electoral district was located in Canada West (now the province of Ontario), on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River, bordering on Canada East (now the province of Quebec). It was based on Glengarry County, now part of the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry.

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.[1] 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.[2]

The Upper Canada electoral district of Glengarry was not altered by the Act. It was therefore continued with the same boundaries in the new Parliament. Those boundaries had originally been set by a proclamation of the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe, in 1792:

That the first of the said counties be hereafter called by the name of the county of Glengary; which county is to be bounded on the east by the lines that divide Upper from Lower Canada, on the south by the river St. Lawrence, and westerly by the easternmost boundary of the late township of Cornwall, running north twenty-four degrees west until it intersects the Ottawa or Grand river, thence descending the said river until it meets the divisional lines aforesaid. The said county is to comprehend all the islands in the said river St. Lawrence nearest to the said county, and in the whole or greater part fronting the same.[3]

The boundaries had been further defined by a statute of Upper Canada in 1798:

That the townships of Lancaster, Charlottenburg and Kenyon, together with the tract of land claimed by the St. Regis Indians, and such of the Islands in the river Saint Lawrence as are wholly or in greater part opposite thereto, shall constitute and form the County of Glengary.[4]

Members of the Legislative Assembly

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

Parliament Years Member[5] Party[6]
1st Parliament
1841–1844		 1841–1844 John Sandfield Macdonald Moderate Tory, then 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.[7] It was succeeded by electoral districts of the same name in the House of Commons of Canada[8] and the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.[9]

References
  1. Union Act, 1840, 3 & 4 Vict., c. 35, s. 2.
  2. Union Act, 1840, s. 16.
  3. Proclamation, Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, July 16, 1792; reprinted in Statutes of the Province of Upper Canada; Together with Such British Statutes, Ordinances of Quebec, and Proclamations, as Relate to the Said Province (Kingston: F. M. Hill., 1831) p. 24.
  4. An act for the Better Division of this Province, SUC 1798, c. 5, s. 1. Reprinted in The Statutes of Upper Canada to the Time of Union, Revised and Published by Authority, Vol. I - Public Acts (Toronto: Robert Stanton, Queen's Printer, 1843).
  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. British North America Act, 1867 (now the Constitution Act, 1867), s. 6.
  8. Constitution Act, 1867, s. 40, para. 2
  9. Constitution Act, 1867, s. 70.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Proclamation, Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, July 16, 1792
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: An act for the better division of this province, SUC 1798, c. 5..

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