Portneuf (Province of Canada electoral district)

Portneuf was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada East, immediately west of Quebec City. It was created in 1841 and was based on the previous electoral district of the same name for the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. It was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly.

This article is about the pre-Confederation electoral district. For the successor federal electoral district, see Portneuf (electoral district). For the successor provincial electoral district, see Portneuf (provincial electoral district).

Portneuf
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

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

Boundaries

Portneuf electoral district was to the west of Quebec City (now in the Portneuf Regional County Municipality), running from the northern shore of the Saint Lawrence River to the northern boundary of the Province.

The Union Act, 1840 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 the pre-existing electoral boundaries of Lower Canada and Upper Canada would continue to be used in the new Parliament, unless altered by the Union Act itself.[2]

The Lower Canada electoral district of Portneuf was not altered by the Act. It therefore continued with the same boundaries which had been set by a statute of Lower Canada in 1829:

The County of Portneuf shall be bounded on the north east by the south west boundary line of the Seigniories of Sillery and St. Gabriel, and by a prolongation of the said line, on the south west by the north east boundary line of the Seigniory of Sainte Anne and its augmentation and by a prolongation of the said line, on the north west by the northern boundary of the Province, and on the south east by the River Saint Lawrence; which County so bounded comprises the Seigniories of Gaudarville, Fossambault, Desmaures or Saint Augustin, Guillaume Bonhomme, Neuville or Pointe aux Trembles, Bourg-Louis, Belair and its augmentation, Dauteuil, Jacques Cartier, Barony of Portneuf, Perthuis, Deschambault, Lachevrotiere, La Tesserie, Francheville, Grondines, reste des Grondines, and their augmentations.[3]

Members of the Legislative Assembly

Portneuf was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly.[4] The following were the members for Portneuf.

Parliament Years Members[5] Party[6]
1st Parliament
1841–1844		 1841–1842 Thomas Cushing Aylwin[note 1] Anti-unionist; Groupe canadien-français
1842–1844
(ministerial by-election)		 Thomas Cushing Aylwin[note 2] Anti-unionist; Groupe canadien-français

Notes
  1. Seat vacated on September 24, 1842, on appointment as Solicitor-General of Canada East, an office of profit under the Crown. [7]
  2. Re-elected in subsequent by-election.[7]

Abolition

The district was abolished on July 1, 1867, when the British North America Act, 1867 came into force, splitting the Province of Canada into Quebec and Ontario.[8] It was succeeded by electoral districts of the same name in the House of Commons of Canada[9] and the Legislative Assembly of Quebec.[10]

References
  1. Union Act, 1840, 3 & 4 Vict., c. 35, s. 2.
  2. Union Act, 1840, s. 18.
  3. An Act to make a new and more convenient subdivision of the Province into Counties, for the purpose of effecting a more equal Representation thereof in the Assembly than heretofore, SLC 1829, c. 73, s. 1, para. 36.
  4. Union Act, 1840, s. 18.
  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. See biographies of individual members for party affiliation: Québec Dictionary of Parliamentary Biography, from 1764 to the present.
  7. Côté, Appointments and Elections, p. 59, note (32).
  8. British North America Act, 1867 (now the Constitution Act, 1867), s. 6.
  9. Constitution Act, 1867, s. 40, para. 2
  10. Constitution Act, 1867, s. 80.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Statutes of Lower Canada, 13th Provincial Parliament, 2nd Session (1829), c. 74

See also

Portneuf County

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