Beauce (Province of Canada electoral district)

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.[https://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/PreConfederation/ua_1840.html Union Act, 1840], 3 & 4 Vict. (UK), c. 35, s. 2. The Union Act provided that Beauce would be merged with the county of Dorchester to form the Dorchester riding, represented by one member.[https://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/PreConfederation/ua_1840.html Union Act, 1840], s. 19.{{cite book|title=Canada 125: Constitutions 1763–1982 – Evolution of a Democracy|publisher=Méridien|year=1992|isbn=2894150911|page=117|url=https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2020/spac-pspc/P60-4-5-1992-eng.pdf

|quote=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...}}

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.Paul Cornell, [https://archive.org/details/alignmentofpolit0000corn Alignment of Political Groups in Canada, 1841–67] (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962; reprinted in paperback 2015), p. 36. The boundaries of the new riding of Beauce were as follows:

{{block indent |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.{{Cite canlaw|short title =An Act to enlarge the Representation of the People of this Province in Parliament|abbr =SProvC|year =1853|chapter =152|section =1(11).|link =https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_00925_1/600}}}}

Beauce was a single-member constituency, represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly.[https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_00925_1/620 An Act to enlarge the Representation of the People of this Province in Parliament], s. 3.

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.J.O. Côté, [https://archive.org/details/politicalappoint00cotj_0/page/43/mode/1up Political Appointments and Elections in the Province of Canada, 1841 to 1860] (Quebec: St. Michel and Darveau, 1860), pp. 43–58.[http://www.assnat.qc.ca/en/membres/notices/index.html Québec Dictionary of Parliamentary Biography, from 1764 to the present].Cornell, [https://archive.org/details/alignmentofpolit0000corn Alignment of Political Groups in Canada, 1841–67], pp. 93–111.

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.[https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/section-6.html#h-2 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 Canada[https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/section-40.html#h-6 Constitution Act, 1867], s. 40, para. 2. and the Legislative Assembly of Quebec.[https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/section-80.html#h-12 Constitution Act, 1867], s. 80.

• List of elections in the Province of Canada

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{{Coord|46.192|N|70.771|W|region:CA-QC_scale:50000|display=title}}

Category:Electoral districts of Canada East

Category:1854 establishments in Canada East

Category:1867 disestablishments in Quebec