Brockville (Province of Canada electoral district)

Brockville electoral district was based largely on the municipal boundaries of the town of Brockville, located on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River in the eastern area of Canada West (now the province of Ontario). Brockville was the major centre of the electoral district.

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 Upper Canada and Lower Canada were abolished.[https://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/PreConfederation/ua_1840.html Union Act, 1840, 3 & 4 Vict., c. 35, s. 2.] The Union Act provided that the town of Brockville would constitute one electoral district in the Legislative Assembly of the new Parliament,[https://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/PreConfederation/ua_1840.html Union Act, 1840, s. 17.] but gave the Governor General of the Province of Canada the power to draw the boundaries for the electoral district.[https://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/PreConfederation/ua_1840.html Union Act, 1840, s. 21.]

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:

{{block indent | 1=The Town of Brockville shall be bounded and limited as follows :—commencing on the River Saint Lawrence, in the limit between lots numbers nine and ten of the Township of Elizabethtown ; thence north, twenty-four degrees west, fifty-four chains, more or less, to the centre of the first concession ; thence south, fifty-five degrees west, eighty chains, more or less, to the limit between lots numbers thirteen and fourteen ; thence south, twenty-four degrees east, fifty-six chains, more or less to the River Saint Lawrence ; then easterly, along the waters of the Saint Lawrence, to the place of beginning.[https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_00967_1/8?r=0&s=3 Proclamation, February 27, 1841. Reproduced in the Journal of the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada, 1841, pp. ix–xi.]}}

Brockville was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly.[https://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/PreConfederation/ua_1840.html Union Act, 1840, s. 17]. The following were the members for Brockville.

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 Ontario.[https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/section-70.html#h-12 Constitution Act, 1867, s. 70.]

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{{source attribution|Proclamation, Governor General Lord Sydenham, February 27, 1841. Reproduced in the Journal of the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada, First Parliament of the Province of Canada, First Session, 1841, pp. ix–xi.}}

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Category:Electoral districts of Canada West