Megantick (Province of Canada electoral district)

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.[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 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.[https://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/PreConfederation/ua_1840.html Union Act, 1840, ss. 16, 18.] The Megantick electoral district of Lower Canada was not altered by the Act, and therefore continued with the same boundaries which had been set by a statute of Lower Canada in 1829:

{{block indent | 1=The County of Megantick shall be bounded on the north west by the south lines of the augmentation of Lotbinière, and part of Saint Jean d'Eschaillons to the River Becancour, being the south east boundary lines of the County of Lotbinière as before described, on the north east in part by the west lateral lines and rear lines of the seigniories of Sainte Croix and Saint Giles, on the west by the east bounds of the township of Stanford, then easterly along the north west bounds of the township of Arthabaska to its intersection with the north west outline of the township of Halifax, thence south westerly along the north west bounds of Halifax, to the northern angle of Chester, thence south easterly along the north east bounds of the townships of Chester, to the most easterly angle of the said township, thence north easterly along the north west outline of the township of Wolfstown, to the most northerly angle of the said township, thence south easterly along the north east boundary line of the said township, to the easterly angle of the same, thence south easterly to the River Chaudière or Lake Megantick; which County so bounded, comprehends the townships of Somerset, Nelson, Halifax, Inverness, Ireland, Wolfston, Leeds, Thetford, Broughton, Colraine, Tring, Shenley, Oulney, Winslow, Dorset and Gayhurst.[http://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_00926_39/472?r=0&s=1 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. 9.]}}

The electoral district of Megantick was located in the Eastern Townships (now the Estrie and Chaudière-Appalaches regions).

Megantick was a single-member constituency.[https://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/PreConfederation/ua_1840.html Union Act, 1840, s. 18.]

The following were the members of the Legislative Assembly from Megantick. "Party" was a fluid concept, especially during the early years of the Province of Canada. 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.[https://archive.org/details/politicalappoint00cotj_0/page/42 J.O. Côté, 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].Paul G. Cornell, Alignment of Political Groups in Canada, 1841–67 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962; reprinted in paperback 2015), pp. 93–111.

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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.[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.]

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{{source attribution|Statutes of Lower Canada, 13th Provincial Parliament, 2nd Session (1829), c. 74}}

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Category:Electoral districts of Canada East