Vaudreuil (Province of Canada electoral district)

Vaudreuil electoral district was located west of Montreal, between the Saint Lawrence River to the south and the Ottawa River to the north, bordering on Canada West (now in Vaudreuil-Soulanges Regional County Municipality).

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. (UK), 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], s. 18.

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

{{block indent | 1=The County of Vaudreuil shall be bounded on the north and east by the River Ottawa, on the south and south east by the River Saint Lawrence, and on the south west and west by the boundary line separating that part of Lower-Canada, and Upper-Canada situate between the Saint Lawrence and the Ottawa, and shall include the Isle Perrot, and all the Islands in the said Grand or Ottawa River and in the River Saint Lawrence, nearest to the said County, and in the whole or in part fronting the same; which County so bounded, comprises the Seigniories of Vaudreuil, Rigaud, Soulanges and New Longueuil and the Township of Newton.[http://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_00926_39/480?r=undefined&s=undefined 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 (9 Geo. IV), c. 73, s. 1, para. 26.}}

The seigniories which composed Vaudreuil electoral district were as follows:

Image:1700-1855 - Seigneuries Vaudreuil-Soulanges.png

Vaudreuil was a single-member constituency.

The following were the members of the Legislative Assembly for Vaudreuil. 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].Paul G. Cornell, [https://archive.org/details/alignmentofpolit0000corn 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, 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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{{source attribution|Statutes of Lower Canada, 13th Provincial Parliament, 2nd Session (1829), c. 74.}}

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Category:Electoral districts of Canada East