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Leeds (Province of Canada electoral district)

This article is about the pre-Confederation electoral district. For one successor federal electoral district, see Leeds North and Grenville North. For another successor federal electoral district, see Leeds South.
Leeds
Canada West
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

Leeds was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in the eastern area of Canada West (now Ontario). Leeds was created in 1841, upon the establishment of the Province of Canada by the union of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. It was based on Leeds County, located on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River.

Leeds was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly. It was abolished in 1867, upon the creation of Canada and the province of Ontario.

Boundaries

Leeds electoral district was based on Leeds County (now included in the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville). It was located in the eastern area of Canada West, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River. Brockville was the major centre for the riding, although it was a separate 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 Lower Canada and Upper Canada were abolished.[1] The Union Act provided that the pre-existing electoral boundaries of Upper Canada would continue to be used in the new Parliament, unless altered by the Union Act itself.[2]

Leeds County had been an electoral district in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada.[3] The general outline of the boundaries was not altered by the Act. The boundaries had originally been set by a proclamation of the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe, in 1792:

That the fifth of the said counties be hereafter called by the name of the county of Leeds; which county is to be bounded on the east by the westernmost line of the county of Grenvill, on the south by the river St. Lawrence, and on the west by the easternmost boundary line of the late township of Pittsburgh, running north until it intersects the Ottawa or Grand river, thence descending the said river until it meets the northwesternmost boundary of the county of Grenvill. The said county of Leeds is to comprehend all the islands in the said river St. Lawrence nearest the said county, in the whole or greater part fronting the same.[4]

The boundaries had been further defined by a statute of Upper Canada in 1798:

That the townships of Elizabethtown, Yonge, (including what was formerly called Escot,) Lansdown, Leeds, Crosby, Bastard, Burgess, Elmsley and Kitley, together with such of the Islands in the river Saint Lawrence as are wholly or in greater part opposite thereto, do constitute and form the County of Leeds.[5]

Since Leeds was not changed by the Union Act, those boundaries continued to be used for the new electoral district, with one significant change: the Union Act provided that the town of Brockville would be a separate electoral district.[6] Brockville therefore ceased to be included in Leeds electoral district.

Members of the Legislative Assembly

Leeds was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly.[2] The following were the members for Leeds.

Parliament Years Member[7] Party[8]
1st Parliament
1841–1844 		1841–1844 James Morris Unionist; Reform

Abolition

The electoral 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.[9] It was succeeded by electoral districts Leeds North and Grenville North, and Leeds South, in both the House of Commons of Canada[10] and the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.[11]

References

  1. ^ Union Act, 1840, 3 & 4 Vict. (UK), c. 35, s. 2.
  2. ^ a b Union Act, 1840, s. 16.
  3. ^ Journal of the House of Assembly of Upper Canada, from the eighth day of November, 1836, to the fourth day of March, 1837, p. 15 (November 8, 1836).
  4. ^ Proclamation, Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, July 16, 1792; reprinted in Statutes of the Province of Upper Canada; Together with Such British Statutes, Ordinances of Quebec, and Proclamations, as Relate to the Said Province (Kingston: F. M. Hill., 1831) p. 24.
  5. ^ An act for the better division of this province, SUC 1798 (38 Geo. III), c. 5, s. 8. Reprinted in The Statutes of Upper Canada to the Time of Union, Revised and Published by Authority, Vol. I - Public Acts (Toronto: Robert Stanton, Queen's Printer, 1843).
  6. ^ Union Act, 1840, s. 17.
  7. ^ J.O. Côté, Political Appointments and Elections in the Province of Canada, 1841 to 1860, (Quebec: St. Michel and Darveau, 1860), pp. 43-58.
  8. ^ For party affiliations, see Paul G. Cornell, Alignment of Political Groups in Canada, 1841-67 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962; reprinted in paperback 2015), pp. 93-111.
  9. ^ British North America Act, 1867 (now the Constitution Act, 1867), s. 6.
  10. ^ Constitution Act, 1867, s. 40, para. 2
  11. ^ Constitution Act, 1867, s. 70.

Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Proclamation, Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, July 16, 1792.
Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: An act for the better division of this province, SUC 1798, c. 5, s. XX.

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