Kingston (Province of Canada electoral district)

Kington was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada West (now Ontario). It was created in 1841, upon the establishment of the Province of Canada by the union of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. Kingston was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly. It was abolished in 1867, upon the creation of Canada and the province of Ontario.

Kingston
Canada West

Province of Canada electoral district
Defunct pre-Confederation electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
District created	1841
District abolished	1867
First contested	1841
Last contested	1863

Boundaries

Kingston electoral district was primarily centred on the town of Kingston, Canada West (now Ontario). It was located on the north shore of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the Saint Lawrence River.

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 town of Kingston would constitute one electoral district in the Legislative Assembly of the new Parliament,[2] but gave the Governor General of the Province of Canada the power to draw the boundaries for the electoral district.[3]

The first Governor General of the Province of Canada, Lord Sydenham, issued a proclamation shortly after the formation of the Province of Canada in early 1841, establishing the boundaries for the electoral district:

The Town of Kingston, shall be bounded and limited as follows, commencing on Lake Ontario, in the limit between lots numbers twenty-four and twenty-five, in the Township of Kingston, at the south-west angle of the said lot number twenty-five ; then north, one hundred and seven chains, fifty links more or less, to the northern limit of the lands granted to Magdalen Ferguson ; then east, sixty-one chains, more or less, to the River Cataraqui ; thence along the water's edge of the said river Cataraqui and Lake Ontario, southerly and westerly, to the place of beginning.[4]

Members of the Legislative Assembly

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

Parliament	Years	Member[5]		Party[6]
1st Parliament 1841–1844	1841	Anthony Manahan[note 1]		Reformer
	1841–1844	Samuel Bealey Harrison[note 2]		Reformer

Notes

1. Resigned on June 18, 1841, following appointment as Collector of Customs, Toronto.[7]
2. Elected in by-election, July 1, 1841.[8]

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 of the same name in 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. Union Act, 1840, s. 17.
3. Union Act, 1840, s. 21.
4. 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.
5. J.O. Côté, Political Appointments and Elections in the Province of Canada, 1841 to 1860, (Quebec: St. Michel and Darveau, 1860), pp. 43-58.
6. 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.
7. Côté, Political Appointments and Elections, p. 59, note (15).
8. Côté, Political Appointments and Elections, p. 59, note (14).
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.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 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.