Three Rivers (French name: Trois-Rivières) was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada East. It was centered on the town of Trois-Rivières (known at that time as "Three Rivers" in English). The district was created in 1841, based in part on the previous electoral district of the same name in the Parliament of Lower Canada.

Three Rivers electoral district was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly. The district was abolished in 1867, upon the creation of Canada and the province of Quebec.

Boundaries

Three Rivers electoral district was located on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River, midway between Quebec City and Montreal. It was created in 1841, upon the establishment of the new Province of Canada. Although it was centered on the town of Trois-Rivières, in the same way as the predecessor electoral district of the same name for Lower Canada, its boundaries had been significantly altered by the Governor General, Lord Sydenham, to favour voters of British background over the francophone Canadiens. Sydenham wanted to ensure members were elected who would support the new union and his government and drew the boundaries with this goal. It was an example of a linguistic and ethnic gerrymander.Irving Martin Abella, "The 'Sydenham Election' of 1841" (1966), 47 Canadian Historical Review 326, p. 334 [subscription needed].Paul G. Cornell, Alignment of Political Groups in Canada 1841-1867 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962), p. 4.

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.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.Union Act, 1840, s. 18.

Three Rivers was one of the electoral districts specifically defined in the Union Act. The Act provided that the town would continue as a separate electoral district, electing one member to the Legislative Assembly.Union Act, 1840, s. 20. However, instead of continuing the district under the previous boundaries, the Act gave the Governor General the power to draw new boundaries for the district.Union Act, 1840, s. 21. The Governor General exercised this power by a proclamation on March 4, 1841, only four days before the elections were to begin on March 8."Proclamation, March 4, 1841", Journals of the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada, 1st Parliament, 1st Session, 1841, p. xiv.Abella, "The 'Sydenham Election' of 1841", p. 337.

The boundaries set by the Proclamation were as follows:

The effect of these boundaries was to contract the electoral district, excluding the outlying areas of the town, which had a largely French-speaking population, thus diluting the voting strength of the francophone voters.

Members of the Legislative Assembly (1841–1867)

Three Rivers was a single-member constituency.

The following were the members of the Legislative Assembly for Three Rivers. 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, Political Appointments and Elections in the Province of Canada, 1841 to 1860 (Quebec: St. Michel and Darveau, 1860), pp. 43–58.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.

Parliament Members Years in Office Party 1st Parliament1841–1844 Charles Richard Ogden 1841–1844 Unionist; "British" Tory 2nd Parliament1844–1847 Edward Greive 1844–1845 Tory Denis-Benjamin Viger 1845–1847 (by-election) "British" Tory 3rd Parliament1848–1851 Antoine Polette 1848–1857 French-Canadian Group 4th Parliament1851–1854 Ministerialist, then temporary opposition moderate 5th Parliament1854–1857 Moderate, then Bleu 6th Parliament1858–1861 William McDonell Dawson 1858–1861 Conservative 7th Parliament1861–1863 Joseph-Édouard Turcotte 1861–1864 Bleu 8th Parliament1863–1867 Joseph-Édouard Turcotte Louis-Charles Boucher de Niverville 1865–1867(by-election) Confederation; Bleu

Notes

Abolition

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.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 CanadaConstitution Act, 1867, s. 40, para. 2 and the Legislative Assembly of Quebec.Constitution Act, 1867, s. 80.

See also List of elections in the Province of Canada

References