Toronto (Province of Canada electoral district)

This article is about the pre-Confederation electoral district. For the successor federal electoral districts, see Toronto East and West Toronto.

For one of the successor provincial electoral districts, see Toronto East (provincial electoral district).

Toronto
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

Toronto 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. Toronto was represented by two members in the Legislative Assembly. It was abolished in 1867, upon the creation of Canada and the province of Ontario.

Boundaries

Toronto electoral district was based on the municipal boundaries of Old Toronto, as they existed in 1841.

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 city of Toronto would constitute one electoral district in the Legislative Assembly of the new Parliament, with two members.[2]

The Act gave the Governor General of the Province of Canada the power to draw the boundaries for the electoral district.[3] The first Governor General, 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 boundaries were based largely on the municipal boundaries of Toronto as it existed in 1841.[4]

Members of the Legislative Assembly

Toronto was represented by two members in the Legislative Assembly.[2] The following were the members for Toronto.

Parliament	Years	Members[5]		Party[6]
1st Parliament 1841–1844	1841–1844	John Henry Dunn		Unionist; Moderate Reformer
	1841–1843	Isaac Buchanan[a]		Unionist; Moderate Reformer
	1843–1844	Henry Sherwood[b]		Compact Tory
6th Parliament 1858–1861	1858–1861	George Brown		Reformer
	1858-1861	John Beverley Robinson		Conservative

Notes

1. Resigned on January 2, 1843.[7]
2. Elected in by-election, March 6, 1843.[8]

Abolition

Toronto 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] The district was succeeded by two federal electoral districts, East Toronto and West Toronto in the House of Commons of Canada[10] and by two provincial electoral districts with the same names in 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 of 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 (46).
8. Côté, Political Appointments and Elections, p. 59, note (47).
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.