Electoral districts of Lower Canada


The electoral districts of Lower Canada were territorial subdivisions of the Province of Lower Canada in British North America, serving as the basis of the representation of the population in the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, the lower house of the Provincial Parliament of Lower Canada. This house was the first legislative assembly in the history of Quebec. The districts were used between 1792 and 1838, when the constitution of the province was suspended as a consequence of the Lower Canada Rebellion.
The Constitutional Act 1791 provided for the creation of a House of Assembly or Legislative Assembly, made up of at least fifty elected members. Lieutenant governor Alured Clarke divided the territory of the province into twenty-seven districts each returning one or two members to the Legislative Assembly. Twenty-three districts returned two members and four returned a single members. The rural districts were called "counties", while the urban ones were called "cities" or "bouroughs". Sixteen out of twenty-seven bore typically English names, while the others bore French or Indigenous names.
In 1828, governor James Kempt, who was on good terms with the elected House of Assembly, favoured the redrawing of the electoral map. Five new districts were created, in total electing eight new members, in the newly settled Eastern Townships. These elected their first representatives to Parliament in 1829. The following year, the old districts were subdivided into smaller ones, which for the most part were given French names. A last district was created in 1832 and a second seat was added to existing ones, so that when the constitution was suspended in 1838, there were forty-six electoral districts in Lower Canada. They returned ninety members in total. Twenty-nine of these bore French names, eleven had Indigenous names, and six had English names.

1829 to 1838

DistrictSeatsIn the new Province of Canada
Beauce2Disappeared
Beauharnois2Preserved
Bellechasse2Preserved
Berthier2Preserved
Bonaventure2Preserved
Chambly2Preserved
Champlain2Preserved
Deux-Montagnes2Preserved
Dorchester2Preserved, merged with Beauce
Drummond1Preserved
Gaspé2Preserved
Kamouraska2Preserved
L'Acadie2Disappeared
Lachenaie1Disappeared
Laprairie2Disappeared
L'Assomption2Disappeared
L'Islet2Preserved
Lotbinière2Preserved
Mégantic1Preserved
Missisquoi2Preserved
Montmorency1Preserved, merged with Orléans
County of Montreal2Preserved
Montreal East2Disappeared
Montreal West2Disappeared
Nicolet2Preserved
Orléans2Disappeared
Ottawa2Preserved
Portneuf2Preserved
County of Quebec2Preserved
Lower Town of Quebec2Disappeared
Upper Town of Quebec2Preserved
Richelieu2Preserved
Rimouski2Preserved
Rouville2Preserved
Saguenay2Preserved
Saint-Hyacinthe2Preserved
Saint-Maurice2Preserved
Shefford2Preserved
Sherbrooke2Preserved
Stanstead2Preserved
Terrebonne2Preserved
Trois-Rivières2Preserved
Vaudreuil2Preserved
Verchères2Preserved
William-Henry1Disappeared
Yamaska2Preserved