Lennox and Addington was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada West (now Ontario). Based on the combined counties of Lennox and Addington, it was created in 1841, upon the establishment of the Province of Canada by the union of Upper Canada and Lower Canada.
 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 |
Lennox and Addington 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
editLennox and Addington electoral district was located in the eastern area of Canada West. It extended from the Bay of Quinte on the north shore of Lake Ontario north to the Ottawa 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 pre-existing electoral boundaries of Upper Canada would continue to be used in the new Parliament, unless altered by the Union Act itself.[2]
Lennox and Addington Counties had been an electoral district in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada.[3] Their boundaries were not altered by the Union Act. Those boundaries had originally been set by a proclamation of the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe, in 1792, defining the two separate counties of Addington and Lennox (originally called Lenox):
That the ninth of the said counties be hereafter called by the name of the county of Lenox; which county is to be bounded on the east by the westernmost line of the county of Addington, on the south and west by the bay of Quinte, to the easternmost boundary of the Mohawk village, thence by a line along the westernmost boundary of the late township of Richmond, running north sixteen degrees west to the depth of twelve miles, thence running north seventy-four degrees east until it meets the northwesternmost boundary of the county of Addington; and comprehending all the islands in the bays and nearest to the shores thereof.[4]
The boundaries had been further defined by a statute of Upper Canada in 1798:
Since Lennox and Addington were not changed by the Union Act, those boundaries continued to be used for the new electoral district.
Members of the Legislative Assembly
editThe district of Lennox and Addington was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly.[2] The following were the members for Lennox and Addington.
| Parliament | Years | Member[6] | Party[7] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Parliament 1841–1844 |
1841–1844 | John Solomon Cartwright | 
|
Unionist; Compact Tory |
Abolition
editThe 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.[8] It was succeeded by electoral districts of Leeds North and Leeds South in both the House of Commons of Canada[9] and the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.[10]
References
edit- ^ Union Act, 1840, 3 & 4 Vict. (UK), c. 35, s. 2.
- ^ a b Union Act, 1840, s. 16.
- ^ 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).
- ^ 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.
- ^ An act for the better division of this province, SUC 1798 (38 Geo. III), c. 5, s. 39. 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).
- ^ J.O. Côté, Political Appointments and Elections in the Province of Canada, 1841 to 1860, (Quebec: St. Michel and Darveau, 1860), pp. 43-58.
- ^ 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.
- ^ British North America Act, 1867 (now the Constitution Act, 1867), s. 6.
- ^ Constitution Act, 1867, s. 40, para. 2
- ^ Constitution Act, 1867, s. 70.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Proclamation, Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, July 16, 1792
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..