Chambly was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada East. It was created in 1841, based on the previous electoral district of the same name for the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, for an area south of Montreal. It was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly.

The electoral district was abolished in 1867, upon the creation of Canada and the province of Quebec.

Boundaries

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, ss. 16, 18. The Chambly electoral district of Lower Canada was not altered by the Act, and therefore continued with the same boundaries which had been set by a statute of Lower Canada in 1829:

The electoral district was located south of Montreal, in the Montérégie region. The elections were held at Longueuil.An Act to make a new and more convenient subdivision of the Province into Counties, for the purpose of effecting a more equal Representation thereof in the Assembly than heretofore, SLC 1829, c. 73, s. 3.

Members of the Legislative Assembly (1841–1867)

Chambly was a single-member constituency.Union Act, 1840, s. 18.

The following were the members of the Legislative Assembly for Chambly. 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 John Yule Unionist and Government supporter Louis Lacoste French-Canadian Group 2nd Parliament 1844–1847 Louis Lacoste French-Canadian Group 3rd Parliament 1848–1851 Pierre Beaubien French-Canadian Group Louis Lacoste Ministerialist 4th Parliament 1851–1853 Louis Lacoste Ministerialist 5th Parliament 1854–1857 Noël Darche Rouge 6th Parliament 1858–1861 Louis Lacoste Bleu 7th Parliament 1861–1863 Charles Boucher de Boucherville Independent 8th Parliament 1863–1867 Confederation; Bleu

Notes

Abolition

The district was abolished on July 1, 1867, when the British North America Act, 1867 came into force, 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.

References