Electoral districts of Lower Canada


The electoral districts of Lower Canada were territorial subdivisions of the British North American Province of Lower Canada 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, date at which the constitution of the country was suspended as a consequence of the Rebellions of 1837.
The Constitutional Act of 1791 provided for the creation of a House of Assembly or Legislative Assembly, made up of at least 50 elected members. Lieutenant governor Alured Clarke divided the territory of the province into 27 districts each returning one or two Members to the Provincial Parliament. 23 districts were returning two MPPs and 4 were returning a single one. The rural districts were called counties, while the urban ones were called cities or bouroughs. 16 out of 27, bore typically English names, while the others bore French or Indigenous names.
In 1828, governor James Kempt, who was in good terms with the elected House of Assembly, favoured the redrawing of the electoral map: five new districts were created, in total electing 8 new MPPs, 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 46 electoral districts in Lower Canada and they were returning 90 MPPs in total. 29 of these bore French names, 11 Indigenous names and 6 English names.

1792 to 1829

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