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Parliament of Upper Canada

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Parliament of Upper Canada
Logo
Type
Type
HousesLegislative Council
Legislative Assembly
History
Founded1791 (1791)
Disbanded1841 (1841)
Preceded byCouncil for the Affairs of the Province of Quebec
Succeeded byParliament of the Province of Canada

The Parliament of Upper Canada was the legislature for the government of Upper Canada, a British colony in British North America that existed from 1791 to 1841. Upper Canada was created when the old Province of Quebec was divided into Upper Canada and Lower Canada by the Constitutional Act of 1791.[1][a] The act laid out the basic structure of the colonial government, including the Parliament of Upper Canada and the two chambers within it. The Parliament was in operation between 1792 and 1841.

Modelled after the Parliament of United Kingdom, the Parliament of Upper Canada consisted of three components:

Despite its design, the Parliament of Upper Canada failed to deliver the key promise of Westminster system – a executive accountable to the a legislature representing the power of the purse. Due to the heavily overlapping membership between the Legislative Council and the Executive Council, and to the Family Compact's dominance in these two councils, a small clique of elites with extensive family ties and holding the key government posts were able to exercise government authority while routinely disregarding the will of the elected lower house, the House of Assembly of Upper Canada. As observed by Earl of Durham in his consequential report, the parliament's upper chamber, the Legislative Council, was "practically hardly any thing but a veto in the hands of public functionaries on all the acts of that popular branch of the legislature in which they were always in a minority. This veto they used without much scruple."[3]

Following the Rebellions of 1837 and Lord Durham's 1839 Report to the British Government, Upper Canada and Lower Canada were rejoined in 1841 to create the Province of Canada. The Parliament of Upper Canada was therewith replaced by the newly created Parliament of the United Province of Canada.

List of parliaments

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This section is an excerpt from House of Assembly of Upper Canada § List of parliaments.[edit]

Over the fifty-year lifespan of Upper Canada, its parliament convened over thirteen parliamentary terms.[4]

ParlElectionConvenedDissolved Sess.Mems.Speaker Lt. Governor
1stAugust 1792Sept. 17, 1792July 1, 1796516 Captain John McDonell John Graves
Simcoe
2ndAugust 1796 June 1, 1797July 7, 1800416 David William Smith (1797–1800)
Samuel Street (from June 5, 1800
Peter
Hunter
3rdJuly 1800May 28, 1801May 14, 1804419 David William Smith (1st & 2nd sess.)
Richard Beasley (3rd & 4th sess.)
4thMay 1804 Feb. 2, 1805May 21, 1808419 Alexander Macdonell
Francis
Gore
5thMay 1808Feb. 2, 1809May 1, 1812425Samuel Street
6thJune 1812July 27, 1812April 18, 1816525 Allan McLean
7thJuly 1816 Feb. 4, 1817May 20, 1820525 Allan McLean
Sir Peregrine
Maitland
8thJuly 1820Jan. 31, 1821June 22, 1824440 Levius Peters Sherwood
9thJuly 1824Jan. 13, 1825June 24, 1828444 John Wilson
10thJuly 1828Jan. 8, 1829 [b]Sept. 8, 1830248Marshall Spring Bidwell Sir John
Colborne[c]
11thOctober 1830Jan. 7, 1831Sept. 1, 1834452 Archibald McLean
12thOctober 1834Jan. 15, 1835 [d]May 28, 1836 261Marshall Spring Bidwell
Sir Francis B.
Head
13thJune 1836Nov. 8, 1836[e]Feb 10, 1840 562Archibald McLean (1st sess.)
Allan MacNab (from 2nd sess.)[f]
Sir George Arthur[g]
Charles P. Thomson[h]

The 7th and the 10th parliaments were dissolved upon the demise of the Crown, respectively the death of King George III in 1820 and of his son King George IV in 1830. Both occurred decades before the operation of transatlantic telegraph, therefore the demise were not formally proclaimed in the province until weeks after the actual death of the monarchs. By the time the news of the passing of George III arrived, the 7th Parliament had already prorogued its fifth session,[7] so the proclamation caused no real change to the parliamentary cycle. It did however prompted a formal communications from the Government House in Quebec to the Montreal Herald confirming the validity of all legislative actions taken before the formal notice of the demise.[8] The demise of George IV in the summer of 1830 triggered the general election in October that year.

The 12th Parliament was dissolved early by Sir Francis Bond Head when upon its refusal to provide supply in protest of Head's disregard of the advice of the Reform Party executive councillors. With Head's overt support, conservatives secured a working majority in the 13th Parliament, and proceed to pre-empt the operation of the demise of the Crown with legislation preventing dissolution, enacted by Head in March 1937, just in time to forestall dissolution upon the death of William IV three months later.[9][6] The tactical victory was short-lived and contributed further to discontent among reformers. Events eventually led to the armed rebellion starting in December 1837. Head was recalled by the Whig government in London soon after.[10]

In the table above, the columns with headings "Mems." and "Speaker" display information specific to the House of Assembly. For further information about the assembly's composition and its evolution, please see the article House of Assembly of Upper Canada and the articles of the specific parliamentary terms, linked under the column heading "Parl."

The term "riding", in modern day the most commonly used colloquial term to denote a electoral division or district in Canada, was introduced to Upper Canada initially for the purpose of defining judicial districts, not electoral ones. The 1792 royal proclamation that prescribed the province's original sixteen electoral divisions also defined nineteen counties, and eight ridings as subdivisions of three counties. Of the eight ridings, only four were also used as electoral districts.[11]

The membership and speakership of the Legislative Council were not dependent on the lifecycle of parliamentary terms. Please see the article Legislative Council of Upper Canada for further information its membership composition and its speakership.

Location and host structure

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The Parliament of Upper Canada convened in the capital of the province, which was located in Newark (today's Niagara-on-the-lake) during the 1st Parliament, and was relocated to the Town of York, later renamed Toronto in 1834, for the remainder twelve parliaments.

Various locations were identified as being the site for the Parliament of Upper Canada while the provincial capital was located in Newark (today's Niagara-on-the-lake). Once the capital was moved to the town of York (today's Toronto), location of the assembly were more definitively documented.

Years Location Building & notes [12]
1792-1796Newark[i] Various mentioned, including:
  • the Anchorage
  • Freemanson's Hall
  • Navy Hall (Official residence of LG Simcoe)
1796-1813Town of York
(until 1834)

Toronto		 Palace of Parliament, Front and Parliament Sts. (destroyed on 27 April 1813 by arson by American soldiers)
1814 (once)Jordan's York Holel, between King and Front Sts.[j]
1815-1820The Lawn, Wellington and York Sts. (Personal residence of Chief Justice William Henry Draper)
1820-1824Upper Canada's Second Parliament Building, Front & Parliament Sts.[k] (Destroyed by accidental fire on 30 December 1824)
1825-1828The later York General Hospital, King and Hospital[l] Sts. (Consequently delay the opening of the hospital)
1829-1832The former Court House, bordered by King/Church/Court/Toronto Sts. (South of present day location of the Courthouse Square Park)
1832-1840The later First Ontario Parliament Buildings, bordered by Front/John/Simcoe/Wellington Sts.[m] (third parliament building for Upper Canada)

The successor legislature, the Parliament of the Province of Canada, initially convened in Kingston, the capital of the newly united province, at the Alwington House, and would move numerous times in its short lifespan.[12] The capital of the Province of Canada would returned to its former home in Toronto twice, between 1849 and 1851, and again between 1855 and 1859, with Upper Canada's third parliament building, known as the First Ontario Parliament Buildings, hosting its legislature during those periods. Upon Canadian Confederation, the building would house the legislature of the Province of Ontario, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, until 1892.

Notes

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  1. ↑ Constitution Act 1791 was the colloquial short title commonly used in Canada, but a legally sanctioned one until 1985. The legally sanctioned short title for the act was The Clergy Endowments (Canada) Act, 1791.[2]
  2. ↑ dissolution upon demise of the Crown, King George IV
  3. ↑ enobled as Baron Seaton upon return to England
  4. ↑ Dissolution orderd by Lieutenant Governor, Sir Francis Bond Head following the assembly's refusal of supply
  5. ↑ Legislation was enacted in March 1837 to prevent dissolution of parliament upon the demise of William IV in June 1837[5][6]
  6. ↑ Henry Ruttan acting 1837-12-28 to 1838-01-24 during MacNab's absence)
  7. ↑ created a baronet upon return to England
  8. ↑ enobled as Baron Sydenham soon after the union of Upper and Lower Canadas
  9. ↑ Present day Niagara-on-the-Lake
  10. ↑ Present day location of Toronto Sun Building
  11. ↑ Structure located on same plot as Palace of Parliament but further northwest (King and Berkeley)
  12. ↑ Present day Richmond Street
  13. ↑ Present day location of Metro Hall/CBC Broadcasting Centre

References

[edit]
  1. ↑ UK 1791.
  2. ↑ Short Titles Act, 1896. Statutes of the United Kingdom. Vol. 59 & 60 Victoria. 1896. c. 14.
  3. ↑ (Durham Report) Lambton, John, Earl of Durham (1839). Report on the Affairs of British North America (Report). London. p. 26.{{cite report}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ↑ Froman 1984.
  5. ↑ Greer, Allan (March 1995). "1837-38: Rebellion Reconsidered". The Canadian Historical Review. 76 (1): 1–18. ISSN 0008-3755.
  6. 1 2 Upper Canada 1837.
  7. ↑ Assembly 1818, p. 262.
  8. ↑ Doughty, Arthur George; Story, Norah, eds. (1935). "Communication for the Montreal Herald, 20 March 1820 (published in the Quebec Gazette, 27 March 1820)". Documents relating to the constitutional history of Canada. Vol. 1819–1828. Public Archives of Canada. p. 45.
  9. ↑ Assembly 1837, p. 639.
  10. ↑ Hayne, David, ed. (1972). "Head, Sir Francis Bond". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. X (1871–1880) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
  11. ↑ Doughty, Arthur G.; McArthur, Duncan A., eds. (1972-07-16). "Proclamation Dividing The Province Of Upper Canada Into Counties" (PDF). Sessional papers of the Parliament of the Dominion of Canada, 1914. 25 (Documents relating to the Constitutional History of Canada, 1791–1818): 77–82.
  12. 1 2 Froman 1984, p. v.
  • Constitution Act, 1791. Statutes of the United Kingdom. Vol. 31 George III. 1791. c. 31.
  • Wilfred, Campbell LL.D. (September 1910). "A List of the Members of the House of Assembly for Upper Canada from 1792, to the Union in 1841". Proceedings and transactions of the Royal Society of Canada. 3rd. 4 (Meeting of Sept 1910, Transactions of Section II. (Read in part 27th May, 1909.)). Royal Society of Canada: 169–190.
  • Froman, Debra, ed. (1984). Legislators and Legislatures of Ontario: A Reference Guide. Vol. 1. Legislative Library, Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
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