| Saint Hyacinthe Canada East | |
| Province: | Province of Canada |
| Prov-Status: | defunct |
| Prov-Created: | 1841 |
| Prov-Abolished: | 1867 |
| Prov-Election-First: | 1841 |
| Prov-Election-Last: | 1863 |
Saint Hyacinthe was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada East. It included the town of Saint Hyacinthe and the surrounding countryside. The district was created in 1841, based on the previous electoral district of the same name for the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada.
Saint Hyacinthe 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.
Saint Hyacinthe electoral district was centred on the town of Saint Hyacinthe, and included the surrounding countryside (now mainly in Les Maskoutains Regional County Municipality). The Yamaska River ran through the district, on its way north to the Saint Lawrence River.
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.[1]
The Lower Canada electoral district of Saint Hyacinthe was not altered by the Act. It was therefore continued with the same boundaries in the new Parliament. Those boundaries had been set by a statute of Lower Canada in 1829:
Saint Hyacinthe was a single-member constituency.[1]
The following were the members of the Legislative Assembly for Saint-Hyacinthe. 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.[2] [3] [4]
| Parliament | Members | Years in office | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Parliament 1841–1844 | Thomas Boutillier | 1841–1851 | Anti-unionist; French-Canadian Group | |
| 2nd Parliament 1844–1847 | French-Canadian Group | |||
| 3rd Parliament 1848–1851 | French-Canadian Group; Ministerialist | |||
| 4th Parliament 1851–1854 | Louis-Victor Sicotte | 1851–1854 | Liberal | |
The 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.[5] It was succeeded by electoral districts of the same name in the House of Commons of Canada[6] and the Legislative Assembly of Quebec.[7]