Legislative Council of the Province of Canada

The Legislative Council of the Province of Canada (French: Conseil législatif de la province du Canada) was the upper house for the Province of Canada, which consisted of the former provinces of Lower Canada, then known as Canada East and later the province of Quebec, and Upper Canada, then known as Canada West and later the province of Ontario. It was created by The Union Act of 1840. With the lower house, the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, the two houses constituted the Parliament of the Province of Canada.

The first session of parliament began in Kingston in Canada West in 1841. It succeeded the Legislative Council of Lower Canada and Legislative Council of Upper Canada.

The 24 legislative councillors were originally appointed for life. In 1854, the British Parliament authorized their election,^[1] and implementing legislation was passed by the Province of Canada in 1856.^[2] It was provided that:

• The present appointed councillors would continue to hold their positions until they had vacated them.^[3]
• Members were to be elected for eight-year terms from each of 48 divisions (24 in each of Canada East and Canada West).
• The order in which divisions were to be selected for elections was to be determined by lot.
• 12 members were elected every two years from 1856 to 1862.

The British North America Act, 1867 divided the Province of Canada into the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, each with representation in the unelected Senate of Canada. As a province, Ontario never created a Legislative Council; however, Quebec had its own Legislative Council until 1968. Both the provincial and federal upper houses used (and, in the case of the Senate, continues to use to the present day) the same 24 divisions for Quebec as had been used for Canada East by the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada prior to Confederation.