There shall be a Legislature for Ontario, consisting of the Lieutenant Governor and of one House, styled the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
The Legislative Assembly of Ontario shall be composed of eighty-two members, to be elected to represent the eighty-two electoral districts set forth in the first schedule to this Act.
There shall be a Legislature for Quebec, consisting of the Lieutenant Governor and of two Houses, styled the Legislative Council of Quebec and the Legislative Assembly of Quebec.
The Legislative Council of Quebec shall be composed of twenty-four members, to be appointed by the Lieutenant Governor, in the Queen’s name, by instrument under the Great Seal of Quebec, one being appointed to represent each of the twenty-four electoral divisions of Lower Canada in this Act referred to, and each holding office for the term of his life, unless the Legislature of Quebec otherwise provides under the provisions of this Act.
The qualifications of the legislative councillors of Quebec shall be the same as those of the senators for Quebec.
The place of a legislative councillor of Quebec shall become vacant in the cases, mutatis mutandis, in which the place of senator becomes vacant.
When a vacancy happens in the Legislative Council of Quebec by resignation, death, or otherwise, the Lieutenant Governor, in the Queen’s name, by instrument under the Great Seal of Quebec, shall appoint a fit and qualified person to fill the vacancy.
If any question arises respecting the qualifications of a legislative councillor of Quebec, or a vacancy in the Legislative Council of Quebec, the same shall be heard and determined by the Legislative Council.
The Lieutenant Governor may from time to time, by instrument under the Great Seal of Quebec, appoint a member of the Legislative Council of Quebec to be Speaker thereof, and may remove him and appoint another in his stead.
Until the Legislature of Quebec otherwise provides, the presence of at least ten members of the Legislative Council, including the Speaker, shall be necessary to constitute a meeting for the exercise of its powers.
Questions arising in the Legislative Council of Quebec shall be decided by a majority of voices, and the Speaker shall in all cases have a vote; and when the voices are equal, the decision shall be deemed to be in the negative.
The Legislative Assembly of Quebec shall be composed of sixty-five members, to be elected to represent the sixty-five electoral divisions or districts of Lower Canada in this Act referred to, subject to alteration thereof by the Legislature of Quebec: Provided that it shall not be lawful to present to the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec for assent any Bill for altering the limits of any of the electoral divisions or districts mentioned in the second schedule to this Act, unless the second and third readings of such Bill have been passed in the Legislative Assembly with the concurrence of the majority of the members representing all those electoral divisions or districts, and the assent shall not be given to such Bill unless an address has been presented by the Legislative Assembly to the Lieutenant Governor stating that it has been so passed.
Textual Amendments
The Lieutenant Governor of Ontario and of Quebec shall from time to time, in the Queen’s name, by instrument under the Great Seal of the province, summon and call together the Legislative Assembly of the province.
Until the Legislature of Ontario or of Quebec otherwise provides, a person accepting or holding in Ontario or in Quebec any office, commission, or employment, permanent or temporary, at the nomination of the Lieutenant Governor, to which an annual salary, or any fee, allowance, emolument, or profit of any kind or amount whatever from the province is attached, shall not be eligible as a member of the Legislative Assembly of the respective province, nor shall he sit or vote as such; but nothing in this section shall make ineligible any person being a member of the Executive Council of the respective province, or holding any of the following offices, that is to say, the offices of Attorney General, Secretary and Registrar of the Province, Treasurer of the Province, Commissioner of Crown Lands, and Commissioner of Agriculture and Public Works, and in Quebec Solicitor General, or shall disqualify him to sit or vote in the House for which he is elected, provided he is elected while holding such office.
Until the Legislatures of Ontario and Quebec respectively otherwise provide, all laws which at the union are in force in those provinces respectively relative to the following matters or any of them, namely,—the qualifications and disqualifications of persons to be elected or to sit or vote as members of the Assembly of Canada, the qualifications or disqualifications of voters, the oaths to be taken by voters, the returning officers, their powers and duties, the proceedings at elections, the periods during which such elections may be continued, and the trial of controverted elections and the proceedings incident thereto, the vacating of the seats of members, and the issuing and execution of new writs in case of seats vacated otherwise than by dissolution,—shall respectively apply to elections of members to serve in the respective Legislative Assemblies of Ontario and Quebec.
Provided, that until the Legislature of Ontario otherwise provides, at any election for a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario for the district of Algoma, in addition to persons qualified by the law of the province of Canada to vote, every male British subject, aged twenty-one years or upwards, being a householder, shall have a vote.
Every Legislative Assembly of Ontario and every Legislative Assembly of Quebec shall continue for four years from the day of the return of the writs for choosing the same (subject nevertheless to either the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, or the Legislative Assembly of Quebec being sooner dissolved by the Lieutenant Governor of the province), and no longer.
There shall be a session of the Legislature of Ontario and of that of Quebec once at least in every year, so that twelve months shall not intervene between the last sitting of the Legislature in each province in one session and its first sitting in the next session.
The following provisions of this Act respecting the House of Commons of Canada shall extend and apply to the Legislative Assemblies of Ontario and Quebec, that is to say,—the provisions relating to the election of a Speaker originally and on vacancies, the duties of the Speaker, the absence of the Speaker, the quorum, and the mode of voting, as if those provisions were here re-enacted and made applicable in terms to each such Legislative Assembly.
The constitution of the Legislature of each of the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, continue as it exists at the union, until altered under the authority of this Act; . . . F2
Textual Amendments
F2Words repealed by Statute Law Revision Act 1893 (c. 14)
Textual Amendments
The following provisions of this Act respecting the Parliament of Canada, namely,—the provisions relating to appropriation and tax Bills, the recommendation of money votes, the assent to Bills, the disallowance of Acts, and the signification of pleasure on Bills reserved,—shall extend and apply to the Legislatures of the several provinces, as if those provisions were here re-enacted and made applicable in terms to the respective provinces and the Legislatures thereof, with the substitution of the Lieutenant Governor of the province for the Governor General, of the Governor General for the Queen and for a Secretary of State, of one year for two years, and of the province for Canada.