Nicolet (Province of Canada electoral district)

Nicolet was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada East, centred on the town of Nicolet. It was created in 1841 and was based on the previous electoral district of the same name for the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. It was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly.

In 1853, the provincial Parliament redrew the electoral map. The boundaries for Nicolet were altered to some extent in the new map, which came into force for the 1854 general elections.

The electoral district was abolished in 1867, upon the creation of Canada and the province of Quebec.

Boundaries
The electoral district of Nicolet was on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River, centred on the town of Nicolet (now in the Nicolet-Yamaska Regional County Municipality, Centre-du-Québec region).

1841 to 1854
The Union Act, 1840, passed by the British Parliament, merged the two provinces of Lower Canada and Upper Canada into the Province of Canada, with a single Parliament. The separate parliaments of Lower Canada and Upper Canada were abolished. 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.

The Nicolet electoral district of Lower Canada was not altered by the Act, and therefore continued with the same boundaries which had been set by a statute of Lower Canada in 1829:

The County of Nicolet shall be bounded on the east by the County of Lotbinière, on the west by the seigniorial line between the seigniory of Nicolet and the seigniories La Baie du Febvre and Courval, towards the north by the river St. Lawrence, and on the south by the river Becancour, being the boundary of the township of Blandford and Maddington, by the rear line of the seigniory of Becancour, on the west of the said river by the division lines between the township of Aston and the augmentation thereof, and the seigniory of Godefroy, Roquetaillade and the augmentation of Nicolet, and lastly by the rear line of the augmentation of Nicolet; and shall comprehend the whole tract of country included within the said limits.

1854 to 1867
In 1853, the Parliament of the Province of Canada passed a new electoral map. The boundaries of Nicolet were altered to some extent by the new map, which came into force in the general elections of 1854:

Members of the Legislative Assembly (1841–1867)
Nicolet was a single-member constituency in the Legislative Assembly.

The following were the members of the Legislative Assembly from Nicolet. 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.

Abolition
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. It was succeeded by electoral districts of the same name and boundaries in the House of Commons of Canada and the Legislative Assembly of Quebec.