The Canadas

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Canadas were two British colonies, Upper Canada and Lower Canada, now part of modern-day Canada.

The British colony of the Province of Quebec was divided by the Constitutional Act of 1791 into two separate provinces, with the Ottawa River forming a part of the border. The creation of Upper Canada was in response to the desire expressed by recently arrived loyalist settlers for British institutions and laws, especially British laws of land tenure.

Upper Canada corresponds to modern-day southern Ontario, with the addition of the lands bordering Georgian Bay and Lake Superior, while Lower Canada corresponds to modern-day southern-eastern Quebec and Labrador. The Northern part of the current provinces of Ontario and Quebec were at this time part of Rupert's Land.

The political structure of "the Canadas" was changed after Lord Durham's Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) recommended they be merged into a single colonial province. Lower Canada, Upper Canada and their legislatures were abolished by the British Act of Union of July 23, 1840, which came into force in early 1841. The act abolished the legislatures of both Lower and Upper Canada and united them as one political entity, the Province of Canada.