General Assembly of Nova Scotia

General Assembly of Nova Scotia
63rd General Assembly of Nova Scotia
Type
Type	Bicameral (1758–1928) Unicameral (1928–)
Houses	Council (1758-1838) Legislative Council (1838-1928) House of Assembly (1758-)
History
Founded	1758 (1758)
Meeting place
Province House, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Each General Assembly of the legislature of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada, consists of one or more sessions and comes to an end upon dissolution (or constitutionally by the effluxion of time — approximately five years) and an ensuing general election. Today, the unicameral legislature is made up of two elements: the Lieutenant Governor^[1] and a legislative assembly called the House of Assembly. The legislature was first established in 1758.

Like at the Canadian federal level, Nova Scotia uses a Westminster-style parliamentary government, in which members are elected to the House of Assembly in general elections and the leader of the party with the confidence of the Assembly (normally the party with the most seats) becomes the Premier of Nova Scotia and chooses the Executive Council from amongst the party's members of the Assembly. Government is carried out in the name of the Queen in Right of Nova Scotia, represented by the Lieutenant Governor, acting on the advice of the Executive Council (the Governor in Council).

The legislature was originally bicameral. From 1758 to 1838, it had an upper house called the Council, which also held executive functions. When executive functions were given to an Executive Council, the upper house was renamed the Legislative Council. That house was abolished in 1928.

List of Assemblies

Post-Confederation

Pre-Confederation

See also

• List of Nova Scotia provincial electoral districts
• Nova Scotia Council

Notes

1. ↑ An Act Abolishing the Legislative Council and Amending the Constitution of the Province, SNS 1928, c. 1, s. 2 .
2. ↑ There was no 21st General Assembly. According to the 1983 revised edition of The Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia 1758 -1983 : a biographical directory:

   "It should be pointed out, however, that an error in numbering the Journals [of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly] occurred in 1860, when the 21st Assembly was mistakenly referred to as the 22nd Assembly. Although the error was corrected in 1864, it reappeared the following year and has since been perpetuated. Consequently, to be strictly accurate, the present Assembly [convened in 1982] should be regarded as the 52nd, rather than the 53rd Assembly of the Province."