AutomatedGenealogy.com

[lpatten]

If Canada East and Canada West were part of the united province of Canada, is there any word that describes what they were? Or were they actually non-entities that just referred to the areas that were formerly Upper and Lower Canada? Clearly referring to them as provinces is incorrect... Why does the census refer to them at all?

[Alain Dawson]

Ref.: THE HISTORY OF CANADA

Canada West and Canada East

In 1840 the Act of Union was passed. It became effective the next year and joined Upper and Lower Canada under a central government. Henceforth the two colonies were to be known simply as Canada West and Canada East, respectively. There was to be an appointed upper chamber, or legislative council, in the new government as well as an assembly composed of the same number of elected members from each of the two old colonies. The seat of government was established at Kingston; but after 1844 it was moved to Montreal, then back and forth between Toronto and Quebec, and finally to Ottawa in 1865.
_________________
Alain

[wentil]

[Gilbert Benoît]

There were many non entities referenced in the Census. In 1901 and 1911, in Québec: Drummond & Arthabaska, or Laprairie & Napierville, or Chambly & Verchères, etc, etc...

[Andrew Cunningham]

There were "census counties" too, I think, notably "Cardwell" in Ontario. But Canada East/West weren't nonentities. For example, the Civil Code continued to apply in Canada East so the judicial and legal systems were definitely distinct.

[lpatten]

Hmm. Am I right that really the "1852 Census of Canada" or the more verbose "1852 Census of the Province of Canada" would make more sense than the "1852 Census of Canada East and Canada West"? The first is I think the original name, but might be confusing for people don't stop to remember that Canada was a small subset of what is now Canada. The second makes this explicit. The third seems a bit weird, sort of like the "1901 Census of British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and The Territories" but worse since Canada East and Canada West weren't real entities.

[Alain Dawson]

[Aileen]

Actually. there's a great exercise in "splitting hairs" here, if my memory of our History remains intact.

Here is a tidbit to ponder ....

Simplification: Back in 1851, Canada the "Country".
was in reality "The Province of Canada" and just another District of England, within the British Empire.

On our own land,by our governing dignitaries, an Act was passed dividing the Province in two parts mainly for the sake of governance and to solve electoral differences which were found on the earlier censi.
Lower Canada (Canada East) having Parishes and working under Napoleonic Law vs: Upper Canada (Canada West) working under British Law, had different approaches to most things governmental.

Back then, All Acts drawn up and accepted here still had to be taken to London and presented to the British Parliament for final approval.

I draw attention to the following excerpt from
The Intro to 1851 Census on the Government Archives site and in particular to the portion in Bold type:

"The instructions to enumerators under the 1851 act required them to "visit every house in his Enumeration District, and ... diligently and faithfully take an account in writing of the name, sex, age and occupation, of every living person who abode therein on the night of the Sunday next preceding such Monday, and ... also ascertain who of such persons are transient passengers, having their permanent residence elsewhere, and whether such residence is in Lower Canada or in Upper Canada, or out of this Province, (and the name, sex, age and occupation of every person usually a resident therein, but then casually absent, distinguishing such persons from others), and ... "

While reference in the above is made to Upper and Lower Canada,

IMHO: I suggest we really don't have a choice.

The Census titles appearing on our records should always mirror that of the Government site.
In this instance it appears there as:

Census of 1851
Canada East and Canada West

This may be seen at URL

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/1851/001005-130.01-e.html

[lpatten]

[wentil]

LAC has it labelled like this;

Census Research Tools

• Census Microfilm Reels from 1666 to 1901
  
• Census of 1851
  
• Census of Ontario, 1871
  
• Census of Canada, 1901
  
• Census of the Northwest Provinces, 1906
  
• Census of Canada, 1911

The link for Census of 1851 brings you to the amalgamation of province or colony (Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia). So I have to agree with this as incorrect terminology. The united Province of Canada should have its own search screen with the two regions listed below and not in the title.
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~Wendy

[Andrew Cunningham]

Canada East and Canada West had a common legislature but were still quite distinct, notably in having different legal systems.

Describing this as a "Census of the Province of Canada" seems reasonable.