The Franchise and Politics in British North America 1755-1867

To discuss the history of the franchise in Canada, Mr. Garner had to go back well before Confederation because 1867 did not mark the beginnings of a new franchise. Until 1885 the federal government employed the provincial franchises at each federal election, and the provinces in turn continued for some years the franchises that had served their colonial predecessors. This then is the story of the development of the franchise in each of those British colonies which came to form the nucleus of the Dominion of Canada from the establishment of their representative assemblies until they joined Confederation.