LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN CANADA. Fil 
special council was repealed in 1845 by an act, which provided that every township or 
parish should constitute a municipal corporation, represented by a council elected by the 
people, and presided over by a president or mayor, also elective.!" This parish organisa- 
tion seemed peculiarly well adapted to the habits of the people of French Canada, where 
the parish is connected with their dearest and most interesting associations; but for 
some reason or other it was soon changed to a county government, which lasted for a 
number of years? Without, however, dwelling on the numerous acts which occupied 
considerable time in the legislature for years with the object of maturing and perfecting 
a general municipal system acceptable to the people and commensurate with their 
progress in self-government, it is sufficient to say that some time before 1867, when the 
provinces were confederated, Upper and Lower Canada enjoyed at last local institutions 
resting on an essentially popular basis, and giving every possible facility for carrying out 
desirable public improvements in the municipal divisions. The tendency of legislation 
indeed for years took a dangerous direction. Acts were passed, in 1853 and subsequent 
years, enabling the municipalities to borrow money for the construction of railways on the 
guarantee of the province.’ The result was much extravagance in the public expendi- 
tures and the increase of local taxation in many municipalities of Canada, which 
hampered the people for many years, notwithstanding the benefits derived from the 
construction of important public works, until the government was forced to come to their 
assistance and relieve them of the burdens they had imposed upon themselves. 
At the present time, all the provinces of the Dominion of Canada enjoy a system of 
local self-government which enables the people in every local division, whether it be a 
village, town, township, parish, city, or county, to manage their own internal affairs in 
accordance with the liberal provisions of the various statutory enactments which are the 
result of the wisdom of the various legislatures of the different provinces within half a 
century. It is in the great province of Ontario that we find the system in its complete 
form. While this system is quite symmetrical in its arrangement, it is also thoroughly 
practical, and rests upon the free action of the ratepayers in each municipality. The 
whole organisation comprises :— 
(1.) The minor municipal corporations, consisting of townships, being rural districts 
of an area of eight or ten square miles, with a population of from 3000 to 6000. 
(2.) Villages with a population of over 750. 
(8.) Towns with a population of over 2000. Such of these as are comprised within a 
larger district termed a “county,” constitute 
(4.) The county municipality, which is under the government of a council composed 
of the heads of the different minor municipal divisions in such counties as have already 
been constituted in the province. 
(5.) Cities are established from the growth of towns when their population exceeds 
15,000, and their municipal jurisdiction is akin to that of counties and towns combined. 
The functions of each municipality are commensurate with their respective localities. 

! Turcotte, Canada sous l’Union, ii. 24. 
* In 1855 Mr. Drummond, then attorney-general, brought in a bill restoring the parish municipality, while 
preserving the county organization. Turcotte, ii. 260. 
* Turcotte, ii. 202. See Consol, Stat. 22 Vict. c. 83. 
* Canadian Economics; Montreal Meeting of the British Association, 1884, p. 317. 
