Yale was a federal

electoral district An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...

in British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Common ...

from 1872 to 1892 and from 1917 to 1953. It first appeared when the original

Yale District Yale District was a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1871 to 1872. The riding was created for a special byelection in 1871 and only used that once - and then only a ...

riding, which was created and filled by special byelection in 1871 at the time of BC's entry into the Canadian Confederation, was abolished and replaced by "Yale" riding. Yale riding spanned both Yale and Kootenay Land Districts, that is to say, the entirety of the southern province from the Fraser Canyon to the Rockies. It was last used in the 1891 election, and was merged in 1892 with the Cariboo riding to form

Yale—Cariboo Yale–Cariboo was a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1896 to 1917. This riding was created in 1896 by combining the former Yale and Cariboo ridings. A redistrib ...

. That arrangement lasted until 1914 when a further redistribution separated Yale and Cariboo once again. This second incarnation was considerably smaller than the first because Kootenay district was now in a different riding. In 1903, the riding of Kootenay was split off from what had been the original Yale riding. The "new" Yale riding excluded the Town of Yale, and when it was reconstituted, coincided with the provincial Okanagan riding except for the city of Salmon Arm. The new incarnation of Yale lasted until 1952, when the Yale name vanished from the Commons and the Okanagan ridings,

Okanagan Boundary Okanagan Boundary was a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1953 to 1979. This riding was created in 1952 from parts of Kamloops and Yale ridings. It was aboli ...

and

Okanagan—Revelstoke Okanagan—Revelstoke was a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1953 to 1968. This riding was created in 1952 from parts of Kamloops and Yale ridings. It was ab ...

were created. The old core area around the town of historic and once-important Yale, which has long since became depopulated by being bypassed by massive growth elsewhere, was attached to the Fraser Valley riding, then to its successor

Fraser Valley East Fraser Valley East was a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1968 to 1997. This riding was created in 1966 from parts of Fraser Valley, Kamloops and Okanagan Bounda ...

, and then to today's Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon. It was not in the second incarnation of the Yale riding when it was reconstituted in 1914.

Demographics

History and political geography

This riding was created as

in 1871 as a result of British Columbia joining Confederation. In 1872, it was abolished and replaced by "Yale" for the 1872 federal election. This original version of the riding covered both Yale and Kootenay Land Districts, in other words the whole of the southern portion of the province from the Fraser Canyon to the Rocky Mountains. It existed in this form until 1892, when Yale was amalgamated with

Cariboo The Cariboo is an intermontane region of British Columbia, Canada, centered on a plateau stretching from Fraser Canyon to the Cariboo Mountains. The name is a reference to the caribou that were once abundant in the region. The Cariboo was the ...

to form

, also known as "Yale and Cariboo" when recognized by the Speaker. The first election had only 62 voters, the second 109, and most of these were in the area of the Fraser Canyon towns of Boston Bar,

Hope Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large. As a verb, its definitions include: "expect with confidence" and "to cherish ...

, Yale. The rest were a scattered handful of ranches and mining camps in the Okanagan, Nicola and Similkameen regions. Under the Representation Act of 1892, the constituencies of Yale and Cariboo were united to form

. In 1914, that riding was broken up and the Yale and Cariboo riding-names were restored, although the new constituencies were considerably smaller than before. The restored Yale riding included the Boundary Country around Grand Forks and Greenwood, but the Kootenay was now a separate riding and the town of Yale itself was not in the restored Yale riding, but in the new riding of Westminster District. The first election using the new boundaries was in 1917, although the seat was won by acclamation by the Hon.

Martin Burrell Martin Burrell (October 19, 1858 – March 20, 1938) was a Canadian politician. Born in Faringdon, Berkshire (now Oxfordshire), Burrell emigrated to Canada as a young man, where he eventually became a fruit grower on a farm about two mil ...

, who had been the member for Yale—Cariboo. It was reconstituted as Yale in 1914 and lasted until 1952. This version of the riding comprised the provincial electoral district of Okanagan, excepting the parts of the city and district municipality of Salmon Arm contained in the provincial riding, and the provincial electoral districts of Similkameen, Greenwood and Grand Forks. Yale therefore contained the entire Okanagan, Boundary and Similkameen country, and the Fraser Canyon immediately around the town of Yale itself. The main difference from the earlier version of the riding is the absence of the

Kootenays The Kootenays or Kootenay ( ) is a region of southeastern British Columbia. It takes its name from the Kootenay River, which in turn was named for the Kutenai First Nations people. Boundaries The Kootenays are more or less defined by the Kootenay ...

. A redistribution in 1933 rearranged the riding's boundaries, once again including the original core area around Yale and

, though the bulk of the riding's population remained in the orchard towns of the Okanagan. The district was recreated in 1914 for use in the Canadian federal election of 1917. It was again abolished in 1952, being redistricted into

and

. Yale riding was abolished in 1952. Its successor ridings were

and

. Areas of the original core area around Yale are now part of Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon, which extends up the

Fraser River The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual d ...

to Lillooet.

Members of Parliament

Election results

Yale, 1917–1953

Yale, 1872–1892

References

External links

Riding history from the Library of Parliament
(1872 - 1892)(1914 - 1952)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yale (Electoral District) Former federal electoral districts of British Columbia