2nd Manitoba Legislature

The members of the 2nd Manitoba Legislature were elected in the Manitoba general election held in December 1874. The legislature sat from March 31, 1875, to November 11, 1878.^[1]

2nd Manitoba Legislature
March 31, 1875 – November 11, 1878
Parliament leaders
Premier	Robert Atkinson Davis December 3, 1874 – October 16, 1878
Party caucuses
Government	Non-partisan
Legislative Assembly
Speaker of the Assembly	Joseph Dubuc March 31, 1875 – December 1, 1878
Members	26 MLA seats
Legislative Council
Speaker of the Council	John Harrison O'Donnell March 31, 1875 – May 14, 1875
	Colin Inkster January 18, 1876 – February 4, 1876
Counsellors	7 counsellor seats
Sovereign
Monarch	Queen Victoria June 20, 1837 – January 22, 1901
Lieutenant Governor	Alexander Morris December 2, 1872 – October 7, 1877
	Joseph-Édouard Cauchon October 8, 1877 – September 28, 1882
Sessions
1st session 31 Mar 1875 – 14 May 1875
2nd session 18 Jan 1876 – 4 Feb 1876
3rd session 30 Jan 1877 – 28 Feb 1877
4th session 10 Jan 1878 – 2 Feb 1878
← 1st → 3rd

Premier Robert Atkinson Davis with the support of Joseph Royal was able to form a minority government. Davis offered a cabinet seat to John Norquay, which won him the support of moderate English-speaking members.^[2]

The Legislative Council of Manitoba was abolished. In 1874, representatives of the provincial government requested additional funding from the federal government in Ottawa. The federal cabinet agreed on the condition that the legislative council be abolished. The council itself rejected two bills calling for its abolition. Finally, in 1876, a sufficient number of members of the council were persuaded by the lieutenant-governor to support the bill.^[3]

Joseph Dubuc served as speaker for the assembly.^[1]

There were four sessions of the 2nd Legislature:^[1]

Session	Start	End
1st	March 31, 1875	May 14, 1875
2nd	January 18, 1876	February 4, 1876
3rd	January 30, 1877	February 28, 1877
4th	January 10, 1878	February 2, 1878

Alexander Morris was Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba until October 8, 1877, when Joseph-Édouard Cauchon became lieutenant governor.^[4]

Members of the Assembly

The following members were elected to the assembly in 1874:^[1]

Member	Electoral district	Affiliation[5]	First elected / previously elected	Notes
Felix Chenier	Baie St. Paul	Independent	1874
John Taylor	Headingly	Independent	1870, 1874
James Cowan	High Bluff	Opposition	1874
John Sutherland	Kildonan	Opposition	1870
Angus McKay	Lake Manitoba	Independent	1870
James McKay (1877)		Independent	1877
Francis Evans Cornish	Poplar Point	Opposition	1874
Kenneth McKenzie	Portage la Prairie	Opposition	1874
William Fisher Luxton	Rockwood	Opposition	1874
John Gunn	St. Andrews North	Independent	1874
John Norquay	St. Andrews South	Government	1870
Marc-Amable Girard	St. Boniface	Government	1870
Alexander Murray	St. Charles	Independent	1874
Thomas Howard	St. Clements	Independent	1870
Maxime Lépine	St. Francois Xavier East	Government	1874
Joseph Royal	St. Francois Xavier West	Government	1870
Edwin Bourke	St. James	Government	1870
Joseph Dubuc	St. Norbert	Government	1870
Curtis Bird	St. Pauls	Independent	1870
Alexander Black (1876)		Government	1876
Joseph Lemay	St. Vital	Government	1870
Alphonse-Fortunat Martin	Ste. Agathe	Opposition	1874
Charles Nolin	Ste. Anne	Government	1874
William Dick	Springfield	Independent	1874
Corydon Partlow Brown	Westbourne	Independent	1874
Robert Atkinson Davis	Winnipeg	Government	1874

Notes:

By-elections

By-elections were held to replace members for various reasons:

Electoral district	Member elected	Affiliation	Election date	Reason
Kildonan	John Sutherland	Opposition	April 1875	New Writ issued due to a tie.[6]
St. Pauls	Alexander Black[7]	Government	November 25, 1876	CJ Bird died on June 13, 1876[8]
Lake Manitoba	James McKay[9]	Opposition	January 17, 1877	A McKay resigned in December 1876[10]

Notes: