Samuel Lount - Political Activity

Political Activity

Samuel Lount first became politically active after the unjust expulsion of William Lyon Mackenzie, the elected Reform representative for York County from the Provincial Assembly by the "Family Compact." The "Upper Canada Central Political Union" was formed on 21 January 1833 in Toronto to organize petitions to the Crown on Mackenzie's behalf. The Simcoe County branch was organized by Samuel Lount in Holland Landing, and the Fourth Riding of York branch was organized by his cousin, Samuel Hughes, an elder of the Children of Peace in Sharon.

In 1834, he was elected to the 12th Parliament of Upper Canada representing Simcoe County. In the Legislature, he sat on the committee to incorporate Canada's first farmers' co-operative, the "Farmers Storehouse Company", managed by his cousin Samuel Hughes of Sharon. Lount, like many reformers, was defeated in the election of 1836 due to wide-spread electoral fraud and violence. Charles Duncombe, who was another leader of the Rebellion, carried a Reform petition on the electoral irregularities in Lount's case to London but was refused an audience by the British Colonial Office.