In 1855, the adoption of the Lower Canada Municipal and Road Act enabled a new township to claim the status of township municipality. Thus the municipality’s first election was held. But not everyone could vote. The new law was specific. Listen as a clerk from Lower Canada reads part of the law:
"No person shall be allowed to vote at any election of Members of any Local Council, unless he be of the male sex, of the full age of twenty-one, and a natural born or naturalized subject of Her Majesty, nor unless… he be… proprietor or… hold… an estate of the yearly value of at least five pounds currency..." (Municipal and Road Act in the Statutes of the Province of Canada, 18 Victoria, 1855, pp. 414-415).