1873 in Canada

Canada-related events during the year of 1873

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Acts of Parliament, 1873

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Incumbents

Crown

Monarch – Victoria^[1]

Federal government

Governor General – Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood
Prime Minister – John A. Macdonald (until November 5) then Alexander Mackenzie (from November 7)
Parliament – 2nd (from 5 March)

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Joseph Trutch
Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Alexander Morris
Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Lemuel Allan Wilmot (until November 15) then Samuel Leonard Tilley
Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Charles Hastings Doyle (until May 1) then Joseph Howe (May 1 to July 4) then Adams George Archibald
Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – William Pearce Howland (until November 11) then John Willoughby Crawford
Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – William Cleaver Francis Robinson
Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Narcisse-Fortunat Belleau (until February 11) then René-Édouard Caron

Premiers

Premier of British Columbia – Amor De Cosmos
Premier of Manitoba – Henry Joseph Clarke
Premier of New Brunswick – George Edwin King
Premier of Nova Scotia – William Annand
Premier of Ontario – Oliver Mowat
Premier of Prince Edward Island – James Colledge Pope (until September 1) then Lemuel Cambridge Owen
Premier of Quebec – Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau (until February 26) then Gédéon Ouimet

Territorial governments

Lieutenant governors

Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest Territories – Alexander Morris

Events

January to June 1873

February 26 – Gédéon Ouimet becomes Premier of Quebec, replacing Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau.
April 1
- 1873 Prince Edward Island general election.
- James Pope becomes Premier of Prince Edward Island for the second time, replacing Robert Haythorne.
- The SS Atlantic is wrecked off Peggys Cove.
April 2 – The Pacific Scandal breaks out.
May 13 – Sixty are killed in a coal mine explosion in Nova Scotia.
May 23 – North-West Mounted Police are founded to police the Northwest Territories, which then included the region today of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
June 1 – The Cypress Hills Massacre occurs.

July to December

July 1 – Prince Edward Island joins the Canadian Confederation.
August 25 – A cyclone hits Cape Breton Island, killing 500 and causing much damage.
September 1 – L. C. Owen becomes Premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing James Pope.
September 23 – The Canadian Labour Union is founded.
November – 1873 Newfoundland general election.
November 5 – Pacific Scandal: the House of Commons of Canada passes a vote of no confidence in Sir John A. Macdonald's government.
November 7 – Pacific Scandal: Sir John A. resigns as Prime Minister of Canada, and Alexander Mackenzie is appointed in his place.
November 8 – Winnipeg incorporated as a city.

Sport

October 4 – The Argonauts Football Club (Toronto Argonauts) are established

Smallpox

In the opening speech to the 1872-1873 Epidemiological Society conference, Inspector-General Robert Lawson drew attention to the recent prevalence of haemorrhagic forms of smallpox in both the United States and Canada, among other countries. During the smallpox pandemic of 1870-1874, the disease had been carried to America by emigrants, where it had already infected thousands, and killed hundreds in eastern cities such as Boston and New York.^[2]

Births

January to June

January 10 – George Orton, middle-distance runner and Olympic gold medallist, first Canadian to win an Olympic medal (d.1958)
January 19 – Thomas Dufferin Pattullo, politician and 22nd Premier of British Columbia (d.1956)
February 4 – Étienne Desmarteau, athlete and Olympic gold medallist (d.1905)
April 9 – Walter Edward Foster, businessman, politician and 16th Premier of New Brunswick (d.1947)
April 10 – George Black, politician (d.1965)
May 12 – J. E. H. MacDonald, artist of the Group of Seven (d.1932)
May 17 – Albert Edward Matthews, 16th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (d.1949)

July to December

August 27 – Maud Allan, actor, dancer and choreographer (d.1956)
September 20 – Sidney Olcott, film producer, director, actor and screenwriter (d.1949)
October 20 (or 29) – Nellie McClung, feminist, politician and social activist (d.1951)^[3]
November 21 – Aimé Bénard, politician (d.1938)
December 8 – John Duncan MacLean, teacher, physician, politician and Premier of British Columbia (d.1948)
December 9 – George Blewett, academic and philosopher (d.1912)

Full date unknown

Margaret C. MacDonald, nurse (d.1948)

Deaths

May 15 – William James Anderson, physician, amateur geologist and historian (b.1812)
May 20 – George-Étienne Cartier, politician and statesman (b.1814)
May 28 – Thomas Brown Anderson, merchant, banker and politician (b.1796)
June 1 – Joseph Howe, Premier of Nova Scotia (b.1804)
June 28 – Charles Connell, politician (b.1810)
November 21 – James William Johnston, lawyer, politician, and judge (b.1792)
December 9 – William Steeves, politician (b.1814)

Historical documents

Non-confidence moved in House of Commons over Government accepting election funding from group hoping to build CPR^[4]

Why the Governor General did not dismiss Prime Minister Macdonald over the Pacific Scandal^[5]

Metis leader Ambroise Lepine sentenced to death for the murder of Thomas Scott in 1870 at Red River^[6]

House of Commons speeches on issues with Indigenous people in the Northwest Territories^[7]

British Columbia Indian superintendent reports on the economic activity of Indigenous people^[8]

References

^ "Queen Victoria | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
^ Rolleston, J. D. (1 December 1933). "The Smallpox Pandemic of 1870–1874: President's Address". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine. 27 (2): 177–192. doi:10.1177/003591573302700245. ISSN 0035-9157.
^ Elizabeth Gillan Muir; Marilyn Färdig Whiteley (1995). Changing Roles of Women Within the Christian Church in Canada. University of Toronto Press. pp. 340–. ISBN 978-0-8020-7623-6.
^ "House of Commons; Wednesday, April 2, 1873" House of Commons Debates; First Session – Second Parliament, pg. 179. Accessed 24 September 2018
^ Governor General Lord Dufferin, Message: Papers Relative to the Prorogation of Parliament on the 13th Day of August 1873 (1873), especially pg. 17 and after. Accessed 15 September 2018
^ "Sentence" Preliminary Investigation and Trial of Ambroise D. Lepine for the Murder of Thomas Scott (1874), pgs. 124-7. Accessed 15 September 2018
^ Robert Cunningham; Donald Alexander Smith, Speeches on the Indian Difficulties in the North-West, Delivered(...)in the House of Commons, April 1st, 1873 (1873). Accessed 15 September 2018
^ "Abstract of the Report of J.W. Powell,(...)1873" Annual Report on Indian Affairs, for Year Ending 30th June, 1872, pgs. 7–10. Accessed 19 September 2018

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v t e 1873 in North America
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