1879 in Canada

Canada-related events during the year of 1879

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Acts of Parliament, 1879

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Incumbents

Crown

Monarch – Victoria^[1]

Federal government

Governor General – John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne
Prime Minister – John A. Macdonald
Chief Justice – William Buell Richards (Ontario) (until 10 January) then William Johnstone Ritchie (New Brunswick) (from 11 January)
Parliament – 4th (from 13 February)

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Albert Norton Richards
Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Joseph-Édouard Cauchon
Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Edward Barron Chandler
Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Adams George Archibald
Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Donald Alexander Macdonald
Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Robert Hodgson (until July 10) then Thomas Heath Haviland
Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Luc Letellier de St-Just (until July 26) then Théodore Robitaille

Premiers

Premier of British Columbia – George Anthony Walkem
Premier of Manitoba – John Norquay
Premier of New Brunswick – John James Fraser
Premier of Nova Scotia – Simon Hugh Holmes
Premier of Ontario – Oliver Mowat
Premier of Prince Edward Island – Louis Henry Davies (until April 25) then William Wilfred Sullivan
Premier of Quebec – Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière (until October 31) then Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau

Territorial governments

Lieutenant governors

Events

February 4 – Prince Edward Island election: William Wilfred Sullivan's Conservatives win a third consecutive majority.
March 12 – Sir John A. Macdonald introduces protective tariffs on manufactured goods being imported into Canada, a transcontinental railway, and immigration to the west in his National Policy.
April 25 – Sir William Wilfred Sullivan becomes premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Sir Louis Davies.
June 5 – Ontario election: Sir Oliver Mowat's Liberals win a third consecutive majority.
(date unknown) – The Toronto Industrial Exhibition opens for the first time, precursor to the Canadian National Exhibition.
October 31 – Sir Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau becomes premier of Quebec, replacing Henri-Gustave de Lotbinière.
December 16 – Manitoba election.
December 19 – Swift Runner is hanged in Fort Saskatchewan, NWT, for murdering and then eating eight members of his own family over the previous winter. He believed he was possessed by Wendigo, a terrifying mythological creature with a ravenous appetite for human flesh.

Births

January to June

January 15 – Mazo de la Roche, author (d.1961)
January 17 – Richard Gavin Reid, politician and 7th Premier of Alberta (d.1980)
January 25 – Humphrey T. Walwyn, naval officer and Governor of Newfoundland (d.1957)
February 14 – Eli Burton, physicist
March 20 – Maud Menten, medical scientist (d.1960)
May 25 – Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, business tycoon, politician and writer (d.1964)
June 12 – Charles Dow Richards, judge, politician and 18th Premier of New Brunswick (d.1956)

July to December

August 1 – Eva Tanguay, singer and entertainer (d.1947)
August 16 – Samuel Lawrence, politician and trade unionist (d.1959)
October 6 – James Langstaff Bowman, politician and Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada (d.1951)
October 9 – William Warren, lawyer, politician, judge and Prime Minister of Newfoundland (d.1927)
November 3 – Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Arctic explorer and ethnologist (d.1962)
November 11 – Violet McNaughton, feminist (d. 1953)
November 25 – Joseph-Arsène Bonnier, politician (d.1962)
December 10 – P. L. Robertson, inventor (d. 1951)
December 24 – Émile Nelligan, poet (d.1941)^[2]

Deaths

January 4 – Pierre-Alexis Tremblay, politician (b.1827)
January 16 – Octave Crémazie, poet (b.1827)
April 4 – Jean-Baptiste Thibault, missionary and a Father of Confederation (b.1810)
October 7 – William Henry Pope, lawyer, politician, judge and a Father of Confederation (b.1825)

Historical documents

The federal government proposes to provide 100 million acres of Dominion land for the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway for settlement.^[3]

Report claims only self-reliance and industry can relieve distress of Indigenous people and anxiety of Metis (Note: racial stereotypes)^[4]

Ottawa memo outlines the "utter destitution" of some Indigenous people in the Northwest Territories^[5]

Federal commissioner reports on the dependency of Indigenous people at Fort Walsh^[6]

Visitor fears the Metis on the Assiniboine River will not hold on to their lands much longer^[7]

Description of Mennonite cooperative farming near Winnipeg^[8]

All aboard the steamer Waubuno are lost in a gale on Georgian Bay^[9]

Anti-Irish-Catholic opinion is published in the Irish Canadian^[10]

"Alouette" first sung as a Canadian folk song.

References

^ "Queen Victoria | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
^ "Émile Nelligan | Canadian poet". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
^ John A. Macdonald, Minister of the Interior (June 25, 1879). "...100,000,000 Acres of Land Required". Retrieved February 27, 2023.
^ Nicholas Flood Davin, "Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds" (March 14, 1879), pg. 9. Accessed 23 June 2021
^ J.S. Dennis, "152 N.W.T.; Memorandum" Northwest Territories - Correspondence, Memoranda, Reports, Minutes and Requisitions Regarding the Distress of Indians in the Territories Due to Lack of Food, pgs. 20-1. Accessed 19 September 2018
^ "No. 46" Report of the Deputy Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs, 1879, pgs. 76-7. Accessed 19 September 2018
^ "Letter IV" Chronicles by the Way: A Series of Letters Addressed to the Montreal "Gazette" Descriptive of a Trip through Manitoba and the North-West (Montreal: Gazette Printing Co, 1879), pg. 10. Accessed 18 September 2018
^ David Currie, The Letters of Rusticus: Investigations in Manitoba and the North-West, for the Benefit of Intending Emigrants (Montreal: John Dougall & Son, 1880), pgs. 67-8. Accessed 18 September 2018
^ "Wreck of the Waubuno; All the Passengers and Crew Lost" Enterprise, Collingwood, Ont. (November 28, 1879). Accessed 18 September 2018
^ "Are Irish Catholics A Menace" Irish Canadian (December 17, 1879). Accessed 18 September 2018

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v t e 1879 in North America
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