1896 in Canada

Events from the year 1896 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Victoria

Federal government

• Governor General – John Hamilton-Gordon
• Prime Minister – Mackenzie Bowell (until April 27) then Charles Tupper (May 1 to July 8) then Wilfrid Laurier (from July 11)
• Chief Justice – Samuel Henry Strong (Ontario)
• Parliament – 7th (until 24 April) then 8th (from 19 August)

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Edgar Dewdney
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – James Colebrooke Patterson
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – John James Fraser (until November 24) then Jabez Bunting Snowball (from December 9)
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Malachy Bowes Daly
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – George Airey Kirkpatrick (until November 7) then Casimir Gzowski
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – George William Howlan
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau

Premiers

• Premier of British Columbia – John Herbert Turner
• Premier of Manitoba – Thomas Greenway
• Premier of New Brunswick – Andrew George Blair (until July 17) then James Mitchell
• Premier of Nova Scotia – William Stevens Fielding (until July 18) then George Henry Murray (from July 20)
• Premier of Ontario – Oliver Mowat (until July 25) then Arthur Sturgis Hardy
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – Frederick Peters
• Premier of Quebec – Louis-Olivier Taillon (until May 11) then Edmund James Flynn

Territorial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Keewatin – James Colebrooke Patterson
• Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories – Charles Herbert Mackintosh

Premiers

• Chairman of the Executive Committee of the North-West Territories – Frederick Haultain

Events

• April 27 – Sir Mackenzie Bowell resigns as Prime Minister due to cabinet infighting.
• May 1 – Sir Charles Tupper becomes prime minister.
• May 11 – Edmund Flynn becomes Premier of Quebec, replacing Sir Louis-Olivier Taillon.
• May 26 – A bridge collapse in Victoria, British Columbia kills 55 people.
• June 23 – Federal election: Wilfrid Laurier's Liberals win a majority, defeating Sir Charles Tupper's Conservatives. One of the key issues in the campaign has been the Manitoba Schools Question.
• July 11 – Wilfrid Laurier becomes prime minister.
• July 20 – George Henry Murray becomes premier of Nova Scotia, replacing William Fielding.
• July 25 – Arthur S. Hardy becomes premier of Ontario, replacing Sir Oliver Mowat.
• July – James Mitchell becomes premier of New Brunswick, replacing Andrew Blair.
• August 17 – Gold is discovered in the Yukon, prompting the Klondike gold rush.

Full date unknown

• A plan to populate the western prairies with immigration from eastern Europe is unveiled.
• The first Canadian blast furnace opens in Hamilton, Ontario.

Sport

• February 14 – Winnipeg Victorias win their first Stanley Cup by defeating Montreal Victorias 2 goals to 0 at Montreal's Victoria Skating Rink

Births

January to June

• March 8 – Charlotte Whitton, feminist, politician and mayor of Ottawa (d.1975)
• March 16 – Harry Banks, soldier
• March 21 – Errick Willis, politician (d.1967)
• April 11 – Léo-Paul Desrosiers, journalist, writer (d.1967)
• April 20 – Wilfrid R. "Wop" May, World War I flying ace and pioneering bush pilot (d.1952)
• May 2 – Elmore Philpott, journalist and politician (d.1964)
• May 18 – Brock Chisholm, doctor and first Director-General of the World Health Organization (d.1971)
• June 22 – Leonard W. Murray, naval officer (d.1971)

July to December

• July 2 – Prudence Heward, painter (d.1947)
• July 4 – Frederick Cronyn Betts, politician (d.1938)
• July 10 – Thérèse Casgrain, feminist, reformer, politician and Senator (d.1981)
• July 13 – John Henry Cates, businessman and political figure (d.1986)
• July 27 – Anne Savage, painter and art teacher (d.1971)
• August 12 – Mitchell Hepburn, politician and 11th Premier of Ontario (d.1953)
• August 18 – Jack Pickford, actor (d.1933)
• August 30 – Raymond Massey, actor (d.1983)
• August 31 – Alice Strike, Canada's last surviving female World War I veteran (d.2004)
• November 3 – Madeleine Fritz, paleontologist (d.1990)
• November 7 – Henry Botterell, World War I fighter pilot (d.2003)

Full date unknown

• Jean Baptiste Paul, Canadian First Nations wrestler (d. 1966)

Deaths

• January 14 – Christopher William Bunting, politician, merchant, newspaper owner and newspaper publisher (b.1837)
• February 20 – Hart Massey, businessman and philanthropist (b.1823)
• April 13 – John Christian Schultz, politician and Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba (b.1840)
• May 4 – Timothy Anglin, politician and Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada (b.1822)
• June 7 – Wyatt Eaton, painter (b.1849)
• June 10 – Donald Alexander Macdonald, politician (b.1817)
• June 19 – John Beverley Robinson, politician (b.1821)
• June 25 – Samuel Leonard Tilley, Premier of New Brunswick (b. 1818)
• November 24 – John James Fraser, lawyer, judge, politician and 4th Premier of New Brunswick (b.1829)
• Anne Hill, dancer and actor (b. 1804)

Historical documents

• Summary of Canada's imperial history and description of Governor General's Historical Ball

• sails Cape Horn solo on his globe-circling voyage

• Visitor describes constant boat traffic on the Muskoka Lakes, Ontario

References