1884 in Canada

Events from the year 1884 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Victoria<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Federal government

• Governor General – Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice
• Prime Minister – John A. Macdonald
• Chief Justice – William Johnstone Ritchie (New Brunswick)
• Parliament – 5th

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Clement Francis Cornwall
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – James Cox Aikins
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Robert Duncan Wilmot
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Matthew Henry Richey
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – John Beverley Robinson
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Thomas H. Haviland (until July 18) then Andrew Archibald Macdonald
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Théodore Robitaille (until October 4) then Louis-Rodrigue Masson

Premiers

• Premier of British Columbia – William Smithe
• Premier of Manitoba – John Norquay
• Premier of New Brunswick – Andrew George Blair
• Premier of Nova Scotia – William Thomas Pipes (until July 15) then William Stevens Fielding (from July 28)
• Premier of Ontario – Oliver Mowat
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – William Wilfred Sullivan
• Premier of Quebec – Joseph-Alfred Mousseau (until January 23) then John Jones Ross

Territorial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Keewatin – James Cox Aikins
• Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories – Edgar Dewdney

Events

• January 2 – "Humber Railway Disaster" 32 men and boys were killed upon the head-on collision of a Grand Trunk Railway commuter train with an unscheduled freight train No. 42C near Toronto. Most of the dead were workers being transported on the freight train to the Ontario Bolt Works in Swansea, Ontario.
• January 10 – David Scott elected as the first mayor of Regina
• January 17 – The Parliament Building's new electric lights were turned on, for the first time.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• January 23 – John Jones Ross becomes premier of Quebec, replacing Joseph-Alfred Mousseau.
• June 22 – The seven surviving members of the 25-man Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, led by Adolphus Greely, are rescued by Winfield Scott Schley. One more died on the homeward journey.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• July 28 – William Fielding becomes premier of Nova Scotia, replacing William Pipes.
• September 15 – The Nile Voyageurs depart for Africa
• October 15 – The La Presse newspaper is founded
• November 7 – Calgary is incorporated as a town, changing its name from Fort Calgary
• Parliament of Canada passes the Indian Advancement Act, encouraging democratic elections of chiefs. Mohawks at St. Regis, Ontario, resist the provision, preferring their traditional method of choosing leaders.

Births

January to June

• February 10 – Rork Scott Ferguson, politician (d.unknown)
• February 18 – Andrew Watson Myles, politician (d.1970)
• April 6 – Walter Huston, actor (d.1950)
• April 12 – Maurice Brasset, politician and lawyer (d.1971)
• April 30 – Murdoch Mackay, politician (d.1963)
• May 1 – Henry Norwest, sniper in World War I (d.1918)
• June 11 – William George Bock, politician (d.1973)

July to December

• July 25 – Davidson Black, paleoanthropologist (d.1934)
• August 27 – John Edward Brownlee, politician and 5th Premier of Alberta (d.1961)
• September 2 – Angus MacInnis, politician (d.1964)
• September 27 – Silby Barrett, labour leader
• December 15 – James Macdonnell, soldier, lawyer and politician (d.1973)

Deaths

• January 14 – Pierre-Eustache Dostaler, farmer and politician (b.1809)
• January 31 – Charles Dewey Day, lawyer, judge and politician (b.1806)
• February 20 – Abram William Lauder, lawyer and politician (b.1834)

Full date unknown

• John Ferris, businessman, explorer and politician (b.1811)

Historical documents

Opposition Leader Edward Blake touches on several Liberal Party principles and political points<ref>"Speech of the Hon. Edward Blake before the Young Men's Liberal Club of Toronto(...)" The (Montreal) Times (January 17, 1884). Accessed 14 October 2019</ref>

Essay on disadvantages of Confederation for Manitoba<ref>Henry T. Burgess, Manitoba and Confederation (1884). Accessed 7 October 2019</ref>

Winnipegger Alexander Begg lectures in London on his years in the Northwest<ref>Alexander Begg, Seventeen Years in the Canadian North-West (1884). Accessed 7 October 2019</ref>

Report on Indigenous peoples of Northwest (Note: "savage," other stereotypes)<ref>George Bryce, "Our Indians;" Delivered before the Y.M.C.A., Winnipeg(...). Accessed 14 October 2019</ref>

Witnesses describe tense stand-off between Mounties and armed group of Cree<ref>Campbell Innes, The Cree Rebellion of 1884, or, Sidelights on Indian Conditions Subsequent to 1876 (1926), pgs. 11, 15-17, 39, 42-3. Accessed 6 October 2019</ref>

Touring British scientists find Chief Crowfoot selling his personal items at Gleichen, Alberta<ref>British Association for the Advancement of Science, Report of the Visit of the British Association to the Canadian North-West[...] (1884), pg. 12. Accessed 6 October 2019</ref>

Louis Riel is asked to return from exile<ref>Canada; Department of the Secretary of State; Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau, Return (in Part) to an Address of the House of Commons(...): For Copies of All Papers Found in the Council Room of the Insurgents(...) (1886). Accessed 7 October 2019</ref>

Letter of Louis Riel declining invitation to speak in Prince Albert<ref>Louis Riel, "To the gentlemen who kindly invite me to hold a public meeting in Prince Albert" Morton Manuscripts Collection, University of Saskatchewan Libraries Special Collections. Accessed 7 October 2019</ref>

Anglophone Quebeckers assess agricultural and forestry advantages of Calgary region<ref>Thomas Shepard Barwis, Calgary, Alberta, and the Canadian North West: Valuable Information for Intending Settlers (1885), pg 5. Accessed 7 October 2019</ref>

Newspaper controversy over encouraging deaf people to settle in Northwest<ref>Jane Elizabeth Groom and "H.H.," A Future for the Deaf and Dumb in the Canadian North-West (1884), pgs. 18-20. Accessed 7 October 2019</ref>

Nova Scotia woman writes to her mother about losing her newborn child<ref>Dove Crowell to Catherine McQueen, October 21, 1884, Yarmouth The McQueen Family Papers, Atlantic Canada Virtual Archives. Accessed 7 October 2019</ref>

"A young man of unbounded enthusiasm," Ernest Thompson Seton becomes ornithology director at Canadian Postal College of the Natural Sciences<ref>"Secretary's Report; Another Director" The Canadian Science Monthly, Vol. II, No. 3 (March 1884), pg. 47. Accessed 3 April 2022</ref>