1887 in Canada

Events from the year 1887 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

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

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Federal government

• Governor General – Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice
• Prime Minister – John A. Macdonald
• Chief Justice – William Johnstone Ritchie (New Brunswick)
• Parliament – 5th (until 15 January) then 6th (from 13 April)

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Clement Francis Cornwall (until February 8) then Hugh Nelson
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – James Cox Aikins
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Samuel Leonard Tilley
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Matthew Henry Richey
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – John Beverley Robinson (until June 1) then Alexander Campbell
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Andrew Archibald Macdonald
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Louis-Rodrigue Masson (until October 4) then Auguste-Réal Angers

Premiers

• Premier of British Columbia – William Smithe (until March 28) then Alexander Edmund Batson Davie (from April 1)
• Premier of Manitoba – John Norquay (until December 26) then David Howard Harrison
• Premier of New Brunswick – Andrew George Blair
• Premier of Nova Scotia – William Stevens Fielding
• Premier of Ontario – Oliver Mowat
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – William Wilfred Sullivan
• Premier of Quebec – John Jones Ross (until January 25) then Louis-Olivier Taillon (January 25 to January 27) then Honoré Mercier

Territorial governments

Lieutenant governors

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

Events

• January 25 – Sir Louis-Olivier Taillon becomes premier of Quebec, replacing John Jones Ross.
• January 27 – Honoré Mercier becomes premier of Quebec, replacing Sir Louis-Olivier Taillon.
• February 22 – Federal election: Sir John A. Macdonald's Conservatives win a third consecutive majority.
• March 3 – The United States imposes the Fisheries Retaliation Act putting limits on Canadian fishermen and traders
• March 28 – William Smithe, Premier of British Columbia, dies in office.
• April 1 – Alexander Davie becomes premier of British Columbia.
• April 23 – McMaster University founded
• May 3 – 148 coal miners are killed in a mine explosion near Nanaimo, British Columbia
• June 7 – Wilfrid Laurier becomes leader of the Liberal Party of Canada
• June 20 – Golden Jubilee of Victoria's accession as Queen
• December 3 – Saturday Night founded
• December 26 – David H. Harrison becomes premier of Manitoba, replacing John Norquay.
• The first premiers' conference is held at Quebec City, Quebec

Births

January to June

• January 21 – Georges Vézina, ice hockey player (d.1926)
• February 20 – Vincent Massey, lawyer, diplomat and Governor General of Canada (d.1967)
• February 25 – Andrew McNaughton, army officer, politician and diplomat (d.1966)
• April 13 – Gordon S. Fahrni, medical doctor (d.1995)
• May 21 – James Gladstone, first Status Indian to be appointed to the Senate of Canada (d.1971)

July to December

• July 4 – Tom Longboat, long-distance runner (d.1949)
• July 5 – Joseph Charles-Émile Trudeau, entrepreneur and father of Pierre Trudeau, who would later become Prime Minister of Canada (d.1935)
• September 17 – Georges Poulin, hockey player (d. 1971)
• October 8 – Huntley Gordon, actor (d. 1956)
• October 14 – Frances Loring, sculptor (d.1968)
• December 20 – Walter Russell Shaw, politician and Premier of Prince Edward Island (d.1981)

Deaths

• February 25 – Augustin-Magloire Blanchet, missionary (b.1797)
• March 28 – William Smithe, politician and 6th Premier of British Columbia (b.1842)
• May 4 – William Murdoch, poet (b.1823)
• May 8 – Sir William Young, Premier of Nova Scotia (b.1799)
• June 25 – Matthew Crooks Cameron, lawyer, judge and politician (b.1822)
• August 18 – John Palliser, explorer and geographer (b.1817)
• October 11 – Louis-Adélard Senécal, businessman and politician (b.1829)
• October 12 – William Annand, 2nd Premier of Nova Scotia (b.1808)

Historical documents

Senate committee suggests seeding North-West with wild rice, developing bison hybrid, and preserving food using Indigenous ways<ref>"Second Report of the Select Committee of the Senate on the Existing Natural Food Products of the North-West Territories[....]," pgs. 4-5. Accessed 5 October 2020</ref>

Senate debate on North-West Territories growth blames decades of delay on British ignorance (Note: "Indians" and "civilize" stereotypes)<ref>"The Natural Food Products of the North-West; Debate in the Senate[...]on the Report of the Committee[....]," pg. 2 Accessed 5 October 2020</ref>

Canadian Pacific Railway offers land seekers $25 return fare to Winnipeg, with option to go on westward (and fare refunded if 160 acres purchased)<ref>"To Land Hunters!" (May 12, 1887), University of British Columbia Library. Accessed 10 July 2022</ref>

Statistical snapshot of Ontario, with note on reciprocity with U.S.<ref>Archibald Blue, Resources and Progress of the Province of Ontario (1888). Accessed 10 October 2019</ref>

Royal commission hears that labour and small business in Toronto are squeezed by increasing competition and rising rents<ref>"Phillips Thompson, Journalist, of Toronto, called and sworn" (November 28, 1887), Report of the Royal Commission on the Relations of Labor and Capital in Canada; Evidence, Ontario (1889), pgs. 98-100 Accessed 21 May 2020</ref>

"A blot on our Statute Book" - Sen. William Johnston Almon against Chinese head tax law penalizing any immigrant with "yellow skin and an almond eye"<ref>"Chinese Immigration Bill; Second Reading" (June 10, 1887), Senate Debates, 6th Parliament, 1st Session; Vol. 1, pgs. 297-8 (PDF pgs. 297-8). Accessed 8 January 2023</ref>

Opposition Leader Wilfrid Laurier comments on "cancer of emigration" to United States<ref>Ulric Barthe, Wilfrid Laurier on the Platform; Collection of the Principal Speeches[...] (1890), pg. 376 Accessed 19 October 2019</ref>

References

 Template:Reflist