1908 in Canada

Events from the year 1908 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Edward VII<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Federal government

• Governor General – Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey
• Prime Minister – Wilfrid Laurier
• Chief Justice – Charles Fitzpatrick (Quebec)
• Parliament – 10th (until 17 September)

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – George Hedley Vicars Bulyea
• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – James Dunsmuir
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Daniel Hunter McMillan
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Lemuel John Tweedie
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Duncan Cameron Fraser
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – William Mortimer Clark (until September 22) then John Morison Gibson
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Donald Alexander MacKinnon
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Louis-Amable Jetté (until September 15) then Charles Alphonse Pantaléon Pelletier
• Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – Amédée Forget

Premiers

• Premier of Alberta – Alexander Cameron Rutherford
• Premier of British Columbia – Richard McBride
• Premier of Manitoba – Rodmond Roblin
• Premier of New Brunswick – Clifford William Robinson (until March 24) then John Douglas Hazen
• Premier of Nova Scotia – George Henry Murray
• Premier of Ontario – James Whitney
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – Arthur Peters (until January 29) then Francis Haszard (from February 1)
• Premier of Quebec – Lomer Gouin
• Premier of Saskatchewan – Thomas Walter Scott

Territorial governments

Commissioners

• Commissioner of Yukon – Alexander Henderson
• Gold Commissioner of Yukon – F.X. Gosselin
• Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Frederick D. White

Events

• January 2 – The Royal Canadian Mint opens.
• January 29 – Arthur Peters, Premier of Prince Edward Island, dies in office
• February 1 – F. L. Haszard becomes premier of Prince Edward Island.
• March 7 – The University of British Columbia is established by the British Columbia University Act.
• March 24 – Sir John Douglas Hazen becomes premier of New Brunswick, replacing Clifford Robinson.
• June 8 – In the Ontario election, Sir James Whitney's Conservatives win a second consecutive majority.
• June 12 – Saskatchewan Government Telephones created.
• August 2 – A fire in the Kootenay region kills 70.
• August 14 – In the Saskatchewan election, Walter Scott's Liberals win a second consecutive majority.
• September 23 – The University of Alberta opens.
• October 26 – In the federal election, Sir Wilfrid Laurier's Liberals win a fourth consecutive majority.

Full date unknown

• Anne of Green Gables is first published, having a great effect on Prince Edward Island.
• The Opium and Narcotics Act is passed banning certain drugs in Canada.
• The Grain Growers Guide is first published.
• The Child Labour Act of Ontario is passed.Template:Citation needed
• Vancouver Courier first published.

Arts and literature

• Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables is published.

Births

January to June

• January 1 – Clarence Dunlap, Chief of the Air Staff Royal Canadian Air Force (d. 2003)
• January 22 – Sinclair Ross, banker and author (d.1996)
• February 1 – Louis Rasminsky, third Governor of the Bank of Canada (d.1998)
• February 7 – Lela Brooks, speed skater (d.1990)
• February 10 – Jean Coulthard, composer and academic (d.2000)
• March 5 – Colin Emerson Bennett, politician and lawyer (d. 1993)
• March 24 – Carl Klinck, literary historian and academic (d. 1990)
• April 7 – Percy Faith, band-leader, orchestrator and composer (d. 1976)
• May 11 – Hide Hyodo Shimizu, Japanese-Canadian educator and activist (d. 1999)
• May 19 – Percy Williams, athlete (d. 1982)
• May 26 – James Sinclair, politician, businessman and father of Margaret Sinclair, one-time wife of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and grandfather of Justin Trudeau (d.1984)
• May 28 – Léo Cadieux, politician (d.2005)
• June 5 – Maxwell Meighen, financier (d.1992)
• June 12 – Alphonse Ouimet, broadcaster (d. 1988)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• June 18 – Stanley Knowles, politician (d.1997)

July to December

• July 11
  • Gérard Légaré, politician (d. 1997)
  • Yves Prévost, politician and lawyer (d. 1997)
• September 20 – Ernest Manning, Premier of Alberta (d.1996)
• October 18 – Alfred Henry Bence, politician and barrister (d.1977)
• October 24 – John Tuzo Wilson, geophysicist and geologist (d. 1993)
• October 31 – Muriel Duckworth, pacifist and social activist (d. 2009)
• November 3 – Bronko Nagurski, American football player (d. 1990)
• November 10 – Charles Merritt, army officer and politician (d. 2000)
• December 6 – Nicholas Goldschmidt, conductor, administrator and artistic director (d.2004)
• December 13 – W. L. Morton, historian (d.1980)
• December 23 – Yousuf Karsh, photographer (d.2002)

Deaths

January to June

• January 6 – George Dixon, first Canadian-born boxing champion (b.1870)
• January 13 – George Anthony Walkem, jurist and Premier of British Columbia (b.1834)
• January 29 – Arthur Peters, Premier of Prince Edward Island (b.1854)
• May 31 – Louis-Honoré Fréchette, politician and writer (b.1839)
• June 14 – Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, Governor General of Canada (b.1841)
• June 24 – William Whiteway, Premier of Newfoundland (b.1828)

July to December

• August 18 – Alfred Boyd, 1st Premier of Manitoba (b.1835)
• September 7 – Joseph-Guillaume Bossé, politician and lawyer (b.1843)
• October 30 – Thomas Greenway, 7th Premier of Manitoba (b.1838)
• November 16 – Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière, 4th Premier of Quebec and Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia (b.1829)
• December 11 – Jean Blanchet, politician (b.1843)
• December 25 – William McGuigan, politician and 10th Mayor of Vancouver (b.1853)

Historical documents

Mackenzie King and U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt discuss Japanese immigration<ref>Diaries of William Lyon Mackenzie King; 1908 (January 25), pgs. 6-7. Accessed 11 February 2020</ref>

To get people from "countries whose climatic conditions promise a suitable class of settlers," Canada pays bonuses to agents<ref>"Canadian Immigration" (April 29, 1908), Report of the [House] Select Standing Committee on Agriculture and Colonization[...]1907-8, pgs. 323-4. Accessed 12 October 2020</ref>

Testimonials for service Salvation Army provides for immigrants to Canada<ref>"Appendix II; Voices from the West" The Surplus (1909), pgs. 80-8. Accessed 11 February 2020</ref>

Lecturer describes largely American and mostly male immigration to Canada<ref>L.P. Gravel, Canada; Its History; Its Resources; Its Development (1908), pgs. 21-3. Accessed 11 February 2020</ref>

Cabinet doubles spending-money amount required of jobless, hostless immigrants<ref>Order in Council (September 11, 1908). Accessed 11 February 2020</ref>

Visiting agricultural tour reports on Canadian wages and cost of living<ref>"Cost of Living" Report of the Scottish Commission on Agriculture to Canada (1908), pgs. 179-86. Accessed 11 February 2020</ref>

Visiting agriculturalist thinks Maritimes agriculture has much unmet potential<ref>R.B. Greig, "Agriculture in Canada; The Maritime Provinces" Canada as It Appeared to Scotch Agriculturalists, pgs. 15-18. Accessed 11 February 2020</ref>

Visiting agriculturalist says Quebec's new Macdonald College will shake up "the worst farmers in Canada"<ref>R.B. Greig, "Agriculture in Canada; Quebec and Ontario," Canada as It Appeared to Scotch Agriculturalists, pg. 20. Accessed 11 February 2020</ref>

Visiting agriculturalist finds splendid fruit-growing potential in BC's Kootenay and Okanagan valleys<ref>R.B. Greig, "Agriculture in Canada; British Columbia," Canada as It Appeared to Scotch Agriculturalists, pgs. 23-4. Accessed 11 February 2020</ref>

Government horticulturist W.T. Macoun advocates growing stands of trees on farms despite older farmers' antipathy toward them<ref>"Growing of Forest Trees in Plantations[....]" (May 7, 1908), Report of the [House] Select Standing Committee on Agriculture and Colonization[...]1907-8, pgs. 281-2. Accessed 12 October 2020 https://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.com_HOC_1004_1_1/305?r=0&s=1 (scroll down to Experiments with Forest Trees)</ref>

Speaker celebrates Quebec City tercentenary, praising founders and their spirit<ref>Adélard Turgeon, The Tercentenary of Quebec (July 29, 1908). Accessed 11 February 2020</ref>

Brandon College principal supports right to separate religious university education<ref>Archibald P. McDiarmid, The Right and Expediency of Independence in University Education (1908). Accessed 11 February 2020</ref>

Fort McMurray fur trader introduces visitors to her Indigenous friends <ref>Agnes Deans Cameron, The New North; Being Some Account of a Woman's Journey through Canada to the Arctic (1909), pgs. 84-7. Accessed 11 February 2020</ref>

Alberta rustlers convicted, one for rustling and one for perjury (Note: anti-Mormon comments)<ref>R. Burton Deane, Mounted Police Life in Canada; A Record of Thirty-one Years' Service (1916), pgs. 292-8. Accessed 11 February 2020</ref>

Edmonton Board of Trade's guide to road and pack trail route to Finlay River, B.C.<ref>Report of(...)the Edmonton Board of Trade on the Transportation Facilities(...)to the Peace, Finlay, and MacKenzie River Basins (June 29, 1908; unpaginated). Accessed 11 February 2020</ref>

Midwife blows cayenne pepper into woman's nose to induce sneezing and quick delivery of baby <ref>Wilfred Abram Bigelow, Forceps, Fin & Feather: The Memoirs of Dr. W.A. Bigelow (1970), pg. 52 (quoted in Whitney L. Wood, Birth Pangs: Maternity, Medicine, and Feminine Delicacy in English Canada, 1867-1950 pgs. 81-2). Accessed 25 January 2020</ref>