1862 in Canada

Events from the year 1862 in Canada.

Incumbents

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

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Federal government

• Parliament — 7th

Governors

• Governor General of the Province of Canada — Viscount Monck
• Colonial Governor of Newfoundland — Alexander Bannerman
• Governor of New Brunswick — Arthur Charles Hamilton-Gordon
• Governor of Nova Scotia — George Phipps, 2nd Marquess of Normanby
• Governor of Prince Edward Island — George Dundas

Premiers

• Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada –
  • John A. Macdonald, Canada West Premier (until May 24)
  • George-Étienne Cartier, Canada East Premier (until May 24)
  • John Sandfield MacDonald, Canada West Premier
  • Louis-Victor Sicotte, Canada East Premier
• Premier of Newfoundland — Hugh Hoyles
• Premier of New Brunswick — Samuel Leonard Tilley
• Premier of Nova Scotia – Joseph Howe
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – Edward Palmer

Events

• April 7 – United Kingdom-United States treaty for suppression of African slave trade is signed.Template:Citation needed
• May 20 – Macdonald-Cartier government falls. Free interprovincial trade granted by the Crown.
• August 2 – Victoria, British Columbia, is incorporated as a city

Full date unknown

• The first female student is accepted into Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick
• The 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic sweeps through Fort Victoria area and up the length of the northwest coast, killing an estimated 20,000 First Nations people
• William Duncan, an Anglican missionary on the northwest coast, establishes the village of Metlakatla with 50 Tsimshian followers, who adopt the Christian faith and a European lifestyle. By 1880, more than 1,000 converts live there.
• Construction begins on the Cariboo Wagon Road to link coastal shipping to Barkerville and the Cariboo goldfields.

Births

• January 9 – Joseph-Octave Samson, businessperson, politician and 28th Mayor of Quebec City (died 1945
• June 29 – William Johnston Tupper, politician, 12th Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba (died 1947)
• July 8 – Josephine White Bates, Canadian-born American author (died 1934)

Deaths

• August 8 – Allan MacNab, businessman, soldier, lawyer and politician (born 1798)
• August 18 – Simon Fraser, fur-trader and explorer (born 1776)

Historical documents

Published letter describes Fraser River riches in the Cariboo Gold Rush<ref>"The Gold Diggings of British Columbia" Illustrated London News (March 29, 1862). Accessed 6 September 2021</ref>

Map of British Columbia gold regions, including "Routes of Communication with the Cariboo Mines"<ref>Gust. Epner, "Map of the Gold Regions in British Columbia" (1862), UBC Library. Accessed 24 October 2021</ref>

Settling Indigenous people near Winnipeg is opposed by residents in published letter<ref>"Settling Indians in St. Paul's Parish" The Nor'-Wester, Vol. III, No. 11 (June 11, 1862), pg. 1. Accessed 6 September 2021.</ref>