1851 in Canada

Events from the year 1851 in Canada.

Incumbents

 * Monarch — Victoria

Federal government

 * Parliament: 3rd

Governors

 * Governor General of the Province of Canada — James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin
 * Colonial Governor of Newfoundland — Charles Henry Darling
 * Governor of New Brunswick — Edmund Walker Head
 * Governor of Nova Scotia — John Harvey
 * Governor of Prince Edward Island — Dominick Daly

Premiers

 * Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada —
 * Francis Hincks, Canada West Premier
 * Augustin-Norbert Morin, Canada East Premier
 * Premier of Nova Scotia — James Boyle Uniacke
 * Premier of Prince Edward Island — John Holl

Events

 * April 7 – The first Canadian postage stamps are printed.
 * April 25 – Prince Edward Island wins responsible government.
 * June – Harbor Commissioners deepen Lake St. Peter.
 * July – The bloomer costume appears in Montreal.
 * July 31 – Broad Provincial railway gauge is legislated in the Province of Canada, creating a break-of-gauge with American railways.
 * August 30 – The Vancouver Island legislature meets for the first time.
 * October 11 – The St. L. & A. Railway is opened to Richmond.
 * William Kennedy was commander of the second sponsored expedition to find Sir John Franklin.

Full date unknown

 * Gabriel Franchere's Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America published in Montreal.
 * The United Kingdom transfers control of the colonial postal system to Canada.

Births

 * April 7 – John Wilson Bengough, political cartoonist (died 1923)
 * April 8 – Frederick Peters, lawyer, politician and Premier of Prince Edward Island (died 1919)
 * May 22 – Gilbert Ganong, businessman, politician and Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick (died 1917)
 * July 8 – James Dunsmuir, industrialist, politician and Premier of British Columbia (died 1920)
 * August 26 – Herbert James Palmer, politician and Premier of Prince Edward Island (died 1939)
 * September 5 – George Frederick Baird, politician and lawyer (died 1899)
 * November – Levi Addison Ault, businessman and naturalist (died 1930)
 * November 28 – Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey, 9th Governor General of Canada (died 1917)
 * December 10 – James Albert Manning Aikins, politician and Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba (died 1929)