1876 in Canada

Events from the year 1876 in Canada.

Crown

 * Monarch – Victoria

Federal government

 * Governor General – Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood
 * Prime Minister – Alexander Mackenzie
 * Chief Justice – William Buell Richards (Ontario)
 * Parliament – 3rd

Lieutenant governors

 * Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Joseph Trutch (until June 27) then Albert Norton Richards
 * Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Alexander Morris
 * Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Samuel Leonard Tilley
 * Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories – David Laird (from October 7)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Adams George Archibald
 * Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Donald Alexander Macdonald
 * Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Robert Hodgson
 * Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – René-Édouard Caron (until December 13) then Luc Letellier de St-Just (from December 15)

Premiers

 * Premier of British Columbia – George Anthony Walkem (until February 1) then Andrew Charles Elliott
 * Premier of Manitoba – Robert Atkinson Davis
 * Premier of New Brunswick – George Edwin King
 * Premier of Nova Scotia – Philip Carteret Hill
 * Premier of Ontario – Oliver Mowat
 * Premier of Prince Edward Island – Lemuel Cambridge Owen (until August 1) then Louis Henry Davies
 * Premier of Quebec – Charles Boucher de Boucherville

Lieutenant governors

 * Lieutenant Governor of Keewatin – Alexander Morris (from October 7)
 * Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest Territories – Alexander Morris then David Laird

Events

 * January 1 – The building of Fredericton City Hall is completed
 * February 1 – Andrew Elliott becomes premier of British Columbia, replacing George Walkem
 * April 12 - The Indian Act is passed. Consolidating and expanding on existing Canadian laws, it defines the special status and land regulations of Aboriginal peoples in Canada who live on reserves; status Indians have no vote in Canadian elections and are exempt from taxes
 * July 1 – The Intercolonial Railway connecting central Canada to the Maritimes is completed
 * August – Sir Louis Henry Davies becomes Premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Lemuel Cambridge Owen
 * August 10 – The world's first long-distance phone call connects the Bell residence with a shoe and boot store in nearby Paris, Ontario.
 * August 23 – The first signings of Treaty 6. Further signings will be on August 28 and September 9.
 * October 7 – The District of Keewatin (incorporating the disputed area between Ontario and Manitoba) is separated from the North-West Territories.
 * October 10 – 1876 Prince Edward Island election: Lemuel Cambridge Owen's Conservatives win a second consecutive majority

Full date unknown

 * The Toronto Women's Literary Club is founded as a front for the suffrage movement.
 * The Legislative Council of Manitoba is abolished, and the legislature becomes unicameral.

Sport

 * September 20 – The Ottawa Football Club (Ottawa Rough Riders) is established.

January to June

 * January 8 – Matthew Robert Blake, politician (died 1937)
 * January 21 – James Charles Brady, politician (died 1962)
 * January 27 – Frank S. Cahill, politician (died 1934)
 * April 3 – Margaret Anglin, actress, director and producer (died 1958)
 * April 21 – William Henry Wright, prospector and newspaper owner (died 1951)
 * June 17 – Thomas Crerar, politician and Minister (died 1975)

July to December

 * August 23 – William Melville Martin, politician and Premier of Saskatchewan (died 1970)
 * September 6 – John Macleod, physician, physiologist and Nobel laureate (died 1935)
 * October 6 – Ernest Lapointe, politician (died 1941)
 * November 18 – Walter Seymour Allward, sculptor (died 1955)
 * December 9 – Berton Churchill, actor (died 1940)

Deaths

 * February 4 – Charles-Séraphin Rodier, mayor of Montreal (born 1797)
 * February 5 – George Ryan, politician (born 1806)
 * April 5 – Élisabeth Bruyère, nun (born 1818)
 * June 1 – Malcolm Cameron, businessman and politician (born 1808)
 * July 3 – Aldis Bernard, mayor of Montreal (born 1810)
 * July 27 – Thomas-Louis Connolly, Archbishop of Halifax (born 1814)
 * October 2 – Louis-Ovide Brunet, priest and botanist (born 1826)
 * October 6 – John Young, 1st Baron Lisgar, Governor General (born 1807)
 * December 13 – René-Édouard Caron, 2 Mayor of Quebec City and 2nd Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec (born 1800)

Full date unknown

 * Edward Feild, Church of England clergyman, inspector of schools, bishop of Newfoundland (born 1801)
 * Wilson Ruffin Abbott, businessman and landowner (born 1801)

Historical documents
Bell's Ontario experiments lead to the first long-distance telephone conversation

Treaty 6 annexes land of Cree and other nations in exchange for reserves subject to sale or development, plus money and supplies

Mark Twain's anger at a Canadian firm publishing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer without permission

Emigrant's guide written especially for "people of small fortune"