1879 in Canada

Events from the year 1879 in Canada.

Crown

 * Monarch – Victoria

Federal government

 * Governor General – John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne
 * Prime Minister – John A. Macdonald
 * Chief Justice – William Buell Richards (Ontario) (until 10 January) then William Johnstone Ritchie (New Brunswick) (from 11 January)
 * Parliament – 4th (from 13 February)

Lieutenant governors

 * Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Albert Norton Richards
 * Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Joseph-Édouard Cauchon
 * Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Edward Barron Chandler
 * Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Adams George Archibald
 * Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Donald Alexander Macdonald
 * Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Robert Hodgson (until July 10) then Thomas Heath Haviland
 * Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Luc Letellier de St-Just (until July 26) then Théodore Robitaille

Premiers

 * Premier of British Columbia – George Anthony Walkem
 * Premier of Manitoba – John Norquay
 * Premier of New Brunswick – John James Fraser
 * Premier of Nova Scotia – Simon Hugh Holmes
 * Premier of Ontario – Oliver Mowat
 * Premier of Prince Edward Island – Louis Henry Davies (until April 25) then William Wilfred Sullivan
 * Premier of Quebec – Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière (until October 31) then Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau

Lieutenant governors

 * Lieutenant Governor of Keewatin – Joseph-Édouard Cauchon
 * Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories – David Laird

Events

 * February 4 – Prince Edward Island election: William Wilfred Sullivan's Conservatives win a third consecutive majority.
 * March 12 – Sir John A. Macdonald introduces protective tariffs on manufactured goods being imported into Canada, a transcontinental railway, and immigration to the west in his National Policy.
 * April 25 – Sir William Wilfred Sullivan becomes premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Sir Louis Davies.
 * June 5 – Ontario election: Sir Oliver Mowat's Liberals win a third consecutive majority.
 * (date unknown) – The Toronto Industrial Exhibition opens for the first time, precursor to the Canadian National Exhibition.
 * October 31 – Sir Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau becomes premier of Quebec, replacing Henri-Gustave de Lotbinière.
 * December 16 – Manitoba election.
 * December 19 – Swift Runner is hanged in Fort Saskatchewan, NWT, for murdering and then eating eight members of his own family over the previous winter. He believed he was possessed by Wendigo, a terrifying mythological creature with a ravenous appetite for human flesh.

January to June

 * January 15 – Mazo de la Roche, author (d.1961)
 * January 17 – Richard Gavin Reid, politician and 7th Premier of Alberta (d.1980)
 * January 25 – Humphrey T. Walwyn, naval officer and Governor of Newfoundland (d.1957)
 * February 14 – Eli Burton, physicist
 * March 20 – Maud Menten, medical scientist (d.1960)
 * May 25 – Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, business tycoon, politician and writer (d.1964)
 * June 12 – Charles Dow Richards, judge, politician and 18th Premier of New Brunswick (d.1956)

July to December

 * August 1 – Eva Tanguay, singer and entertainer (d.1947)
 * August 16 – Samuel Lawrence, politician and trade unionist (d.1959)
 * October 6 – James Langstaff Bowman, politician and Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada (d.1951)
 * October 9 – William Warren, lawyer, politician, judge and Prime Minister of Newfoundland (d.1927)
 * November 3 – Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Arctic explorer and ethnologist (d.1962)
 * November 11 – Violet McNaughton, feminist (d. 1953)
 * November 25 – Joseph-Arsène Bonnier, politician (d.1962)
 * December 10 – P. L. Robertson, inventor (d. 1951)
 * December 24 – Émile Nelligan, poet (d.1941)

Deaths

 * January 4 – Pierre-Alexis Tremblay, politician (b.1827)
 * January 16 – Octave Crémazie, poet (b.1827)
 * April 4 – Jean-Baptiste Thibault, missionary and a Father of Confederation (b.1810)
 * October 7 – William Henry Pope, lawyer, politician, judge and a Father of Confederation (b.1825)

Historical documents

 * The federal government proposes to provide 100 million acres of Dominion land for the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway for settlement.


 * Report claims only self-reliance and industry can relieve distress of Indigenous people and anxiety of Metis (Note: racial stereotypes)


 * Ottawa memo outlines the "utter destitution" of some Indigenous people in the Northwest Territories


 * Federal commissioner reports on the dependency of Indigenous people at Fort Walsh


 * Visitor fears the Metis on the Assiniboine River will not hold on to their lands much longer


 * Description of Mennonite cooperative farming near Winnipeg


 * All aboard the steamer Waubuno are lost in a gale on Georgian Bay


 * Anti-Irish-Catholic opinion is published in the Irish Canadian


 * "Alouette" first sung as a Canadian folk song.