1891 in Canada

Events from the year 1891 in Canada.

Crown

 * Monarch – Victoria

Federal government

 * Governor General – Frederick Stanley
 * Prime Minister – John A. Macdonald (until June 6) then John Abbott (from June 16)
 * Chief Justice – William Johnstone Ritchie (New Brunswick)
 * Parliament – 6th (until 3 February) then 7th (from 29 April)

Lieutenant governors

 * Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Hugh Nelson
 * Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – John Christian Schultz
 * Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Samuel Leonard Tilley
 * Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Malachy Bowes Daly
 * Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Alexander Campbell
 * Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Jedediah Slason Carvell
 * Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Auguste-Réal Angers

Premiers

 * Premier of British Columbia – John Robson
 * Premier of Manitoba – Thomas Greenway
 * Premier of New Brunswick – Andrew George Blair
 * Premier of Nova Scotia – William Stevens Fielding
 * Premier of Ontario – Oliver Mowat
 * Premier of Prince Edward Island – Neil McLeod (until April 27) then Frederick Peters
 * Premier of Quebec – Honoré Mercier (until December 21) then Charles Boucher de Boucherville

Lieutenant governors

 * Lieutenant Governor of Keewatin – John Christian Schultz
 * Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories – Joseph Royal

Premiers

 * Chairman of the Lieutenant-Governor's Advisory Council of the North-West Territories then Chairman of the Executive Committee of the North-West Territories – Robert Brett (until November 7) then Frederick Haultain

Events

 * February 21 – The first Springhill Mining Disaster occurs killing 125.
 * March 5 – Federal election: Sir John A. Macdonald's Conservatives win a fourth consecutive majority
 * April 27 – Frederick Peters becomes premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Neil McLeod
 * June 6 – Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald dies in office
 * June 8 – Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald lies in state in the Senate Chamber
 * June 16 – Sir John Abbott becomes prime minister following the death of Sir John A. Macdonald
 * September 29 – Thomas McGreevy is expelled from the House of Commons due to corruption.
 * November 7 – The election of the 2nd North-West Legislative Assembly
 * December 10 – The Calgary and Edmonton Railway opens, connecting Edmonton to the national railway network for the first time.
 * December 21 – Sir Charles-Eugène de Boucherville becomes premier of Quebec for the second time, replacing Honoré Mercier
 * The Legislative Council of New Brunswick is abolished

Sport

 * The Canadian Rugby Football Union is renamed the Canadian Rugby Union

January to June

 * January 6 – Tim Buck, politician and long-time leader of the Communist Party of Canada (d.1973)
 * January 26 – Wilder Penfield, neurosurgeon (d.1976)
 * April 1 – Harry Nixon, politician and 13th Premier of Ontario (d.1961)
 * May 3 – Thomas John Bentley, politician (d.1983)
 * June 13 – Hervé-Edgar Brunelle, politician and lawyer (d.1950)

July to December

 * July 12 – Adhémar Raynault, politician and Mayor of Montreal (d.1984)
 * August 30 – Elmer Jamieson, educator
 * September 16 – Julie Winnefred Bertrand, supercentenarian, oldest living Canadian and oldest verified living recognized woman at the time of her death (d.2007)
 * October 30 – Ada Mackenzie, golfer
 * November 14 – Frederick Banting, medical scientist, doctor and Nobel laureate (d.1941)
 * December 10 – Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, military commander and Governor General of Canada (d.1969)
 * December 25 – William Ross Macdonald, politician, Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada and 21st Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (d.1976)

Deaths

 * January 4 – Antoine Labelle, priest and settler (b.1833)
 * January 21 – Calixa Lavallée, musician and composer (b.1842)
 * May 31 – Antoine-Aimé Dorion, politician and jurist (b.1818)
 * June 6 – John A. Macdonald, politician and 1st Prime Minister of Canada (b.1815)

Historical documents
Residential school principal says teaching Gospel and how to live better compensates for robbing and half-starving Indigenous people

Poster: Conservatives campaign against reciprocity with United States as destructive of industry nurtured by Canada's National Policy

Prime Minister John A. Macdonald dies

Death of Prime Minister Macdonald, Conservative Party's "tyrannical master," leaves power vacuum

Imprisonment of ejected MP Thomas McGreevy strikes at pernicious level of corruption in public contracts

Heroism of rescuers at Springhill, Nova Scotia mining disaster

Bilingual English and Chinook periodical is published to improve Indigenous people's literacy

Federal bill aligns Canada with international time system based on global time zones and Greenwich, England time

Calm messenger pigeons by replacing trap-door entrance (which scares birds) and long roosting rail (on which they fight) in their loft