1871 in Canada

← 1870 1869 1868 1871 in Canada → 1872 1873 1874
Decades:	1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s
See also:	History of Canada Timeline of Canadian history List of years in Canada

Events from the year 1871 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Victoria ^[1]

Federal government

• Governor General – John Young, 1st Baron Lisgar
• Prime Minister – John A. Macdonald
• Parliament – 1st

Provincial governments

Canada provinces 1871–1873

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Joseph Trutch (from July 5)
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Adams George Archibald
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Lemuel Allan Wilmot
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Charles Hastings Doyle
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – William Pearce Howland
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Narcisse-Fortunat Belleau

Premiers

• Premier of British Columbia – John Foster McCreight (from November 14)
• Premier of Manitoba – Alfred Boyd (until December 14) then Marc-Amable Girard
• Premier of New Brunswick – George Edwin King (until February 21) then George Luther Hathaway
• Premier of Nova Scotia – William Annand
• Premier of Ontario – John Sandfield Macdonald (until December 20) then Edward Blake
• Premier of Quebec – Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau

Territorial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest Territories – Adams George Archibald

Elections

• March 21 – The 1871 Ontario election: Edward Blake's Liberals win a majority, defeating J. S. Macdonald's Liberal-Conservatives
• May 16 – The 1871 Nova Scotia election: William Annand's Liberals win a second consecutive majority
• Oct 16 – Dec 15 – The 1871 British Columbia election ^[2]

Events

January to June

• March 15 – Beginning of the first session of the 1st Manitoba Legislature
• April 2 – The first Canadian census finds the population to be 3,689,257
• May 8 – The Treaty of Washington reaches agreements on fishing rights and Great Lakes trade between Canada and the United States
• May 17 – New Brunswick abandons separate schools.

July to December

• July 15 – Phoebe Campbell murders her husband with an axe. She is hanged the next year.
• July 20 – British Columbia joins Confederation.
• July 25 – Treaty 1, the first of a number of treaties with western Canada's First Nations, is signed
• August 17 – Treaty 2 is signed
• November 11 – The last of the British Army leaves Canada
• November 13 – John McCreight becomes the first premier of British Columbia
• December 14 – Marc-Amable Girard becomes the first Franco-Manitoban of premier of Manitoba, replacing Alfred Boyd
• December 20 – Edward Blake becomes premier of Ontario, replacing J. S. Macdonald.

Full date unknown

• Meteorological Service of Canada is formed
• Parliament legalizes the use of the metric system
• Goldwin Smith immigrates to Canada
• Ontario Schools Act is passed in Ontario, requiring all students aged 7 to 12 to attend school.
• The 1871 Quebec election  : Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau's Conservatives win a second consecutive majority

Births

George Stewart Henry

• January 30 – Wilfred Lucas, actor, film director and screenwriter (d.1940)
• May 14 – Walter Stanley Monroe, businessman, politician and Prime Minister of Newfoundland (d.1952)
• July 16 – George Stewart Henry, politician and 10th Premier of Ontario (d.1958)
• July 25 – Richard Ernest William Turner, soldier and recipient of the Victoria Cross (d.1961)
• August 4 – Robert Hamilton Butts, politician (d.1943)
• September 8 – Samuel McLaughlin, businessman and philanthropist (d.1972)
• September 9 – Hugh Robson, politician and judge
• October 31 – Alexander Stirling MacMillan, businessman, politician and Premier of Nova Scotia (d.1955)
• December 2 – Stanislas Blanchard, politician (d.1949)
• December 13 – Emily Carr, artist and writer (d.1945)

Deaths

Modeste Demers

• January 29 – Philippe-Joseph Aubert de Gaspé, lawyer, writer, fifth and last seigneur of Saint-Jean-Port-Joli (L'Islet County) (b.1786)
• January 31 – John Ross, lawyer, politician, and businessman. (b. 1818)
• February 20 – Paul Kane, artist (b.1810)
• March 11 – John Heckman, political figure (b.1785)
• July 28 – Modeste Demers, missionary (b.1809)
• September 23 – Louis-Joseph Papineau, lawyer, politician and reformist (b.1786)
• November 18 – Enos Collins, seaman, merchant, financier, and legislator (b.1774)

Historical documents

Editorial says Confederation is British Columbia's chance to remake itself ^[3]

Canada should refuse to permanently share its inshore fishery with U.S.A. ^[4]

Manitoba Lieutenant Governor Archibald agrees to release four Indigenous prisoners before negotiating Treaty 1 ^[5]

Archibald urges Indigenous people to "adopt the habits of the whites" (farming) for more comfort and safety from famine and sickness ^[6]

Commissioner Simpson says in Manitoba's "immense cultivable acres," large reserves are not allowed, and treaty terms are "a present" ^[7]

Treaty terms with large reserves are demanded by Indigenous leaders, with one calling himself "the lawful owner" of his people's land ^[8]

Indigenous leaders continue to make "extravagant demands" and Commissioner Simpson says take it or leave it, settlers are coming ^[9]

Fenian raid on Manitoba stopped at the border ^[10]

Manitoba Lieutenant Governor thanks residents for rising to resist the Fenian invasion ^[11]

References

1. "Queen Victoria | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
2. "Electoral History of British Columbia 1871–1986" (PDF). Elections British Columbia.
3. "The Great Duty of the Hour" The Daily British Colonist and Victoria Chronicle, Vol. 25, No. 117 (April 28, 1871), pg. 2. Accessed 11 September 2018
4. Joseph Pope, Memoirs of the Right Honourable Sir John Alexander Macdonald, G.C.B., First Prime Minister of the Dominion of Canada (1894), pgs. 90-1 Accessed 11 September 2018
5. Report of the Indian Branch of the Department of the Secretary of State for the Provinces, 1871, pgs. 14-15 Accessed 30 January 2020 (See "An Obstacle" for details of incarceration and release (pg. 2, columns 3-4))
6. "The Chippewa Treaty; Second Day's Proceedings" The Manitoban, Vol. I, No. 43 (August 5, 1871), pg. 2 (column 4). Accessed 16 August 2021
7. "The Chippewa Treaty; Second Day's Proceedings" The Manitoban, Vol. I, No. 43 (August 5, 1871), pg. 2 (columns 4-5). Accessed 16 August 2021
8. "Fourth Day's Proceedings" The Manitoban, Vol. I, No. 44 (August 12, 1871), pg. 2 (columns 4-5). Accessed 16 August 2021
9. Further arguments on Treaty 1 The Manitoban, Vol. I, No. 44 (August 12, 1871), pg. 3 (columns 1-3). Accessed 16 August 2021
10. Adams George Archibald, Return to an Address of the House of Commons...for Copies of All Correspondence with Lieut.-Governor A.G. Archibald, of Manitoba...Regarding the Fenian Invasion of Manitoba, pgs. 4–5 Accessed 11 September 2018
11. House of Commons, Report of the Select Committee on the Causes of the Difficulties in the North-West Territory in 1869–70 (1874), pgs. 147-9 Accessed 11 September 2018