1896 in Canada

← 1895 1894 1893 1896 in Canada → 1897 1898 1899
Decades:	1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s
See also:	History of Canada Timeline of Canadian history List of years in Canada

Events from the year 1896 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Victoria ^[1]

Federal government

• Governor General – John Hamilton-Gordon
• Prime Minister – Mackenzie Bowell (until April 27) then Charles Tupper (May 1 to July 8) then Wilfrid Laurier (from July 11)
• Chief Justice – Samuel Henry Strong (Ontario)
• Parliament – 7th (until 24 April) then 8th (from 19 August)

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Edgar Dewdney
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – James Colebrooke Patterson
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – John James Fraser (until November 24) then Jabez Bunting Snowball (from December 9)
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Malachy Bowes Daly
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – George Airey Kirkpatrick (until November 7) then Casimir Gzowski
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – George William Howlan
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau

Premiers

• Premier of British Columbia – John Herbert Turner
• Premier of Manitoba – Thomas Greenway
• Premier of New Brunswick – Andrew George Blair (until July 17) then James Mitchell
• Premier of Nova Scotia – William Stevens Fielding (until July 18) then George Henry Murray (from July 20)
• Premier of Ontario – Oliver Mowat (until July 25) then Arthur Sturgis Hardy
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – Frederick Peters
• Premier of Quebec – Louis-Olivier Taillon (until May 11) then Edmund James Flynn

Territorial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Keewatin – James Colebrooke Patterson
• Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories – Charles Herbert Mackintosh

Premiers

• Chairman of the Executive Committee of the North-West Territories – Frederick Haultain

Events

• April 27 – Sir Mackenzie Bowell resigns as Prime Minister due to cabinet infighting.
• May 1 – Sir Charles Tupper becomes prime minister.
• May 11 – Edmund Flynn becomes Premier of Quebec, replacing Sir Louis-Olivier Taillon.
• May 26 – A bridge collapse in Victoria, British Columbia kills 55 people.
• June 23 – Federal election: Wilfrid Laurier's Liberals win a majority, defeating Sir Charles Tupper's Conservatives. One of the key issues in the campaign has been the Manitoba Schools Question.
• July 11 – Wilfrid Laurier becomes prime minister.
• July 20 – George Henry Murray becomes premier of Nova Scotia, replacing William Fielding.
• July 25 – Arthur S. Hardy becomes premier of Ontario, replacing Sir Oliver Mowat.
• July – James Mitchell becomes premier of New Brunswick, replacing Andrew Blair.
• August 17 – Gold is discovered in the Yukon, prompting the Klondike gold rush.

Full date unknown

• A plan to populate the western prairies with immigration from eastern Europe is unveiled.
• The first Canadian blast furnace opens in Hamilton, Ontario.

Sport

• February 14 – Winnipeg Victorias win their first Stanley Cup by defeating Montreal Victorias 2 goals to 0 at Montreal's Victoria Skating Rink

Births

January to June

• March 8 – Charlotte Whitton, feminist, politician and mayor of Ottawa (d.1975)
• March 16 – Harry Banks, soldier
• March 21 – Errick Willis, politician (d.1967)
• April 11 – Léo-Paul Desrosiers, journalist, writer (d.1967)
• April 20 – Wilfrid R. "Wop" May, World War I flying ace and pioneering bush pilot (d.1952)
• May 2 – Elmore Philpott, journalist and politician (d.1964)
• May 18 – Brock Chisholm, doctor and first Director-General of the World Health Organization (d.1971)
• June 22 – Leonard W. Murray, naval officer (d.1971)

July to December

Mitchell Hepburn

• July 2 – Prudence Heward, painter (d.1947)
• July 4 – Frederick Cronyn Betts, politician (d.1938)
• July 10 – Thérèse Casgrain, feminist, reformer, politician and Senator (d.1981)
• July 13 – John Henry Cates, businessman and political figure (d.1986)
• July 27 – Anne Savage, painter and art teacher (d.1971)
• August 12 – Mitchell Hepburn, politician and 11th Premier of Ontario (d.1953)
• August 18 – Jack Pickford, actor (d.1933)
• August 30 – Raymond Massey, actor (d.1983)
• August 31 – Alice Strike, Canada's last surviving female World War I veteran (d.2004)
• November 3 – Madeleine Fritz, paleontologist (d.1990)
• November 7 – Henry Botterell, World War I fighter pilot (d.2003)

Full date unknown

• Jean Baptiste Paul, Canadian First Nations wrestler (d. 1966)

Deaths

• January 14 – Christopher William Bunting, politician, merchant, newspaper owner and newspaper publisher (b.1837)
• February 20 – Hart Massey, businessman and philanthropist (b.1823)
• April 13 – John Christian Schultz, politician and Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba (b.1840)
• May 4 – Timothy Anglin, politician and Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada (b.1822)
• June 7 – Wyatt Eaton, painter (b.1849)
• June 10 – Donald Alexander Macdonald, politician (b.1817)
• June 19 – John Beverley Robinson, politician (b.1821)
• June 25 – Samuel Leonard Tilley, Premier of New Brunswick (b. 1818)
• November 24 – John James Fraser, lawyer, judge, politician and 4th Premier of New Brunswick (b.1829)
• Anne Hill, dancer and actor (b. 1804)

Historical documents

• Summary of Canada's imperial history and description of Governor General's Historical Ball ^[2]

• Joshua Slocum sails Cape Horn solo on his globe-circling voyage ^[3]

• Visitor describes constant boat traffic on the Muskoka Lakes, Ontario ^[4]

References

1. "Queen Victoria | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
2. "Illustrations of The Historical Ball(...)with a Short Historical Introduction by J.G. Bourinot(....)" Accessed 20 December 2019
3. Joshua Slocum, "(Chapter) VIII" Sailing Alone Around the World (1900). Accessed 20 December 2019
4. E.C. Paget, "Letters to H.S. Moore, Esq.," A Year under the Shadow of St. Paul's[....] (1908), pgs. 187-90 Accessed 20 December 2019