1897 in Canada

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Decades:	1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s
See also:	History of Canada Timeline of Canadian history List of years in Canada

Events from the year 1897 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Victoria ^[1]

Federal government

• Governor General – John Hamilton-Gordon
• Prime Minister – Wilfrid Laurier
• Chief Justice – Samuel Henry Strong (Ontario)
• Parliament – 8th

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Edgar Dewdney (until November 18) then Thomas Robert McInnes
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – James Colebrooke Patterson
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Jabez Bunting Snowball
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Malachy Bowes Daly
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Casimir Gzowski (acting) (until November 18) then Oliver Mowat
• 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 – James Mitchell (until October 29) then Henry Emmerson
• Premier of Nova Scotia – George Henry Murray
• Premier of Ontario – Arthur Sturgis Hardy
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – Frederick Peters (until October 1) then Alexander Warburton
• Premier of Quebec – Edmund James Flynn (until May 24) then Félix-Gabriel Marchand

Territorial governments

Commissioners

• Commissioner of Yukon – James Morrow Walsh (from August 17)

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 then Premier of North-West Territories – Frederick Haultain (from October 7)

Events

• January 29 – The Victorian Order of Nurses is founded in Ottawa.
• February 2 – Clara Brett Martin becomes the first woman to practise law in Ontario.
• February 19 – World's first Women's Institute founded in Stoney Creek, Ontario.
• May 24 – Félix-Gabriel Marchand becomes premier of Quebec, replacing Edmund Flynn.
• May 24 – Lion of Belfort (Montreal) unveiled.
• June 20 – Diamond Jubilee of Victoria's accession as Queen.
• September 6 – The federal government gives the CPR a grant to allow it to reduce freight rates through Crowsnest Pass.
• October – A.B. Warburton becomes Premier of Prince Edward Island.
• October 7 – Responsible government is introduced in the North-West Territories: Frederick Haultain becomes the first premier.
• October 29 – Henry Emmerson becomes premier of New Brunswick, replacing James Mitchell.

Full date unknown

• Klondike Gold Rush rages in the Yukon.
• Lord Grey proposes that Canada create a navy to protect its west coast; Prime Minister Laurier does not act on the recommendation.
• 1897–1912 – 961,000 people enter Canada from the British Isles, 594,000 from Europe and 784,000 from the United States..
• The first Canadian movie, Ten Years in Manitoba.

Births

Lester Bowles Pearson in 1944

• January 23 – William Stephenson, soldier, airman, businessperson, inventor and spymaster (d.1989)
• January 27 – Charles Stephen Booth, politician and barrister (d.1988)
• March 9 – Sidney Earle Smith, academic and seventh President of the University of Toronto (d.1959)
• April 23 – Lester B. Pearson, politician, 14th Prime Minister of Canada, diplomat and 1957 Nobel Peace Prize recipient (d.1972)
• June 29 – Fulgence Charpentier, French Canadian journalist, editor and publisher (d. 2001)
• September 23 – Walter Pidgeon, actor (d.1984)
• September 29 – Graham Towers, first Governor of the Bank of Canada (d.1975)
• November 30 – William Murdoch Buchanan, politician (d.1966)
• December 7 – Gordon Graydon, politician (d.1953)

Deaths

• January 2 – Thomas McGreevy, politician and contractor (b.1825)
• February 27 – James Austin, businessman (b.1813)
• July 4 – Amor De Cosmos, journalist, politician and 2nd Premier of British Columbia (b.1825)
• September 19 – Frederick Cope, 3rd Mayor of Vancouver (b.1860)
• October 21 – Philip Francis Little, 1st Premier of Newfoundland of the colonial (b.1824)
• December 14 – Robert Simpson, businessman and founder of Simpsons (b.1834)
• December 15 – James Mitchell, politician and 7th Premier of New Brunswick (b.1843)
• December 31 – David Oppenheimer, entrepreneur and 2nd Mayor of Vancouver (b.1832)

Historical documents

Cree leader Almighty Voice pursued and killed by North-West Mounted Police in Saskatchewan ^[2]

Annual report of Indian agent for Kootenay Agency in British Columbia ^[3]

Anglican missionary conducts church services on his dogsled trip around northwest Alberta ^[4]

Kipling's poem "Our Lady of the Snows" acknowledges Canada's solidarity but independence in its relations with Britain (Note: "white man" used) ^[5]

Editorial praises founding of Victorian Order of Nurses ^[6]

Illustration of fully outfitted Klondike Gold Rush adventurer, with price of each garment and do/don't lists ^[7]

"It is impossible to give one an idea of the slowness with which things are moving" - Gold rush travel plagued by horses needing shoes ^[8]

Photo: Klondikers at Chilkoot Pass, Alaska ^[9]

Lack of food and other boomtown problems discourage some Dawson City residents ^[10]

British railway labourers in western Canada treated as slaves before escaping ^[11]

"A love affair this summer" - Diary writer records declaration of love from another woman visiting Camp Viamede, Stony Lake, Ontario ^[12]

Newspaper map of bicycling routes in and around Victoria, B.C. includes hotels and hills ^[13]

Cycling map of Montreal distinguishes roads and "good roads" ^[14]

Photo: Metropolitan Bicycle Club ^[15]

References

1. "Queen Victoria | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
2. Mae Harris Anson, "Last Stand of Almighty Voice" Sunday Record-Herald typescript. Accessed 20 December 2019
3. Department of Indian Affairs, Dominion of Canada Annual Report(...)for the Year Ended 30th June 1897, pgs. 82-4 Accessed 20 December 2019
4. Richard Young, "Circular letter describing a mission journey through the Athabasca Peace River country" Accessed 20 December 2019
5. Rudyard Kipling, "Our Lady of the Snows" (1897), The Kipling Society. Accessed 22 July 2021
6. "A Nursing Order--Lady Aberdeen's Latest" The (Chatham, N.B.) World (February 20, 1897). Accessed 20 December 2019
7. "Do Don't" New York Journal and Advertiser (August 22, 1897), pg. 42. Accessed 5 December 2021
8. Tappan Adney, The Klondike stampede. Special correspondent of 'Harper's Weekly' in the Klondike (1900), pg. 98 University of British Columbia Library. Accessed 27 April 2025
9. "Preparing to climb 'the golden stair' and Peterson's Trail, Chilkoot Pass, Alaska" (1897?), University of British Columbia Library. Accessed 27 April 2025
10. Letters home from James Hamil and Rebecca Schuldenfrei Accessed 20 December 2019
11. Letter and newspaper enclosure (typescripts). Accessed 20 December 2019 http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/pam_archives/index.php?fuseaction=genitem.displayEcopies&rec_nbr=1432309 (Note: pages are not in proper reading order)
12. "July 27 (1897). Tuesday." "XV; May Bragdon; March 1st, 1897," pg. 120, May Bragdon Diaries, University of Rochester River Campus Libraries. Accessed 6 March 2022
13. The Province Pub'g Co., "'The Province' Pocket Road Map of Victoria and Surroundings" (1897 ("Date derived from historical information on map")), University of British Columbia Library. Accessed 23 October 2022
14. "Bicycle Map of the Island of Montreal and Surrounding District" (1897), Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. Accessed 2 February 2023
15. "Metropolitan Bicycle Club" (June 12, 1897), Toronto Public Library. Accessed 15 June 2023