1904 in Canada

← 1903 1902 1901 1904 in Canada → 1905 1906 1907
Decades:	1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s
See also:	History of Canada Timeline of Canadian history List of years in Canada

Events from the year 1904 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Edward VII ^[1]

Federal government

• Governor General – Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto (until December 10) then Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey
• Prime Minister – Wilfrid Laurier
• Chief Justice – Henri Elzéar Taschereau (Quebec)
• Parliament – 9th (until 29 September)

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Daniel Hunter McMillan
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Jabez Bunting Snowball
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Alfred Gilpin Jones
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – William Mortimer Clark
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Peter A. McIntyre (until October 3) then Donald Alexander MacKinnon
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Louis-Amable Jetté

Premiers

• Premier of British Columbia – Richard McBride
• Premier of Manitoba – Rodmond Roblin
• Premier of New Brunswick – Lemuel John Tweedie
• Premier of Nova Scotia – George Henry Murray
• Premier of Ontario – George William Ross
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – Arthur Peters
• Premier of Quebec – Simon-Napoléon Parent

Territorial governments

Commissioners

• Commissioner of Yukon – Frederick Tennyson Congdon (until October 29) then Zachary Taylor Wood (acting)

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Keewatin – Daniel Hunter McMillan
• Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories – Amédée E. Forget

Premiers

• Premier of North-West Territories – Frederick Haultain

Events

• April 8 – In the Lansdowne-Cambon Convention France gives up some of its longstanding rights in Newfoundland
• April 19 – The Great Toronto Fire destroys much of that city's downtown, but kills no one.
• June 24 – The North-West Mounted Police become the Royal Northwest Mounted Police
• September 10 – American criminal Bill Miner stages Canada's first-ever train robbery
• October 8 – Edmonton is incorporated as a city of the North-West Territories.

Full date unknown

• Henry Ford opens an automobile manufacturing plant in Windsor, Ontario
• Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg opens
• Creation of Marionville, Ontario, the only village (for now) that shares the 3 Canadian municipalities.

Births

January to June

• January 4 – Pegi Nicol MacLeod, artist (d.1949)
• January 14 – Walter Harris, politician and lawyer (d.1999)
• February 29 – Lloyd Stinson, politician (d.1976)
• March 6 – Farquhar Oliver, politician (d.1989)
• March 26 – Gustave Biéler, Special Operations Executive agent during World War II (d.1944)
• April 16 – Fifi D'Orsay, actress (d.1983)
• April 26 – Paul-Émile Léger, Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church (d.1991)
• May 1 – Wally Downer, politician (d.1994)
• May 13 – Earle Birney, poet (d.1995)

Eugene Forsey

• May 29 – Eugene Forsey, politician and constitutional expert (d.1991)
• June 26 – Frank Scott Hogg, astrophysicist (d.1951)

July to December

• July 22 – Donald O. Hebb, psychologist (d.1985)
• August 15 – George Klein, inventor (d. 1992)
• September 7 – Matthew Halton, radio and television journalist (d.1956)
• September 14 – Frank Amyot, sprint canoer and Olympic gold medallist (d.1962)
• September 23 – Geoffrey Waddington, conductor
• September 29 – Robert Legget, civil engineer, historian and non-fiction writer (d.1994)
• October 20 – Tommy Douglas, politician and Premier of Saskatchewan (d.1986)
• November 18 – Jean Paul Lemieux, painter (d.1990)
• November 26 – Armand Frappier, physician and microbiologist (d.1991)
• December 18 – Wilf Carter, country music singer, songwriter, guitarist and yodeller (d.1996)
• December 25 – Gerhard Herzberg, physicist and physical chemist (d.1999)
• December 28 – Bobbie Rosenfeld, athlete and Olympic gold medallist (d.1969)
• December 29 – Léo Gauthier, politician (d.1964)

Deaths

• January 9 – Christian Kumpf, mayor of Waterloo, Ontario (b. 1838)
• February 9 – Erastus Wiman, journalist and businessman (b.1834)
• March 9 – Robert Machray, clergyman, missionary and first Primate of the Church of England in Canada (b.1831)
• April 17 – Joseph Brunet, politician and businessman (b.1834)
• May 11 – David Breakenridge Read, lawyer and 14th Mayor of Toronto (b. 1823)
• August 8 – James Cox Aikins, politician, Minister and Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba (b.1823)
• August 31 – Jean-Baptiste Blanchet, politician (b.1842)
• September 26 – John Fitzwilliam Stairs, entrepreneur and statesman (b.1848)

Historical documents

Great Toronto Fire and its aftermath, in eyewitness accounts and critical postmortem ^[2]

Film of Great Toronto Fire ^[3]

Photo of Toronto fire ruins ^[4]

Anaconda, B.C. forest fire starts in "dry brush several feet thick" made of fallen trees amid much scrubby pine and fir killed by smelter smoke ^[5]

Dubious story about people smuggling prompts editorial on journalistic accuracy ^[6]

Cartoon: "Illustration shows Uncle Sam offering a bouquet of flowers labeled 'Reciprocity' to a woman labeled 'Canada'; Uncle Sam is being held back by a businessman labeled 'Trusts' whose feet are planted against a rock labeled 'High Protection' and is pulling on Sam's coattails, while the woman is being held back by a military officer labeled 'Toryism' pulling on her fur wrap" ^[7]

Burrowing owl increasing and Passenger pigeon disappearing in Manitoba ^[8]

Manitoba Free Press special Christmas issue contains goose quill pen ^[9]

References

1. Tidridge, Nathan (15 November 2011). Canada's Constitutional Monarchy. Dundurn. p. 235. ISBN   978-1-55488-980-8.
2. Fergus Kyle, "Incidents at a Great Fire" The Canadian Magazine, Vol. XXIII, No. 2 (June 1904), pgs. 136-40. Norman Patterson, "Toronto's Great Fire" The Canadian Magazine, Vol. XXIII, No. 2 (June 1904), pgs. 128-35. Accessed 24 January 2020
3. "Century Snapshots;(...)The Great Toronto Fire" Accessed 24 January 2020
4. "Toronto Fire Ruins, Front Street" (April 19, 1904), British Library. Accessed 23 December 2021
5. "Forest Fire; Breaks Out in Woods Below Anaconda — Property Burned" The Anaconda News, Vol. 4, No. 25 (June 1, 1904), pgs. 1, 6. Accessed 1 August 2021
6. "Plea for Accuracy" The Canadian Printer and Publisher, Vol. XIV, No. 4 (April 1905), pg. 10. Accessed 24 January 2020
7. J.S. Pughe, "Flirtation under Difficulties" Puck (March 2, 1904). Accessed 25 May 2025
8. George E. Atkinson, Rare Bird Records of Manitoba (1904), pgs. 6-8 Accessed 24 January 2020
9. Manitoba Free Press, "A Quill from a Canada Wild Goose: With the Cree Legend of Nih-Ka, the Wild Goose, Set Forth for the First Time in Print" (1904). Accessed 24 January 2020