1891 in Canada

Years in Canada:	1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894
Centuries:	18th century · 19th century · 20th century
Decades:	1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s
Years:	1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894

Events from the year 1891 in Canada.

Incumbents

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

Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald lying in state in the Senate Chamber

• 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

Births

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)

John A. Macdonald

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

Prime Minister John A. Macdonald dies [1]

Death of Prime Minister Macdonald, Conservative Party's "tyrannical master," leaves power vacuum [2]

Imprisonment of ejected MP Thomas McGreevy strikes at pernicious level of corruption in public contracts [3][4]

Heroism of rescuers at Springhill, Nova Scotia mining disaster [5]

Bilingual English and Chinook periodical is published to improve Indigenous people's literacy[6]

References

1. "He Is Gone; Death of Rt. Hon. Sir John Alexander Macdonald;[...]Canada Mourns the Loss of Her Greatest Statesman[....]," The (Victoria) Daily Colonist (June 7, 1891), pg. 1. Accessed 20 December 2019 https://archive.org/stream/dailycolonist18910607uvic/18910607#mode/1up
2. "The Tory Position," The (Toronto) Globe (June 16, 1891), pg. 4. Accessed 7 December 2019 via ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail (on-line through many Canadian public and academic libraries)
3. Editorial, The Canadian Architect and Builder, Vol. VI, No. XII (December 1893), pg. 122. Accessed 23 December 2019 http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/cab/search/imgprint.php?imgfile=../Volume%206/Issue%2012/v6n12p122.gif
4. "Charges against the Honourable Thomas McGreevy," Reports of the Select Standing Committee on Privileges and Elections Relative to[...]Tenders and Contracts[;] Also Relative to the Resignation of Honourable Thomas McGreevy, pgs. ivb-ivy. Accessed 9 October 2020 https://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.com_HOC_0701_2_2/14?r=0&s=1
5. R.A.H. Morrow, "Chapter IV; Searching for the Dead and Injured," Story of the Springhill Disaster (1891) Accessed 3 December 2019 https://cdm22007.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p22007coll8/id/1087381
6. J.M.R. LeJeune, "This paper is named Kamloops Wawa," Kamloops (B.C.) Wawa, No. 1 (May 2, 1891). Accessed 25 July 2020 http://digital.scaa.sk.ca/ourlegacy/permalink/27099