1871 in Canada

Events from the year 1871 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Victoria

Federal government

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

Provincial governments

File:Canada provinces 1871-1873.png

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

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

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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 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

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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)