1887 in Canada

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See also:	History of Canada; Timeline of Canadian history; List of years in Canada;

Events from the year 1887 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

Monarch – Victoria^[1]

Federal government

Governor General – Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice
Prime Minister – John A. Macdonald
Chief Justice – William Johnstone Ritchie (New Brunswick)
Parliament – 5th (until 15 January) then 6th (from 13 April)

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Clement Francis Cornwall (until February 8) then Hugh Nelson
Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – James Cox Aikins
Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Samuel Leonard Tilley
Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Matthew Henry Richey
Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – John Beverley Robinson (until June 1) then Alexander Campbell
Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Andrew Archibald Macdonald
Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Louis-Rodrigue Masson (until October 4) then Auguste-Réal Angers

Premiers

Premier of British Columbia – William Smithe (until March 28) then Alexander Edmund Batson Davie (from April 1)
Premier of Manitoba – John Norquay (until December 26) then David Howard Harrison
Premier of New Brunswick – Andrew George Blair
Premier of Nova Scotia – William Stevens Fielding
Premier of Ontario – Oliver Mowat
Premier of Prince Edward Island – William Wilfred Sullivan
Premier of Quebec – John Jones Ross (until January 25) then Louis-Olivier Taillon (January 25 to January 27) then Honoré Mercier

Territorial governments

Lieutenant governors

Events

January 25 – Sir Louis-Olivier Taillon becomes premier of Quebec, replacing John Jones Ross.
January 27 – Honoré Mercier becomes premier of Quebec, replacing Sir Louis-Olivier Taillon.
February 22 – Federal election: Sir John A. Macdonald's Conservatives win a third consecutive majority.
March 3 – The United States imposes the Fisheries Retaliation Act putting limits on Canadian fishermen and traders
March 28 – William Smithe, Premier of British Columbia, dies in office.
April 1 – Alexander Davie becomes premier of British Columbia.
April 23 – McMaster University founded
May 3 – 148 coal miners are killed in a mine explosion near Nanaimo, British Columbia
June 7 – Wilfrid Laurier becomes leader of the Liberal Party of Canada
June 20 – Golden Jubilee of Victoria's accession as Queen
December 3 – Saturday Night founded
December 26 – David H. Harrison becomes premier of Manitoba, replacing John Norquay.
The first premiers' conference is held at Quebec City, Quebec

Births

January to June

January 21 – Georges Vézina, ice hockey player (d.1926)
February 20 – Vincent Massey, lawyer, diplomat and Governor General of Canada (d.1967)
February 25 – Andrew McNaughton, army officer, politician and diplomat (d.1966)
April 13 – Gordon S. Fahrni, medical doctor (d.1995)
May 21 – James Gladstone, first Status Indian to be appointed to the Senate of Canada (d.1971)

July to December

July 4 – Tom Longboat, long-distance runner (d.1949)
July 5 – Joseph Charles-Émile Trudeau, entrepreneur and father of Pierre Trudeau, who would later become Prime Minister of Canada (d.1935)
September 17 – Georges Poulin, hockey player (d. 1971)
October 8 – Huntley Gordon, actor (d. 1956)
October 14 – Frances Loring, sculptor (d.1968)
December 20 – Walter Russell Shaw, politician and Premier of Prince Edward Island (d.1981)

Deaths

February 25 – Augustin-Magloire Blanchet, missionary (b.1797)
March 28 – William Smithe, politician and 6th Premier of British Columbia (b.1842)
May 4 – William Murdoch, poet (b.1823)
May 8 – Sir William Young, Premier of Nova Scotia (b.1799)
June 25 – Matthew Crooks Cameron, lawyer, judge and politician (b.1822)
August 18 – John Palliser, explorer and geographer (b.1817)
October 11 – Louis-Adélard Senécal, businessman and politician (b.1829)
October 12 – William Annand, 2nd Premier of Nova Scotia (b.1808)

Historical documents

Senate committee suggests seeding North-West with wild rice, developing bison hybrid, and preserving food using Indigenous ways^[2]

Senate debate on North-West Territories growth blames decades of delay on British ignorance (Note: "Indians" and "civilize" stereotypes)^[3]

Canadian Pacific Railway offers land seekers $25 return fare to Winnipeg, with option to go on westward (and fare refunded if 160 acres purchased)^[4]

Statistical snapshot of Ontario, with note on reciprocity with U.S.^[5]

Royal commission hears that labour and small business in Toronto are squeezed by increasing competition and rising rents^[6]

"A blot on our Statute Book" - Sen. William Johnston Almon against Chinese head tax law penalizing any immigrant with "yellow skin and an almond eye"^[7]

Opposition Leader Wilfrid Laurier comments on "cancer of emigration" to United States^[8]

References

^ "Queen Victoria | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
^ "Second Report of the Select Committee of the Senate on the Existing Natural Food Products of the North-West Territories[....]," pgs. 4-5. Accessed 5 October 2020
^ "The Natural Food Products of the North-West; Debate in the Senate[...]on the Report of the Committee[....]," pg. 2 Accessed 5 October 2020
^ "To Land Hunters!" (May 12, 1887), University of British Columbia Library. Accessed 10 July 2022
^ Archibald Blue, Resources and Progress of the Province of Ontario (1888). Accessed 10 October 2019
^ "Phillips Thompson, Journalist, of Toronto, called and sworn" (November 28, 1887), Report of the Royal Commission on the Relations of Labor and Capital in Canada; Evidence, Ontario (1889), pgs. 98-100 Accessed 21 May 2020
^ "Chinese Immigration Bill; Second Reading" (June 10, 1887), Senate Debates, 6th Parliament, 1st Session; Vol. 1, pgs. 297-8 (PDF pgs. 297-8). Accessed 8 January 2023
^ Ulric Barthe, Wilfrid Laurier on the Platform; Collection of the Principal Speeches[...] (1890), pg. 376 Accessed 19 October 2019

[1] "Queen Victoria | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 5 December 2022.

[2] "Second Report of the Select Committee of the Senate on the Existing Natural Food Products of the North-West Territories[....]," pgs. 4-5. Accessed 5 October 2020

[3] "The Natural Food Products of the North-West; Debate in the Senate[...]on the Report of the Committee[....]," pg. 2 Accessed 5 October 2020

[4] "To Land Hunters!" (May 12, 1887), University of British Columbia Library. Accessed 10 July 2022

[5] Archibald Blue, Resources and Progress of the Province of Ontario (1888). Accessed 10 October 2019

[6] "Phillips Thompson, Journalist, of Toronto, called and sworn" (November 28, 1887), Report of the Royal Commission on the Relations of Labor and Capital in Canada; Evidence, Ontario (1889), pgs. 98-100 Accessed 21 May 2020

[7] "Chinese Immigration Bill; Second Reading" (June 10, 1887), Senate Debates, 6th Parliament, 1st Session; Vol. 1, pgs. 297-8 (PDF pgs. 297-8). Accessed 8 January 2023

[8] Ulric Barthe, Wilfrid Laurier on the Platform; Collection of the Principal Speeches[...] (1890), pg. 376 Accessed 19 October 2019

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v t e 1887 in North America
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