1857 in Canada

Events from the year 1857 in Canada.

Incumbents

Monarch — Victoria{{cite web |title=Queen Victoria {{!}} The Canadian Encyclopedia |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/victoria# |website=www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca |access-date=5 December 2022}}

March 12 — Desjardins Canal disaster - The bridge over Desjardins Canal, near Hamilton, Canada West, collapses under a Great Western Railway passenger train. About 60 people die.{{Cite web |title=Desjardins Canal Disaster |url=https://lha.hpl.ca/articles/desjardins-canal-disaster |access-date=2022-11-30 |website=HPL |language=en}}
Grand Trunk Railway (Windsor-Montreal) completed, but $7 million in debt.
December 31 - Queen Victoria names Ottawa as capital of the Province of Canada.{{Cite web |last=Powell |first=James |title=Queen Victoria Chooses Ottawa - The Historical Society of Ottawa |url=https://www.historicalsocietyottawa.ca/publications/ottawa-stories/momentous-events-in-the-city-s-life/queen-victoria-chooses-ottawa |access-date=2022-11-30 |website=www.historicalsocietyottawa.ca |language=en-gb}}
The Palliser Expedition begins its exploration of Western Canada.{{Cite book |last=Spry |first=Irene M. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/15831858 |title=The Palliser expedition : an account of John Palliser's British North American exploring expedition, 1857-1860 |date=1973 |publisher=Macmillan Co. of Canada |isbn=978-0-7705-0287-4 |location=Toronto |oclc=15831858}}

February 2 — Alexander Cameron Rutherford, lawyer and politician, first premier of Alberta (died 1941)
February 25 — Robert Bond, politician and Prime Minister of Newfoundland (died 1927)
February 27 — Adelaide Hoodless, educational reformer who founded the Women's Institute (died 1910)
March 17 — Willis Keith Baldwin, politician (died 1935)
June 20 — Adam Beck, politician and hydro-electricity advocate (died 1925)

July 27 — Ann Stowe-Gullen, doctor
August 15 — Theodore Arthur Burrows, politician and Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba (died 1929)
August 15 — John Strathearn Hendrie, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (died 1923)
September 12 — George Halsey Perley, politician and diplomat (died 1938)
October 10 — Cassie Chadwick, fraudster (died 1907)
October 10 — George Johnson Clarke, lawyer, journalist, politician and 14th Premier of New Brunswick (died 1917)
November 25 — Frederick W. A. G. Haultain, politician and 1st Premier of the Northwest Territories (died 1942)

February 10 — David Thompson, fur trader, surveyor and map-maker (born 1770)
March 13 — William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst, diplomat and governor general (born 1773)
September 3 — John McLoughlin, physician, fur trader, and merchant (born 1784)
November 3 — William Fitzwilliam Owen, naval officer, hydrographic surveyor (born 1774)