1873 in Canada
{{short description|none}}
{{more citations needed|date=December 2009}}
{{wikisource|Category:Canada:Acts of Parliament, 1873|Acts of Parliament, 1873}}
{{Year in Canada|1873}}
{{History of Canada}}
Events from the year 1873 in Canada.
Incumbents
=Crown=
=Federal government=
- Governor General – Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood
- Prime Minister – John A. Macdonald (until November 5) then Alexander Mackenzie (from November 7)
- Parliament – 2nd (from 5 March)
=Provincial governments=
==Lieutenant governors==
- Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Joseph Trutch
- Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Alexander Morris
- Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Lemuel Allan Wilmot (until November 15) then Samuel Leonard Tilley
- Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Charles Hastings Doyle (until May 1) then Joseph Howe (May 1 to July 4) then Adams George Archibald
- Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – William Pearce Howland (until November 11) then John Willoughby Crawford
- Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – William Cleaver Francis Robinson
- Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Narcisse-Fortunat Belleau (until February 11) then René-Édouard Caron
==Premiers==
- Premier of British Columbia – Amor De Cosmos
- Premier of Manitoba – Henry Joseph Clarke
- Premier of New Brunswick – George Edwin King
- Premier of Nova Scotia – William Annand
- Premier of Ontario – Oliver Mowat
- Premier of Prince Edward Island – James Colledge Pope (until September 1) then Lemuel Cambridge Owen
- Premier of Quebec – Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau (until February 26) then Gédéon Ouimet
=Territorial governments=
==Lieutenant governors==
Events
=January to June 1873=
- February 26 – Gédéon Ouimet becomes Premier of Quebec, replacing Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau.
- April 1
- 1873 Prince Edward Island general election.
- James Pope becomes Premier of Prince Edward Island for the second time, replacing Robert Haythorne.
- The SS Atlantic is wrecked off Peggys Cove.
- April 2 – The Pacific Scandal breaks out.
- May 13 – Sixty are killed in a coal mine explosion in Nova Scotia.
- May 23 – North-West Mounted Police are founded to police the Northwest Territories, which then included the region today of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
- June 1 – The Cypress Hills Massacre occurs.
=July to December=
- July 1 – Prince Edward Island joins the Canadian Confederation.
- August 25 – A cyclone hits Cape Breton Island, killing 500 and causing much damage.
- September 1 – L. C. Owen becomes Premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing James Pope.
- September 23 – The Canadian Labour Union is founded.
- November – 1873 Newfoundland general election.
- November 5 – Pacific Scandal: the House of Commons of Canada passes a vote of no confidence in Sir John A. Macdonald's government.
- November 7 – Pacific Scandal: Sir John A. resigns as Prime Minister of Canada, and Alexander Mackenzie is appointed in his place.
- November 8 – Winnipeg incorporated as a city.
Sport
- October 4 – The Argonauts Football Club (Toronto Argonauts) are established
Smallpox
In the opening speech to the 1872-1873 Epidemiological Society conference, Inspector-General Robert Lawson drew attention to the recent prevalence of haemorrhagic forms of smallpox in both the United States and Canada, among other countries. During the smallpox pandemic of 1870-1874, the disease had been carried to America by emigrants, where it had already infected thousands, and killed hundreds in eastern cities such as Boston and New York.{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1177/003591573302700245| issn = 0035-9157| volume = 27| issue = 2| pages = 177–192| last = Rolleston| first = J. D.| title = The Smallpox Pandemic of 1870–1874: President's Address| journal = Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine| date = 1 December 1933| doi-access = free| pmc = 2204618}}
Births
=January to June=
- January 10 – George Orton, middle-distance runner and Olympic gold medallist, first Canadian to win an Olympic medal (d.1958)
- January 19 – Thomas Dufferin Pattullo, politician and 22nd Premier of British Columbia (d.1956)
- February 4 – Étienne Desmarteau, athlete and Olympic gold medallist (d.1905)
- April 9 – Walter Edward Foster, businessman, politician and 16th Premier of New Brunswick (d.1947)
- April 10 – George Black, politician (d.1965)
- May 12 – J. E. H. MacDonald, artist of the Group of Seven (d.1932)
- May 17 – Albert Edward Matthews, 16th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (d.1949)
=July to December=
- August 27 – Maud Allan, actor, dancer and choreographer (d.1956)
- September 20 – Sidney Olcott, film producer, director, actor and screenwriter (d.1949)
- October 20 (or 29) – Nellie McClung, feminist, politician and social activist (d.1951){{cite book|author1=Elizabeth Gillan Muir|author2=Marilyn Färdig Whiteley|title=Changing Roles of Women Within the Christian Church in Canada|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S1Ww0sV1SrYC&pg=PA340|year=1995|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-7623-6|pages=340–}}
- November 21 – Aimé Bénard, politician (d.1938)
- December 8 – John Duncan MacLean, teacher, physician, politician and Premier of British Columbia (d.1948)
- December 9 – George Blewett, academic and philosopher (d.1912)
=Full date unknown=
- Margaret C. MacDonald, nurse (d.1948)
Deaths
Image:James William Johnston.jpg
- May 15 – William James Anderson, physician, amateur geologist and historian (b.1812)
- May 20 – George-Étienne Cartier, politician and statesman (b.1814)
- May 28 – Thomas Brown Anderson, merchant, banker and politician (b.1796)
- June 1 – Joseph Howe, Premier of Nova Scotia (b.1804)
- June 28 – Charles Connell, politician (b.1810)
- November 21 – James William Johnston, lawyer, politician, and judge (b.1792)
- December 9 – William Steeves, politician (b.1814)
Historical documents
Non-confidence moved in House of Commons over Government accepting election funding from group hoping to build CPR[http://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.debates_HOC0201_01/196?r=0&s=2 "House of Commons; Wednesday, April 2, 1873"] House of Commons Debates; First Session – Second Parliament, pg. 179. Accessed 24 September 2018
Why the Governor General did not dismiss Prime Minister Macdonald over the Pacific ScandalGovernor General Lord Dufferin, [http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/660/2.html Message: Papers Relative to the Prorogation of Parliament on the 13th Day of August 1873] (1873), especially pg. 17 and after. Accessed 15 September 2018
Metis leader Ambroise Lepine sentenced to death for the murder of Thomas Scott in 1870 at Red River[http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/710/138.html "Sentence"] Preliminary Investigation and Trial of Ambroise D. Lepine for the Murder of Thomas Scott (1874), pgs. 124-7. Accessed 15 September 2018
House of Commons speeches on issues with Indigenous people in the Northwest TerritoriesRobert Cunningham; Donald Alexander Smith, [http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/666.html Speeches on the Indian Difficulties in the North-West, Delivered(...)in the House of Commons, April 1st, 1873] (1873). Accessed 15 September 2018
British Columbia Indian superintendent reports on the economic activity of Indigenous people[http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/aboriginal-heritage/first-nations/indian-affairs-annual-reports/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=215 "Abstract of the Report of J.W. Powell,(...)1873"] Annual Report on Indian Affairs, for Year Ending 30th June, 1872, pgs. 7–10. Accessed 19 September 2018
References
{{Reflist|2}}
{{Canadian history}}
{{Canada year nav}}
{{North America topic|1873 in}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:1873 In Canada}}