1879 in Canada

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Years:	1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882

Events from the year 1879 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Victoria

Federal government

• Governor General – John Campbell
• Prime Minister – John A. Macdonald
• Chief Justice – William Buell Richards (Ontario) (until 10 January) then William Johnstone Ritchie (New Brunswick) (from 11 January)
• Parliament – 4th (from 13 February)

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Albert Norton Richards
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Joseph Édouard Cauchon
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Edward Barron Chandler
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Adams George Archibald
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Donald Alexander Macdonald
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Robert Hodgson (until July 10) then Thomas Heath Haviland
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Luc Letellier de St-Just (until July 26) then Théodore Robitaille

Premiers

• Premier of British Columbia – George Anthony Walkem
• Premier of Manitoba – John Norquay
• Premier of New Brunswick – John James Fraser
• Premier of Nova Scotia – Simon Hugh Holmes
• Premier of Ontario – Oliver Mowat
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – Louis Henry Davies (until April 25) then William Wilfred Sullivan
• Premier of Quebec – Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière (until October 31) then Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Keewatin – Joseph Édouard Cauchon
• Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories – David Laird

Events

The Opening of Canadian Parliament in 1879.

• February 4 – Prince Edward Island election: William Wilfred Sullivan's Conservatives win a third consecutive majority
• March 12 – Sir John A. Macdonald introduces protective tariffs on manufactured goods being imported into Canada, a transcontinental railway, and immigration to the west in his National Policy.
• April 25 – Sir William Wilfred Sullivan becomes premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Sir Louis Davies
• June 5 – Ontario election: Sir Oliver Mowat's Liberals win a third consecutive majority
• (date unknown) – The Toronto Industrial Exhibition opens for the first time, precursor to the Canadian National Exhibition
• October 31 – Sir Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau becomes premier of Quebec, replacing Henri-Gustave de Lotbinière
• December 16 – Manitoba election
• December 19 – The Alberta Canada Cannibal. Swift Runner was executed for murdering and then eating eight members of his own family over the previous winter. He believed he was possessed by Wendigo, a terrifying mythological creature with a ravenous appetite for human flesh.

It wasn't an isolated case. During the late 1800s and into the 20th Century, fear of Wendigo (or Windigo) haunted northern Alberta communities, resulting in several grisly deaths. All other deaths he can document were cases of "Wendigo executions," where others have killed the person believed to be possessed. They were acts of self-preservation, attempts to protect their community.

Births

January to June

Richard Gavin Reid

• January 15 – Mazo de la Roche, author (d.1961)
• January 17 – Richard Gavin Reid, politician and 7th Premier of Alberta (d.1980)
• January 25 – Humphrey T. Walwyn, naval officer and Governor of Newfoundland (d.1957)
• February 14 – Eli Burton, physicist
• March 20 – Maud Menten, medical scientist (d.1960)
• May 25 – Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, business tycoon, politician and writer (d.1964)
• June 12 – Charles Dow Richards, judge, politician and 18th Premier of New Brunswick (d.1956)

July to December

• August 1 – Eva Tanguay, singer and entertainer (d.1947)
• August 16 – Samuel Lawrence, politician and trade unionist (d.1959)
• October 6 – James Langstaff Bowman, politician and Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada (d.1951)
• October 9 – William Warren, lawyer, politician, judge and Prime Minister of Newfoundland (d.1927)
• November 3 – Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Arctic explorer and ethnologist (d.1962)
• November 11 – Violet McNaughton, feminist
• November 25 – Joseph-Arsène Bonnier, politician (d.1962)
• December 24 – Émile Nelligan, poet (d.1941)[1]

Deaths

• January 4 – Pierre-Alexis Tremblay, politician (b.1827)
• January 16 – Octave Crémazie, poet (b.1827)
• April 4 – Jean-Baptiste Thibault, missionary and a Father of Confederation (b.1810)
• October 7 – William Henry Pope, lawyer, politician, judge and a Father of Confederation (b.1825)

Historical Documents

Government scheme to divide 100 million acres of CPR land for settlement[2]

Ottawa memo outlines the "utter destitution" of some Indigenous people in the N.W.T.[3]

Federal commissioner reports on the dependency of Indigenous people at Fort Walsh[4]

Visitor fears the Metis on the Assiniboine River will not hold on to their lands much longer[5]

Description of Mennonite cooperative farming near Winnipeg[6]

All aboard the steamer Waubuno are lost in a gale on Georgian Bay[7]

Anti-Irish-Catholic opinion is published in the Irish Canadian[8]

References

1. "Émile Nelligan | Canadian poet". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
2. John A. Macdonald, Minister of the Interior, "...100,000,000 Acres of Land Required," June 25, 1879. Accessed 18 September 2018 http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/orders/001022-119.01-e.php?&sisn_id_nbr=15726&page_sequence_nbr=1
3. J.S. Dennis, "152 N.W.T.; Memorandum," Northwest Territories - Correspondence, Memoranda, Reports, Minutes and Requisitions Regarding the Distress of Indians in the Territories Due to Lack of Food, pgs. 20-1. Accessed 19 September 2018 http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/pam_archives/index.php?fuseaction=genitem.displayEcopies&lang=eng&rec_nbr=2058700&ecopy=e007682874
4. "No. 46," Report of the Deputy Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs, 1879, pgs. 76-7. Accessed 19 September 2018 http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/aboriginal-heritage/first-nations/indian-affairs-annual-reports/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=1418
5. "Letter IV," Chronicles by the Way: A Series of Letters Addressed to the Montreal "Gazette" Descriptive of a Trip through Manitoba and the North-West (Montreal: Gazette Printing Co, 1879), pg. 10. Accessed 18 September 2018 http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/889/12.html
6. David Currie, The Letters of Rusticus: Investigations in Manitoba and the North-West, for the Benefit of Intending Emigrants (Montreal: John Dougall & Son, 1880), pgs. 67-8. Accessed 18 September 2018 http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/894/74.html
7. "Wreck of the Waubuno; All the Passengers and Crew Lost," Enterprise, Collingwood, Ont. (November 28, 1879). Accessed 18 September 2018 http://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/details.asp?ID=7072
8. "Are Irish Catholics A Menace," Irish Canadian (December 17, 1879). Accessed 18 September 2018 https://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1511en.html