1850 in Canada

Incumbents

• Monarch — Victoria

  Federal government

• Parliament: 3rd

  Governors

• Governor General of the Province of Canada — James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin
• Colonial Governor of Newfoundland — Charles Henry Darling
• Governor of New Brunswick — Edmund Walker Head
• Governor of Nova Scotia — John Harvey
• Governor of Prince Edward Island — Dominick Daly

  Premiers

• Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada —
• *Robert Baldwin, Canada West Premier
• *Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, Canada East Premier
• Premier of Nova Scotia — James Boyle Uniacke

  Events

• January 14 – Malcolm Cameron visits Washington, D.C. about a trade reciprocity agreement.
• October 11 – The St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad opens.

  Full date unknown

• In the United States, the Fugitive Slave Act is passed. It provides that even free persons can be made a slave if suspected of being a runaway. As a result, more fugitive slaves and free Black persons come to Canada.
• The site of John By's headquarters during the construction of the Rideau Canal is incorporated as Bytown.
• Gold discovered in British Columbia, and coal on Vancouver Island.
• The Canadian government passes the Railway Guarantee Act.

  Births

January to June

• January 27 – Louis-Philippe Hébert, sculptor
• March 7 – Éphrem-A. Brisebois, police officer
• April 15 – William Thomas Pipes, politician and Premier of Nova Scotia
• April 29 – George Murdoch, politician and 1st Mayor of Calgary
• March 13 – Hugh John Macdonald, politician, Minister and 8th Premier of Manitoba
• May 1 – Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, 10th Governor General of Canada
• May 6 – Joseph-Hormisdas Legris, politician and Senator

  July to December

• July 11 – John Augustus Barron, politician and lawyer
• September 27 – William Pugsley, lawyer, politician and 10th Premier of New Brunswick
• December 15 – Joseph-Alphonse Couture, veterinarian
• December 31 – John Wycliffe Lowes Forster, artist

  Full date unknown

• Daniel J. Greene, politician and Prime Minister of Newfoundland
• Charles Braithwaite, politician and agrarian leader

  Deaths

• February 23 – Matthew Whitworth-Aylmer, 5th Baron Aylmer, army officer and colonial administrator
• April 23 – William Wordsworth, poet