1866 in Canada

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Victoria

  Federal government

• Parliament — 8th

  Governors

• Governor General of the Province of Canada — Charles Monck, 4th Viscount Monck
• Colonial Governor of Newfoundland — Alexander Bannerman
• Governor of New Brunswick — Arthur Charles Hamilton-Gordon
• Governor of Nova Scotia — Sir William Fenwick Williams
• Governor of Prince Edward Island — George Dundas

  Premiers

• Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada –
• *John Alexander Macdonald, Canada West Premier
• *Narcisse-Fortunat Belleau, Canada East Premier
• Premier of Newfoundland — Frederick Carter
• Premiers of New Brunswick — Albert J. Smith then Peter Mitchell
• Premiers of Nova Scotia – Charles Tupper
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – James Colledge Pope

  Events

• May–June – The 1866 New Brunswick election
• June 2 – Battle of Ridgeway, Fenians invade Canada, giving Irish republicans at home a greater advantage over the British back home
• August 6 – The Colonies of Vancouver Island and Colony of British Columbia are united, bearing the Mainland's name as the United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia but with the Island capital, Victoria, as the seat of government of the united colony.
• December 4 – London Conference, conference on resolutions discussed in 1864, to be added to the British North America Act
• The piano manufacturer Heintzman & Co. is incorporated.
• Peter Edmund Jones graduates from Queen's University, becoming Canada's first indigenous medical doctor

  Births

January to June

• February 24 – Martha Black, politician and the second woman elected to the House of Commons of Canada
• March 8 – John Wesley Dafoe, journalist and author
• May 11 – Edward Rogers Wood, financier
• May 12 – Walter Charles Murray, first President of the University of Saskatchewan
• June 14 – Henry Sproatt, architect

  July to December

• September 1 – Clifford William Robinson, lawyer, businessman, politician and 11th Premier of New Brunswick
• September 12 – Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon, 13th Governor General of Canada
• October 6 – Reginald Fessenden, inventor and radio pioneer
• October 19 – Clarence Lucas, composer, lyricist, conductor and music professor
• December 26 – Godfroy Langlois, politician, journalist and lawyer

  Deaths

• January 16 – David Willson, religious leader and mystic
• January 28 – Robert Foulis, inventor, civil engineer and artist
• February 3 – François-Xavier Garneau, notary, civil servant, poet and historian
• February 19 – Charles Richard Ogden, Joint Premier of the Province of Canada
• March 14 – Norman McLeod, Presbyterian minister
• April 11 – Edward Bowen, lawyer, judge and politician
• July 28 – Frédéric-Auguste Quesnel, politician, lawyer, and businessman
• October 26 – John Kinder Labatt, brewer and founder of the Labatt Brewing Company
• November 1 – Jean-Baptiste-Éric Dorion, journalist and politician

  Historical Documents