1891 in Canada

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Victoria

  Federal government

• Governor general – Frederick Stanley
• Prime minister – John A. Macdonald then John Abbott
• Chief Justice – William Johnstone Ritchie
• Parliament – 6th then 7th

  Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Hugh Nelson
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – John Christian Schultz
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Samuel Leonard Tilley
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Malachy Bowes Daly
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Alexander Campbell
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Jedediah Slason Carvell
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Auguste-Réal Angers

  Premiers

• Premier of British Columbia – John Robson
• Premier of Manitoba – Thomas Greenway
• Premier of New Brunswick – Andrew George Blair
• Premier of Nova Scotia – William Stevens Fielding
• Premier of Ontario – Oliver Mowat
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – Neil McLeod then Frederick Peters
• Premier of Quebec – Honoré Mercier then Charles Boucher de Boucherville

  Territorial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Keewatin – John Christian Schultz
• Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories – Joseph Royal

  Premiers

• Chairman of the Lieutenant-Governor's Advisory Council of the North-West Territories then Chairman of the Executive Committee of the North-West Territories – Robert Brett then Frederick Haultain

  Events

• February 21 – The first Springhill Mining Disaster occurs killing 125.
• March 5 – Federal election: Sir John A. Macdonald's Conservatives win a fourth consecutive majority
• April 27 – Frederick Peters becomes premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Neil McLeod
• June 6 – Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald dies in office
• June 8 – Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald lies in state in the Senate Chamber
• June 16 – Sir John Abbott becomes prime minister following the death of Sir John A. Macdonald
• September 29 – Thomas McGreevy is expelled from the House of Commons due to corruption.
• November 7 – The election of the 2nd North-West Legislative Assembly
• December 10 – The Calgary and Edmonton Railway opens, connecting Edmonton to the national railway network for the first time.
• December 21 – Sir Charles-Eugène de Boucherville becomes premier of Quebec for the second time, replacing Honoré Mercier
• The Legislative Council of New Brunswick is abolished

  Sport

• The Canadian Rugby Football Union is renamed the Canadian Rugby Union

  Births

January to June

• January 6 – Tim Buck, politician and long-time leader of the Communist Party of Canada
• January 26 – Wilder Penfield, neurosurgeon
• April 1 – Harry Nixon, politician and 13th Premier of Ontario
• May 3 – Thomas John Bentley, politician
• June 13 – Hervé-Edgar Brunelle, politician and lawyer

  July to December

• July 12 – Adhémar Raynault, politician and Mayor of Montreal
• August 30 – Elmer Jamieson, educator
• September 16 – Julie Winnefred Bertrand, supercentenarian, oldest living Canadian and oldest verified living recognized woman at the time of her death
• October 30 – Ada Mackenzie, golfer
• November 14 – Frederick Banting, medical scientist, doctor and Nobel laureate
• December 10 – Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, military commander and Governor General of Canada
• December 25 – William Ross Macdonald, politician, Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada and 21st Lieutenant Governor of Ontario

Deaths

• January 4 – Antoine Labelle, priest and settler
• January 21 – Calixa Lavallée, musician and composer
• May 31 – Antoine-Aimé Dorion, politician and jurist
• June 6 – John A. Macdonald, politician and 1st Prime Minister of Canada

  Historical Documents