1896 in Canada

Years in Canada:	1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899
Centuries:	18th century · 19th century · 20th century
Decades:	1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s
Years:	1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899

Events from the year 1896 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Head of state (monarch) – Queen Victoria (consort – Vacant)

Federal government

• Governor general – John Hamilton-Gordon (viceregal consort – Ishbel Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair)
• Prime minister – Mackenzie Bowell (until April 27) then Charles Tupper (May 1 to July 8) then Wilfrid Laurier (from July 11)

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Edgar Dewdney
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – James Colebrooke Patterson
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – John James Fraser (until November 24) then Jabez Bunting Snowball (from December 9)
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Malachy Bowes Daly
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – George Airey Kirkpatrick (until November 7) then Casimir Gzowski
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – George William Howlan
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau

Premiers

• Premier of British Columbia – John Herbert Turner
• Premier of Manitoba – Thomas Greenway
• Premier of New Brunswick – Andrew George Blair (until July 17) then James Mitchell
• Premier of Nova Scotia – William Stevens Fielding (until July 18) then George Henry Murray (from July 20)
• Premier of Ontario – Oliver Mowat (until July 25) then Arthur Sturgis Hardy
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – Frederick Peters
• Premier of Quebec – Louis-Olivier Taillon (until May 11) then Edmund James Flynn

Territorial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Keewatin – James Colebrooke Patterson
• Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories – Charles Herbert Mackintosh

Premiers

• Chairman of the Executive Committee of the North-West Territories – Frederick Haultain

Events

• April 27 - Sir Mackenzie Bowell resigns as Prime Minister due to cabinet infighting. He is replaced by Sir Charles Tupper.
• May 1 - Sir Charles Tupper becomes prime minister, replacing Sir Mackenzie Bowell
• May 11 - Edmund Flynn becomes Premier of Quebec, replacing Sir Louis-Olivier Taillon
• May 26 - A bridge collapse in Victoria, British Columbia kills 55 people
• June 23 - Federal election: Wilfrid Laurier's Liberals win a majority, defeating Sir Charles Tupper's Conservatives. One of the key issues in the campaign has been the Manitoba Schools Question
• July 11 - Wilfrid Laurier becomes prime minister, replacing Sir Charles Tupper
• July 20 - George H. Murray becomes premier of Nova Scotia, replacing William Fielding
• July 25 - Arthur S. Hardy becomes premier of Ontario, replacing Sir Oliver Mowat
• July - James Mitchell becomes premier of New Brunswick, replacing Andrew Blair
• August 17 - Gold is discovered in the Yukon, prompting the Klondike gold rush

Full date unknown

• A plan to populate the western prairies with immigration from eastern Europe is unveiled
• The first Canadian blast furnace opens in Hamilton, Ontario

Births

January to June

• March 8 - Charlotte Whitton, feminist, politician and mayor of Ottawa (d.1975)
• March 16 - Harry Banks, soldier
• March 21 - Errick Willis, politician (d.1967)
• April 20 - Wilfrid R. "Wop" May, World War I flying ace and pioneering bush pilot (d.1952)
• May 2 - Elmore Philpott, journalist and politician (d.1964)
• May 18 - Brock Chisholm, doctor and first Director-General of the World Health Organization (d.1971)
• June 19 - John Beverley Robinson, politician (b.1821)
• June 22 - Leonard W. Murray, naval officer (d.1971)

July to December

Mitchell Hepburn

• July 2 - Prudence Heward, painter (d.1947)
• July 4 - Frederick Cronyn Betts, politician (d.1938)
• July 10 - Thérèse Casgrain, feminist, reformer, politician and Senator (d.1981)
• July 27 - Anne Savage, painter and art teacher (d.1971)
• August 12 - Mitchell Hepburn, politician and 11th Premier of Ontario (d.1953)
• August 18 - Jack Pickford, actor (d.1933)
• August 30 - Raymond Massey, actor (d.1983)
• August 31 - Alice Strike, Canada's last surviving female World War I veteran (d.2004)
• November 3 - Madeleine Fritz, paleontologist
• November 7 - Henry Botterell, World War I fighter pilot (d.2003)

Deaths

• January 14 - Christopher William Bunting, politician, merchant, newspaper owner and newspaper publisher (b.1837)
• February 20 - Hart Massey, businessman and philanthropist (b.1823)
• April 13 - John Christian Schultz, politician and Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba (b.1840)
• May 4 - Timothy Anglin, politician and Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons (b.1822)
• June 7 - Wyatt Eaton, painter (b.1849)
• June 10 - Donald Alexander Macdonald, politician (b.1817)
• June 25 - Samuel Leonard Tilley, Premier of New Brunswick (b. 1818)
• November 24 - John James Fraser, lawyer, judge, politician and 4th Premier of New Brunswick (b.1829)