1871 in Canada

Years in Canada:	1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874
Centuries:	18th century · 19th century · 20th century
Decades:	1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s
Years:	1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874

Events from the year 1871 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

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

Federal government

• Governor general – John Young, 1st Baron Lisgar (viceregal consort – Adelaide Dalton)
• Prime minister – John A. Macdonald

Provincial governments

Canada provinces 1871-1873

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Joseph Trutch (from July 5)
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Adams George Archibald
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Lemuel Allan Wilmot
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Charles Hastings Doyle
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – William Pearce Howland
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Narcisse-Fortunat Belleau

Premiers

• Premier of British Columbia – John Foster McCreight (from November 14)
• Premier of Manitoba – Alfred Boyd (until December 14) then Marc-Amable Girard
• Premier of New Brunswick – George Edwin King (until February 21) then George Luther Hathaway
• Premier of Nova Scotia – William Annand
• Premier of Ontario – John Sandfield Macdonald (until December 20) then Edward Blake
• Premier of Quebec – Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau

Territorial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest Territories - Adams George Archibald

Events

January to June

• March 10 - Government of Manitoba meets for the first time
• March 21 - The 1871 Ontario election: Edward Blake's Liberals win a majority, defeating J. S. Macdonald's Liberal-Conservatives
• April 2 - The first Canadian census finds the population to be 3,689,257
• May 8 - The Treaty of Washington reaches agreements on fishing rights and Great Lakes trade between Canada and the United States
• May 16 - The 1871 Nova Scotia election: William Annand's Liberals win a second consecutive majority
• May 17 - New Brunswick abandons separate schools.

July to December

• July 15 - Phoebe Campbell murders her husband with an axe. She is hanged the next year.
• July 20
  • British Columbia joins Confederation.
  • The 1871 British Columbia election
• July 25 - Treaty 1 the first of a number of treaties with western Canada's First Nations is signed
• August 17 - Treaty 2 is signed
• November 11 - The last of the British army leaves Canada
• November 13 - John McCreight becomes the first premier of British Columbia
• December 14 - Marc-Amable Girard becomes the first franco-manitoban of premier of Manitoba, replacing Alfred Boyd
• December 20 - Edward Blake becomes premier of Ontario, replacing J. S. Macdonald.

Full date unknown

• National Meteorological Service is formed
• Parliament legalizes the use of the metric system
• Goldwin Smith immigrates to Canada
• Ontario Schools Act is passed in Ontario, requiring all students aged 7 to 12 to attend school.
• The 1871 Quebec election : Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau's Conservatives win a second consecutive majority

Births

George Stewart Henry

• January 30 - Wilfred Lucas, actor, film director and screenwriter (d.1940)
• May 14 - Walter Stanley Monroe, businessman, politician and Prime Minister of Newfoundland (d.1952)
• July 16 - George Stewart Henry, politician and 10th Premier of Ontario (d.1958)
• July 25 - Richard Ernest William Turner, soldier and recipient of the Victoria Cross (d.1961)
• August 4 - Robert Hamilton Butts, politician (d.1943)
• September 8 - Samuel McLaughlin, businessman and philanthropist (d.1972)
• September 9 - Hugh Robson, politician and judge
• October 31 - Alexander Stirling MacMillan, businessman, politician and Premier of Nova Scotia (d.1955)
• December 2 - Stanislas Blanchard, politician (d.1949)
• December 13 - Emily Carr, artist and writer (d.1945)

Deaths

Modeste Demers

• January 29 - Philippe-Joseph Aubert de Gaspé, lawyer, writer, fifth and last seigneur of Saint-Jean-Port-Joli (L’Islet County) (b.1786)
• January 31 - John Ross, lawyer, politician, and businessman. (b. 1818)
• February 20 - Paul Kane, artist (b.1810)
• March 11 - John Heckman, political figure (b.1785)
• July 28 - Modeste Demers, missionary (b.1809)
• September 23 - Louis-Joseph Papineau, lawyer, politician and reformist (b.1786)
• November 18 - Enos Collins, seaman, merchant, financier, and legislator (b.1774)