1868 in Canada

Decades:	1840s; 1850s; 1860s; 1870s; 1880s;
See also:	History of Canada; Timeline of Canadian history; List of years in Canada;

Events from the year 1868 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

Monarch – Victoria^[1]

Federal government

Governor General – Charles Monck, 4th Viscount Monck
Prime Minister – John A. Macdonald
Parliament – 1st

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Francis Pym Harding (until July 23) then Lemuel Allan Wilmot
Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Charles Hastings Doyle
Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Henry William Stisted (until July 15) then William Pearce Howland
Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Narcisse-Fortunat Belleau

Premiers

Colonies

Secretary of State for the Colonies – The Duke of Buckingham and Chandos then The Earl Granville

Governors

Colonial Governor of Newfoundland – Anthony Musgrave
Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – George Dundas (until October 22) then Robert Hodgson
Governor of the Colony of British Columbia – Frederick Seymour

Premiers

Events

March 4 — Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario established
April 7 — Father of Confederation Thomas D'Arcy McGee is assassinated in Ottawa by Irish Fenians.
May 26 - The Canadian flag is unofficially introduced.

Full date unknown

Louis Riel returns to the Red River area

The Hudson's Bay Company agrees to turn Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory over to Canada
The first Federal Militia Act is passed, creating a Canadian army
George-Étienne Cartier created a Baronet

Births

January to June

January 16 — Octavia Ritchie, first woman to receive a medical degree in Quebec [1]
January 22 — Adjutor Rivard, lawyer, writer, judge and linguist (died 1945)
February 16 — John Babington Macaulay Baxter, lawyer, jurist and 18th Premier of New Brunswick (died 1946)
March 14 — Emily Murphy, women's rights activist, jurist and author, first woman magistrate in Canada and in the British Empire (died 1933)
April 27 — James Kidd Flemming, businessman, politician and 13th Premier of New Brunswick (died 1927)
May 31 — Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire, politician and 11th Governor General of Canada (died 1938)

July to December

July 8 — Henry Cockshutt, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (died 1944)
July 9 — William Alves Boys, politician and barrister (died 1938)
August 25 — Arthur Puttee, politician (died 1957)
August 26 — Charles Stewart, politician and 3rd Premier of Alberta (died 1946)
September 1 — Henri Bourassa, politician and publisher (died 1952)
September 22 — Louise McKinney, first woman sworn into the Legislative Assembly of Alberta and first woman elected to a legislature in Canada and in the British Empire (died 1931)
September 28 — Herbert Alexander Bruce, surgeon and 15th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (died 1963)
November 9 — Marie Dressler, actress (died 1934)
December 11 — William Parks, geologist and paleontologist (died 1936)

Deaths

January 19 — Frederic, Roman Catholic priest, missionary, and bishop (born 1797)
January 25 — Alexander Roberts Dunn, first Canadian awarded the Victoria Cross (born 18)
January 28 — Edmund Walker Head, Governor (born 1805)
February 19 — Dominick Daly, politician (born 1798)
April 7 — D'Arcy McGee, journalist, politician and Father of Confederation, assassinated (born 1825)
August 7 — William Agar Adamson, Church of England clergyman and author (born 1800)
September 12 — Charles Dickson Archibald, lawyer, businessman and politician (born 1802)
October 17 — Laura Secord, heroine of the War of 1812 (born 1775)

Historical documents

Political cartoon satirizes Nova Scotians' mixed feelings about Confederation^[2]

Indigenous people assert claim to their reserve at Lake of Two Mountains (Oka), Quebec^[3]

"The moment was fraught with danger" - British spy addresses large rally of Fenians^[4]

Report by a visitor to newly opened settler lands in Muskoka, Ontario^[5]

In his last Commons speech, D'Arcy McGee lauds anyone "prepared[...]to sacrifice himself [for] principles[...]adopted as those of truth"^[6]

Federal deputy minister of agriculture says connoisseur in France finds Canadian wine to be vin d'ordinaire second only to their own^[7]

References

^ "Queen Victoria | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
^ John Henry Walker, "Cross Roads. Shall We Go to Washington First, or How(e)?" (first published in Diogenes, November 20, 1868). Accessed 9 September 2018
^ Indian Branch, Department of the Secretary of State for the Provinces, "List of Copies of Documents...." Return[...]of all Correspondence between the Government and the Iroquois Indians of Two Mountains[....] (1870), pgs. 2-3 (PDF pgs. 57-8), Algonquin and Nipissing Indians of Oka Collection, McGill (University) Library. Accessed 15 January 2020
^ Henri Le Caron, Twenty-Five Years in the Secret Service; The Recollections of a Spy (1892), pgs. 53-7. Accessed 9 September 2018
^ "Visit to the Free Grant Lands of Canada" The (Tokomairiro, N.Z.) Bruce Herald, Vol. V, No. 238 (November 18, 1868), pg. 7. Accessed 9 September 2018
^ "Mr. McGee's Last Speech" (April 6, 1868), House of Commons Debates; First Session - First Parliament, pg. 468. Accessed 18 April 2021
^ "Report of the Select Committee on the Cultivation of the Vine in Canada; Minutes of Evidence" Appendix (No. 6), House of Commons Journals, 1st Parliament, 1st Session: Vol. 1 (1868), pgs. A6-1–A6-2. Accessed 12 July 2020

[1] "Queen Victoria | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 5 December 2022.

[2] John Henry Walker, "Cross Roads. Shall We Go to Washington First, or How(e)?" (first published in Diogenes, November 20, 1868). Accessed 9 September 2018

[3] Indian Branch, Department of the Secretary of State for the Provinces, "List of Copies of Documents...." Return[...]of all Correspondence between the Government and the Iroquois Indians of Two Mountains[....] (1870), pgs. 2-3 (PDF pgs. 57-8), Algonquin and Nipissing Indians of Oka Collection, McGill (University) Library. Accessed 15 January 2020

[4] Henri Le Caron, Twenty-Five Years in the Secret Service; The Recollections of a Spy (1892), pgs. 53-7. Accessed 9 September 2018

[5] "Visit to the Free Grant Lands of Canada" The (Tokomairiro, N.Z.) Bruce Herald, Vol. V, No. 238 (November 18, 1868), pg. 7. Accessed 9 September 2018

[6] "Mr. McGee's Last Speech" (April 6, 1868), House of Commons Debates; First Session - First Parliament, pg. 468. Accessed 18 April 2021

[7] "Report of the Select Committee on the Cultivation of the Vine in Canada; Minutes of Evidence" Appendix (No. 6), House of Commons Journals, 1st Parliament, 1st Session: Vol. 1 (1868), pgs. A6-1–A6-2. Accessed 12 July 2020

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