1857 in Canada explained

Events from the year 1857 in Canada.

Incumbents

• Monarch — Victoria^[1]

Federal government

• Parliament — 5th

Governors

• Governor General of the Province of Canada — Edmund Walker Head
• Colonial Governor of Newfoundland — Charles Henry Darling
• Governor of New Brunswick — John Manners-Sutton
• Governor of Nova Scotia — John Gaspard Le Marchant
• Governor of Prince Edward Island — Dominick Daly

Premiers

• Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada —
  • , Canada West Premier
  • , Canada East Premier
  • ,
• Premier of Newfoundland — Philip Francis Little
• Premier of New Brunswick — Charles Fisher
• Premier of Nova Scotia — William Young
• Premier of Prince Edward Island — John Holl

Events

• March 12 — Desjardins Canal disaster - The bridge over Desjardins Canal, near Hamilton, Canada West, collapses under a Great Western Railway passenger train. About 60 people die.^[2]
• Grand Trunk Railway (Windsor-Montreal) completed, but $7 million in debt.
• December 31 - Queen Victoria names Ottawa as capital of the Province of Canada.^[3]
• The Palliser Expedition begins its exploration of Western Canada.^[4]

Births

January to June

• February 2 — Alexander Cameron Rutherford, lawyer and politician, first premier of Alberta (died 1941)
• February 25 — Robert Bond, politician and Prime Minister of Newfoundland (died 1927)
• February 27 — Adelaide Hoodless, educational reformer who founded the Women's Institute (died 1910)
• March 17 — Willis Keith Baldwin, politician (died 1935)
• June 20 — Adam Beck, politician and hydro-electricity advocate (died 1925)

July to December

• July 27 — Ann Stowe-Gullen, doctor
• August 15 — Theodore Arthur Burrows, politician and Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba (died 1929)
• August 15 — John Strathearn Hendrie, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (died 1923)
• September 12 — George Halsey Perley, politician and diplomat (died 1938)
• October 10 — Cassie Chadwick, fraudster (died 1907)
• October 10 — George Johnson Clarke, lawyer, journalist, politician and 14th Premier of New Brunswick (died 1917)
• November 25 — Frederick W. A. G. Haultain, politician and 1st Premier of the Northwest Territories (died 1942)

Deaths

• February 10 — David Thompson, fur trader, surveyor and map-maker (born 1770)
• March 13 — William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst, diplomat and governor general (born 1773)
• September 3 — John McLoughlin, physician, fur trader, and merchant (born 1784)
• November 3 — William Fitzwilliam Owen, naval officer, hydrographic surveyor (born 1774)

Full date unknown

• Isabella Clark, first wife of John A. Macdonald, premier of the Province of Canada (born 1811)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Queen Victoria The Canadian Encyclopedia . www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca . 5 December 2022.
2. Web site: Desjardins Canal Disaster . 2022-11-30 . HPL . en.
3. Web site: Powell . James . Queen Victoria Chooses Ottawa - The Historical Society of Ottawa . 2022-11-30 . www.historicalsocietyottawa.ca . en-gb.
4. Book: Spry, Irene M. . The Palliser expedition : an account of John Palliser's British North American exploring expedition, 1857-1860 . 1973 . Macmillan Co. of Canada . 978-0-7705-0287-4 . Toronto . 15831858.