1901 in Canada explained

Events from the year 1901 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Victoria (until January 22)^[1] then Edward VII^[2]

Federal government

• • Governor General – Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto Prime Minister – Wilfrid Laurier
• Chief Justice – Samuel Henry Strong (Ontario)
• Parliament – 9th (from 6 February)

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Daniel Hunter McMillan
  • • • • Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Jabez Bunting Snowball Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Alfred Gilpin Jones Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Oliver Mowat Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Peter Adolphus McIntyre Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Louis-Amable Jetté

Premiers

• • • Premier of British Columbia – Edward Gawler Prior Premier of Manitoba – Rodmond Roblin Premier of New Brunswick – Lemuel John Tweedie
      • Premier of Nova Scotia – George Henry Murray Premier of Ontario – George William Ross Premier of Prince Edward Island – Donald Farquharson (until December 29) then Arthur Peters Premier of Quebec – Simon-Napoléon Parent

Territorial governments

Commissioners

• Commissioner of Yukon – William Ogilvie (until March 11) then James Hamilton Ross

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Keewatin – Daniel Hunter McMillan
• Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories – Amédée E. Forget

Premiers

• Premier of North-West Territories – Frederick Haultain

Events

• January 22 – Death of Queen Victoria and accession of King Edward VII .
• September 16 – The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (later King George V and Queen Mary) arrive in Quebec City. They visit all provinces (except Prince Edward Island) and the districts of Assiniboia and Alberta in the North-West Territories. They also visit Newfoundland before leaving North America.
• December 12 — Guglielmo Marconi receives a transatlantic radio message at St. John's, Newfoundland.
• December 18 — The Territorial Grain Growers' Association is founded.
• December 29 — Arthur Peters becomes Premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Donald Farquharson.
• First ascent of Mount Assiniboine by James Outram's party.
• The 1901 Canadian census took place, having a large focus on the labour force, income, and wage class.^[3]

Arts and literature

• March 22 — Gabrielle Roy, a prominent French Canadian author, was born. She would go on to become one of Canada’s most celebrated writers.
• October 24 — Sheila Watson, a Canadian novelist and critic, was born. She is best known for her novel "The Double Hook".^[4]

Births

January to June

• January 12 — Jack Humphrey, painter (d.1967)
• January 14 — Dana Porter, politician and jurist (d.1967)
• January 29 — E. P. Taylor, business tycoon and race horse breeder (d.1989)

• March 4 — Wilbur R. Franks, scientist and inventor (d.1986)
• March 25 — Wilfrid Eggleston, journalist and chief censor for Canada from 1942 until 1944 (d.1985)
• April 15 — Thomas Ricketts, soldier and Victoria Cross recipient in 1918 (d.1967)
• May 5 — Donald Buchanan Blue, politician

July to December

• July 15 — James Litterick, politician
• September 8 — Harold Connolly, journalist, newspaper editor, politician and Premier of Nova Scotia (d.1980)
• September 12 — Ben Blue, Canadian-born comedian, actor (d. 1975)^[5]
• September 14 — George Carlyle Marler, politician, notary and philatelist (d.1981)
• September 15 — Gweneth Lloyd, choreographer
• September 22 — Charles Brenton Huggins, physician, physiologist, cancer researcher and Nobel prize laureate (d.1997)
• October 14 — John Oates Bower, politician, businessman and executive (d.1981)

Full date unknown

• Maryon Pearson, wife of Lester B. Pearson, 14th Prime Minister of Canada (d.1989)

Deaths

• January 22 — Victoria, Queen of Canada, since 1867 (b.1819)
• March 2 — George Mercer Dawson, scientist and surveyor (b.1849)
• May 4 — John Jones Ross, politician and Premier of Quebec (b.1831)
• May 7 — George Edwin King, jurist, politician and 2nd Premier of New Brunswick (b.1839)
• June 13 — Arthur Sturgis Hardy, lawyer, politician and 4th Premier of Ontario (b.1837)

• July 24 — George William Allan, politician and 11th Mayor of Toronto (b.1822)
• October 25 — Colin MacDougall, politician and lawyer (b.1834)

Historical Documents

N.W.T. premier says territories are ready for and financially need provincial powers^[6]

Influential Liberal MP Frank Oliver objects to immigration of Slavs^[7]

Matron and helper at Indian residential school so overworked that spiritual training and teaching children "how to work" is ignored^[8]

Manufacturing process described in huge chair factory in Owen Sound, Ontario^[9]

Mining and miners in Nanaimo, BC's booming coal industry^[10]

Trail, B.C. and its gold, silver and copper smelting operations described^[11]

Architect gives examples of good design to counter people's ill-informed criticism^[12]

Visitor laments various classes of loafer in British Columbia (Note: racial stereotypes)^[13]

Humorous character study of people in dining and smoking cars on train crossing Prairies^[14]

Chicken Okra à la Portugaise and other items on Chateau Frontenac menu^[15]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Queen Victoria The Canadian Encyclopedia . www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca . 4 December 2022.
2. Book: Tidridge . Nathan . Canada's Constitutional Monarchy . 15 November 2011 . Dundurn . 978-1-55488-980-8 . 235 . en.
3. Web site: THE NATIONAL SAMPLE OF THE 1901 CENSUS OF CANADA: A NEW SOURCE FOR THE STUDY OF THE WORKING CLASS. March 1998. Eric W. Sager. 8 June 2023.
4. Web site: Arts The Canadian Encyclopedia . 2024-09-06 . www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca.
5. News: UPI. Ben Blue, Sad-Faced Comedian, A Performer Five Decades, Dies. The New York Times. 9 March 1975.
6. https://library.usask.ca/sni/stories/beg8.html "Haultain Roblin All Night Debate At Indian Head On Annexation To Manitoba"
7. House of Commons debate, 9th Parliament, 1st Session (April 12, 1901). Accessed 22 January 2020
8. Letter of Josephine Petch (December 18, 1901), United Church of Canada Central Archives, in Denise Hildebrand, Staff Perspectives of the Aboriginal Residential School Experience: A Study of Four Presbyterian Schools, 1888-1923 pg. 165. Accessed 9 June 2021
9. Bernard McEvoy, From the Great Lakes to the Wide West: Impressions of a Tour between Toronto and the Pacific (1902) pgs. 11-13. Accessed 22 January 2020
10. Bernard McEvoy, From the Great Lakes to the Wide West: Impressions of a Tour between Toronto and the Pacific (1902), pgs. 214-21. Accessed 22 January 2020
11. Bernard McEvoy, From the Great Lakes to the Wide West: Impressions of a Tour between Toronto and the Pacific (1902), pgs. 251-6. Accessed 22 January 2020
12. C.H.C. Wright, "Design in Modern Architecture," The Canadian Architect and Builder, Vol. XIV, No. 158 (February 1901), pgs. 40-1. Accessed 22 January 2020 http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/cab/search/imgdisplay.php?imgfile=../Volume%2014/Issue%202/v14n2p40.gifhttp://digital.library.mcgill.ca/cab/search/imgdisplay.php?imgfile=../Volume%2014/Issue%202/v14n2p41.gif
13. Bernard McEvoy, From the Great Lakes to the Wide West: Impressions of a Tour between Toronto and the Pacific (1902), pgs. 155-8. Accessed 22 January 2020
14. Bernard McEvoy, From the Great Lakes to the Wide West: Impressions of a Tour between Toronto and the Pacific (1902), pgs. 89-96. Accessed 22 January 2020
15. http://menus.nypl.org/menus/14224 "Chateau Frontenac; Quebec; Luncheon"