1903 in Canada explained

Events from the year 1903 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Edward VII^[1]

Federal government

• Governor General – Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto
• Prime Minister – Wilfrid Laurier
• Chief Justice – Henri Elzéar Taschereau (Quebec)
• Parliament – 9th

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 (until April 19) then William Mortimer Clark (from April 21)
  • Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Peter Adolphus McIntyre Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Louis-Amable Jetté

Premiers

• • • Premier of British Columbia – Edward Gawler Prior (until June 1) then Richard McBride 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 – Arthur Peters Premier of Quebec – Simon-Napoléon Parent

Territorial governments

Commissioners

• Commissioner of Yukon – Zachary Taylor Wood (acting) (until March 4) then Frederick Tennyson Congdon

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

• March 22 – Because of a drought, the U.S. side of Niagara Falls runs short of water
• March 1 – Henri Bourassa's Ligue nationaliste is founded
• March 25 – The Alaska Boundary Dispute is settled in the United States' favour
• April 29 – The Frank Slide, The most destructive landslide in Canadian history, kills 70 in Frank, District of Alberta, North-West Territories
• June 1 – Richard McBride becomes Premier of British Columbia, replacing Edward Prior
• June 19 – Regina, District of Assiniboia, North-West Territories, is incorporated as a city
• June 24 – Ignace Bourget Monument unveiled
• July 1 – Ray Knight builds the Raymond Stampede rodeo arena and rodeo grandstands in Raymond, District of Alberta, North-West Territories, which are the first ever built in the world.

See also

• List of Canadian films

Births

January to June

• January 3 – Charles Foulkes, General, first Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff, negotiated the WWII Nazi surrender in the Netherlands (d.1969)
• February 15 – Sarto Fournier, politician and mayor of Montreal (d.1980)
• February 16 – Georges-Henri Lévesque, Dominican priest and sociologist (d.2000)
• February 22 – Morley Callaghan, novelist, short story writer, playwright, and television and radio personality (d.1990)
• February 25 – King Clancy, ice hockey player (d.1986)
• May 23 – Elsie Gibbons, politician, first women to be elected mayor of a municipality in Quebec (d.2003)^[2]
• June 10 – Alexander Wallace Matheson, politician and Premier of Prince Edward Island (d.1976)
• June 23 – Paul Martin Sr., politician (d.1992)
• June 30 – Donald Ferguson Brown, politician, barrister and lawyer

July to December

• July 16 – Carmen Lombardo, singer and composer (d.1971)
• July 30
  • Harold Ballard, owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs (d.1990)
  • Alan Macnaughton, politician (d.1999)
• August 31 – Helen Battle, zoologist
• December 8 – Louis-Marie Régis, philosopher, theologian, scholar and member of the Dominican Order (d.1988)

Deaths

• January 7 – Robert Atkinson Davis, businessman, politician and 4th Premier of Manitoba (b. 1841)
• July 2 – Oliver Mowat, politician, 3rd Premier of Ontario and 8th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (b. 1820)
• April 30 – Emily Stowe, first female doctor to practice in Canada and women's rights and suffrage activist (b. 1831)
• May 6 – Samuel Bridgeland, politician (b. 1847)
• May 8 – David Mills, politician, author, poet and jurist (b. 1831)
• June 26 – Donald Farquharson, politician and Premier of Prince Edward Island (b. 1834)
• November 12 – William Doran, mayor of Hamilton, Ontario (b. 1834)
• November 14 – John Andrew Davidson, politician (b. 1852)

Historical documents

Alberta farmer's examples of being "most unmercifully fleeced by those iniquitous tariffs" include taxes on blankets, clothing, tools, kitchenware etc.^[3]

Disastrous landslide at Frank, Alberta described^[4]

Saint John Globe correspondent covers canoe trip down Saint John River above Fredericton, N.B.^[5]

Halifax Morning Chronicle correspondent provides humorous profile of New Westminster, B.C.^[6]

Gold, fraud and foxes in news from New Bay, Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland^[7]

Despite late planting and her husband working off-farm, newly immigrated woman and sons bring in successful harvest in Saskatchewan^[8]

Explorer's last words as he starves to death on Labrador expedition that his wife later completes^[9]

Notes and References

1. Book: Tidridge . Nathan . Canada's Constitutional Monarchy . 15 November 2011 . Dundurn . 978-1-55488-980-8 . 235 . en.
2. Encyclopedia: Lambert. Maude-Emmanuelle. Elsie Gibbons. The Canadian Encyclopedia. December 5, 2014. October 13, 2021.
3. Letter of James Murray (December 3, 1903) reprinted in Liberal Publication Department, "Protection at Work; Two Voices from Canada" General Election, 1906: Set of Leaflets (London, U.K., 1906), pgs. 139-40. Accessed 12 September 2022
4. Department of the Interior, Dominion of Canada, "Description of the Slide" Report of the Great Landslide at Frank, Alta.; 1903 (1904), pgs. 6-8. Accessed 23 January 2020
5. http://archives.gnb.ca/Exhibits/Canoeing/Default.aspx?culture=en-CA&PG=1 "Canoeing on the River; Excitements and Pleasures of a Trip Down the Upper St. John"
6. Peter McLaren MacDonald, "Royal City of the West" Letters from the Canadian West (1903), pgs. 33-5. Accessed 23 January 2020
7. "New Bay," St. John's Free Press (October 20, 1903). Accessed 23 January 2020 http://www.rootsweb.com/~cannf/nd_freepress1903.htm (scroll down to "foxes")
8. Canadian Pacific Railway, Women's Work in Western Canada (1906), pgs. 20-1. Accessed 23 January 2020
9. Mina Benson Hubbard, A Woman's Way Through Unknown Labrador (1908). Accessed 23 January 2020 http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/4266/pg4266.html (scroll down to "Sunday, October 18th")