1905 in Canada explained

Events from the year 1905 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Edward VII^[1]

Federal government

• • Governor General – Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey Prime Minister – Wilfrid Laurier
• Chief Justice – Henri Elzéar Taschereau (Quebec)
• Parliament – 10th (from 11 January)

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – George Hedley Vicars Bulyea (from September 1)
• 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 – William Mortimer Clark Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Donald Alexander MacKinnon Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Louis-Amable Jetté Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – Amédée Forget (from September 1)

Premiers

• Premier of Alberta – Alexander Cameron Rutherford (from September 2)
  • • Premier of British Columbia – 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 (until February 8) then James Whitney
    • Premier of Prince Edward Island – Arthur Peters Premier of Quebec – Simon-Napoléon Parent (until March 24) then Lomer Gouin Premier of Saskatchewan – Thomas Walter Scott (from September 5)

Territorial governments

Commissioners

• • Commissioner of Yukon – Zachary Taylor Wood (acting) (until May 27) then William Wallace Burns McInnes Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Frederick D. White (from August 24)

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Keewatin – Daniel Hunter McMillan (until September 1)
• Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories – Amédée E. Forget (until September 1)

Premiers

• Premier of North-West Territories – Frederick Haultain (until September 1)

Events

• January 25 – 1905 Ontario election: Sir James Whitney's Conservatives win a majority, defeating G. W. Ross's Liberals
• February 8 – Sir James Whitney becomes premier of Ontario, replacing George Ross
• February 27 – Clifford Sifton resigns from cabinet
• March 23 – Lomer Gouin becomes premier of Quebec, replacing Simon-Napoléon Parent
• July 20 – The Saskatchewan Act and the Alberta Act receive royal assent
• August 26 – Roald Amundsen begins the first to travel through the Northwest Passage
• September 1 – Saskatchewan and Alberta are established as provinces
• September 2 – Alexander Rutherford becomes the first premier of Alberta
• September 5 – Walter Scott becomes the first premier of Saskatchewan
• November 9 – 1905 Alberta general election: Alexander Rutherford's Liberals win a majority in the first Alberta election
• November 24 – The Canadian Northern Railway is completed to Edmonton
• December 13 – 1905 Saskatchewan election: Walter Scott's Liberals win a majority in the first Saskatchewan election

Births

January to June

• January 21 – George Laurence, nuclear physicist (d.1987)
• January 28 – Ellen Fairclough, politician and first female member of the Canadian Cabinet (d.2004)
• February 8 – Louis-Philippe Pigeon, judge of the Supreme Court of Canada (d.1986)
• March 27 – Elsie MacGill, the world's first female aircraft designer (d.1980)
• April 30 – John Peters Humphrey, legal scholar, jurist and human rights advocate (d.1995)
• May 1 – Paul Desruisseaux, lawyer and politician (d. 1982)
• May 23 – Donald Fleming, politician, International Monetary Fund official and lawyer (d.1986)
• June 8 – Ralph Steinhauer, native leader, first Aboriginal to become the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta (d.1987)
• June 23 – Jack Pickersgill, civil servant and politician (d.1997)

July to December

• July 25 – Grace MacInnis, politician and feminist (d.1991)
• August 1 – Helen Hogg-Priestley, astronomer (d.1993)
• August 31 – William Anderson, politician and businessman (d.1961)
• August 15 – E.K. Brown, literary critic
• September 21 – Loran Ellis Baker, politician (d.1991)
• November 1 – Paul-Émile Borduas, painter (d.1960)
• December 1 – Alex Wilson, track and field athlete and Olympic silver medallist (d.1994)
• December 24 – Milt Dunnell, sportswriter (d.2008)

Full date unknown

• Nat Taylor, inventor of the cineplex (d.2004)

Deaths

• April 23 – Gédéon Ouimet, politician and 2nd Premier of Quebec (b.1823)
• May 23 – Fletcher Bath Wade, politician and barrister (b.1852)
• May 29 – William McDougall, lawyer, politician and a Father of Confederation (b.1822)
• August 1 – John Brown, politician, miller, mining consultant and prospector (b.1841)
• August 7 – Alexander Melville Bell, educator (b.1819)
• September 8 – David Howard Harrison, farmer, physician, politician and 6th Premier of Manitoba (b.1843)
• October 29 – Étienne Desmarteau, athlete and Olympic gold medallist (b.1873)

Historical documents

Creation of provinces Saskatchewan and Alberta: details and Prime Minister Laurier's announcement^[2]

Call for Calgary to become Alberta capital^[3]

House of Commons committee chair has idea for local telephone services housed in post offices and provided and taxed by municipalities^[4]

Socialist Party brochure for Ontario election, with party platform^[5]

Mounties report to Ottawa on dance halls and prostitution in Dawson City, Yukon^[6]

McGill University principal addresses Canadian Club on role of university in commerce^[7]

Description of Peterborough Lift Lock on Trent Canal in Ontario^[8]

Notes and References

1. Book: Tidridge . Nathan . Canada's Constitutional Monarchy . 15 November 2011 . Dundurn . 978-1-55488-980-8 . 235 . en.
2. "Two Provinces Created For The West[....]," Saskatoon Phoenix (February 24, 1905), pg. 1. Accessed 27 January 2020 http://library2.usask.ca/sni/stories/beg11.html
3. "Mass Meeting Tonight," Daily Herald (February 1, 1905). Accessed 27 January 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20190123192639/https://folklore.library.ualberta.ca/dspCitation.cfm?ID=136
4. "Inquiry into the Various Telephone Systems in Operation in Canada and Elsewhere" (March 20, 1905), Proceedings of the Select Committee on Telephone Systems; Vol. I, pgs. 2-3. Accessed 9 October 2020
5. http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-OHQ-EPHE-C-W-146&R=DC-OHQ-EPHE-C-W-146 "Ontario Election Campaign;(...)The Socialist Party to Toronto Workingmen"
6. https://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Classroom%20Materials/Curriculum%20Packets/Klondike/Documents/53.html "Letter from(...)Royal Northwest Mounted Police, Yukon Territory to(...)Ministor of Interior"
7. W. Peterson, Canadian Essays and Addresses (1915), pgs. 253-66. Accessed 27 January 2020
8. http://digitalcollections.trentu.ca/exhibits/birdsall-rogers/zrmdesc.htm "Short Description of the Hydraulic Lock at Peterboro (sic), Ont."