1915 in Canada explained

Events from the year 1915 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – George V^[1]

Federal government

• • Governor General – Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn Prime Minister – Robert Borden
• Chief Justice – Charles Fitzpatrick (Quebec)
• Parliament – 12th

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• • • • • • • • • Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – George H. V. Bulyea (until October 20) then Robert Brett Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Francis Stillman Barnard Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Douglas Colin Cameron Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Josiah Wood Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – James Drummond McGregor (until October 19) then David MacKeen Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – John Strathearn Hendrie Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Benjamin Rogers (until June 3) then Augustine Colin Macdonald Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – François Langelier (until February 8) then Pierre-Évariste Leblanc Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – George W. Brown (until October 6) then Richard Stuart Lake

Premiers

• • • • • • • • • Premier of Alberta – Arthur Sifton Premier of British Columbia – Richard McBride (until December 15) then William John Bowser Premier of Manitoba – Rodmond Roblin (until May 12) then Tobias Norris Premier of New Brunswick – George Johnson Clarke Premier of Nova Scotia – George Henry Murray Premier of Ontario – William Hearst Premier of Prince Edward Island – John Alexander Mathieson Premier of Quebec – Lomer Gouin Premier of Saskatchewan – Thomas Walter Scott

Territorial governments

Commissioners

• • • Commissioner of Yukon – George Black Gold Commissioner of Yukon – George P. MacKenzie Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Frederick D. White

Events

• January 4 – WWI: Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry becomes the first Canadian troops sent to the front lines
• January 15 – The Canadian Northern Railway line to Vancouver, British Columbia, is completed
• February 2 – WW1: Attempt to bomb the Vanceboro international bridge between the Canadian-US border by a German spy
• February 4 – WW1: After a training accident, Lieutenant W. F. Sharpe becomes the first Canadian military airman killed
• February 14 – WW1: The 1st Canadian Division arrives in France
• February 21 – Nellie McClung presents a petition to the Alberta Legislature demanding women's suffrage
• February 28 – WWI: Canadian troops launch the first trench raid of the war; by the end of the conflict Canadian troops will be regarded as the experts at this manoeuvre
• April 22 – WWI: In the Second Battle of Ypres Canadian forces bear the brunt of the first large-scale chemical weapons attack on the Western Front. They devise makeshift gas masks of urine-soaked rags and hold their ground
• May 3 – "In Flanders Fields" is written by Canadian poet John McCrae.
• May 12 – Tobias Norris becomes premier of Manitoba, replacing Sir Rodmond Roblin
• July 5 – The Hotel Macdonald in Edmonton opens
• August 6 – Manitoba General Election
• September 13 – WWI: with the arrival of the 2nd Canadian Division a separate Canadian Corps is created
• October 9 – WWI: The 3rd Canadian Division arrives in France
• December 15 – William John Bowser becomes premier of British Columbia, replacing Richard McBride
• December 19 – WW1: Captain M.M. Bell-Irving, No.1 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, achieves the first aerial victory by a Canadian when he shot down a German aircraft

Full date unknown

• Fermière Monument (Montreal) unveiled
• World War I – Many Canadian soldiers grow upset at the inferior quality of their Ross Rifles

Arts and literature

New works

• "In Flanders Fields": John McCrae
• The Golden Road: Lucy Maud Montgomery

Sport

• March 26 – The Pacific Coast Hockey Association's Vancouver Millionaires win their First and only Stanley Cup by defeating the National Hockey Association's Ottawa Senators 3 games to 0. All games played at Vancouver's Denman Arena
• November 20 – Hamilton Tigers win their 2nd Grey Cup by defeating the Toronto Rugby and Athletic Association 13 to 7 in the 7th Grey Cup played at Toronto's Varsity Stadium

Births

January to June

• January 12 – Joseph-Aurèle Plourde, Roman Catholic prelate, Archbishop of Ottawa (19671989) (d.2013)
• January 18 – Syl Apps, pole vaulter and ice hockey player (d.1998)

• February 12 – Lorne Greene, actor (d.1987)
• March 10 – Maurice Camyré, Olympic boxer (d.2013)
• March 18 – Harold Crowchild, Tsuu T'ina elder and soldier, last Treaty 7 World War II veteran (d.2013)
• April 9 – Daniel Johnson, Sr., politician and 20th Premier of Quebec (d.1968)
• April 11 – Eddie Sargent, politician (d.1998)
• April 28 – Robina Higgins, track and field athlete (d.1990)
• May 3 – Stu Hart, wrestler, promoter and trainer (d.2003)
• May 28
  • Conrad Bourcier, ice hockey player (d.1987)
  • Frank Pickersgill, World War II hero (d.1944)
• June 22 – Arthur Gelber, philanthropist (d.1998)

July to December

• July 4 – Harold E. Johns, medical physicist (d.1998)
• July 6 – Leonard Birchall, World War II hero (d.2004)
• August 3 – Frank Arthur Calder, politician, first Status Indian to be elected to any legislature in Canada (d.2006)
• August 20 – H. Gordon Barrett, politician (d.1993)
• August 22
  • James Hillier, scientist and inventor, jointly designed and built first electron microscope (d.2007)
  • Jacques Flynn, politician and Senator (d.2000)
• August 25 – John W. H. Bassett, publisher and media baron (d.1998)
• October 7
  • Harry J. Boyle, broadcaster and writer (d.2005)
  • Charles Templeton, cartoonist, evangelist, agnostic, politician, newspaper editor, inventor, broadcaster and author (d.2001)
• October 25 – Tommy Prince, one of Canada's most decorated First Nations soldiers (d.1977)
• November 27 – Yves Thériault, author (d.1983)
• December 4 – Johnny Lombardi, CHIN-TV television personality (d.2002)
• December 13 – Ross Macdonald, novelist (d.1983)

Full date unknown

• Arthur Julian Andrew, diplomat and author (d.1994)
• Earl Cameron, broadcaster and news anchor (d.2005)
• Percy Saltzman, meteorologist and television personality, first weatherman in English-Canadian television history (d.2007)^[2]

Deaths

• • January 18 – Thomas Bain, politician and Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada (b. 1834)

• May 16 – Kit Coleman, journalist (b. 1864)
• June 14 – Antoine Audet, politician (b. 1846)
• July 21 – Jean Prévost, politician (b. 1870)
• July 22 – Sandford Fleming, engineer and inventor (b. 1827)
• August 10 – William Mortimer Clark, lawyer, politician and Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (b. 1836)
• September 10 – Charles Boucher de Boucherville, politician and 3rd Premier of Quebec (b. 1822)
• September 11 – William Cornelius Van Horne, pioneering railway executive (b. 1843)
• September 15 – Ernest Gagnon, folklorist (b. 1834)
• October 19 – Neil McLeod, lawyer, judge, politician and Premier of Prince Edward Island (b. 1842)
• October 30 – Charles Tupper, politician, Premier of Nova Scotia and 6th Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1821)
• December 25 – Graham Fraser (industrialist) (b. 1845)

See also

• List of Canadian films

Historical documents

"Canada First" - Henri Bourassa warns against involvement in war beyond what is good for Canada's finances, agriculture, industry, trade, military etc.^[3]

Tests for tradesmen in Royal Flying Corps include coppersmiths making T pieces out of plate, tinsmiths making square funnels and painters signwriting^[4]

Canadian Lt. Col. John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Fields" is published in Punch magazine^[5]

Nursing sister Capt. Sophie Hoerner notes her hard work and praises her patients^[6]

Canadian prisoners of war tell German captors why they're fighting against Germany^[7]

Future minister of national defence George Pearkes describes trench duty conditions^[8]

Canadian soldier feels homicidal after friend's brother found dead on battlefield and their family perhaps lost in Lusitania sinking^[9]

Brant County, Ont. leaders thank Six Nations following death of Lt. Cameron Brant^[10]

Officer describes huge training camp at Valcartier, Quebec^[11]

Soldier's letter about visiting friends and touring palaces in England, then getting arrested for returning late to camp^[12]

Canada's hundreds of growing towns should deter growth of slums found in its big cities^[13]

Saskatchewan government revokes liquor licences^[14]

Indian residential school principal criticized for allowing children to go home too often^[15]

Postcard: "Salmon Fishing on the Fraser River" shows cannery interior with piles of hundreds of cans^[16]

Notes and References

1. Web site: King George V The Canadian Encyclopedia . www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca . 4 December 2022.
2. Web site: Percy Saltzman, Canada's first TV weatherman, dies . CBC News . January 17, 2007 . January 17, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070118194606/http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2007/01/16/saltzman-death.html. January 18, 2007. live.
3. Henri Bourassa, The Duty of Canada at the Present Hour (1915). Accessed 15 May 2022
4. "Schedule of Trades in Royal Flying Corps," The (Westville, N.S.) Recruiter Vol. 1, No. 2 (November 17, 1915), 7th-8th pgs. Accessed 15 May 2022
5. John McCrae, "In Flanders Fields" Punch, pg. 468 (December 8, 1915). Accessed 3 March 2020
6. http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/pam_archives/index.php?fuseaction=genitem.displayEcopies&lang=eng&rec_nbr=102570&ecopy=e002743507 Letter of Sophie Hoerner
7. Nellie McClung, "Chapter IX; Caught!" Three Times and Out: A Canadian Boy's Experience in Germany (1918). Accessed 3 March 2020
8. http://spcoll.library.uvic.ca/schoolnet/digicol/pearkes/plv5/trenches.html Letter of George Pearkes
9. https://canadianletters.ca/content/document-3351?position=37 Letter of James Wells Ross
10. http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/pam_archives/index.php?fuseaction=genitem.displayItem&rec_nbr=102367&lang=eng Letter of Warden George E. Cooke and 14 others
11. http://website.nbm-mnb.ca/mop/english/ww1/dosearch.asp?q=Valcartier "To William MacIntosh from Doug Holman, Valcartier, Quebec"
12. "A Letter Home,[...]Arthur Magee to His Mother[....]" (January 16, 1915). Accessed 6 March 2020 http://website.nbm-mnb.ca/mop/english/ww1/dosearch.asp?Results=50&q=January (scroll down to Magee)
13. Thomas Adams, "Distribution of Population" Civic Improvement League for Canada; Report [from] the Commission of Conservation[...;]November 19, 1915 (1916), pgs. 10-11. Accessed 5 March 2020
14. http://library.usask.ca/sni/stories/pol14.html "Deathknell Of Liquor Traffic Sounded In Saskatchewan...."
15. https://www2.uregina.ca/education/saskindianresidentialschools/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/c-9809-02243-02272-mr-mckay-allows-children-to-go-home-more-than-is-inductive-to-their-benefit-dr-grain.jpg "Report of Dr. O.I. Grain"
16. Richard Broadbridge, "Salmon Fishing on the Fraser River" (created 1915, copyright 1913), University of British Columbia Library. Accessed 6 November 2022