1865 in Canada

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Victoria

  Federal government

• Parliament — 8th

  Governors

• Governor General of the Province of Canada — Charles Monck, 4th Viscount Monck
• Colonial Governor of Newfoundland — Anthony Musgrave
• Governor of New Brunswick — Arthur Charles Hamilton-Gordon
• Governor of Nova Scotia — Charles Hastings Doyle then Richard Graves MacDonnell then Sir William Fenwick Williams
• Governor of Prince Edward Island — George Dundas

  Premiers

• Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada –
• *John Alexander Macdonald, Canada West Premier
• *Étienne-Paschal Taché then Narcisse-Fortunat Belleau, Canada East Premier
• Premier of Newfoundland — Hugh Hoyles then Frederick Carter
• Premiers of New Brunswick — Samuel Leonard Tilley then Albert J. Smith
• Premiers of Nova Scotia – Charles Tupper
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – John Hamilton Gray then James Colledge Pope

  Events

• February 3 – Legislature approves message to Crown for union of British North America provinces.
• February 20 – The Legislature of the Province of Canada passes a motion in favour of Confederation
• March 7 – New Brunswick rejects a Confederation scheme.
• March 24 – Macdonald, Brown, Cartier, Galt appointed to negotiate Confederation in London.
• May 9 – American Civil War ends
• May 10 – An admiralty letter to the Colonial Office required colonial warships to "wear a Union Jack in the usual place, and the White Ensign, with either the Arms of the Colony, or such other distinguishing mark as may be chosen by the Colony, and approved by the Colonial Office and the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty". This regulation was mainly directed at Australia and not applicable to Canada, which had no Navy at that time.
• October 20 – Proclamation of Ottawa as seat of government.
• November 7 – 1865 Newfoundland general election
• December 16 – A distinctive Blue Ensign for the province of Canada is authorized by the UK secretary of state for the colonies.
• December 22 – Colonial Office Circular notifying revised Admiralty requirements for flags for colonial warships and for other colonial government vessels and requesting correct drawings of seals or badges to be adopted as distinguishing marks.

  Births

• January 7 – Lyman Duff, jurist and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
• February 10 – Richard Gardiner Willis, politician
• February 28 – Wilfred Grenfell, medical missionary
• March 15 – Edith Maude Eaton, author
• April 10 – Jack Miner, conservationist
• May 31 – Clarence Chant, astronomer and physicist
• August 10 – James Wilson Morrice, painter
• November 17 – John Stanley Plaskett, astronomer
• December 25 – James Breakey, politician

  Full date unknown

• James Endicott, church leader and missionary

  Deaths

• January 16 – Joseph Cunard, merchant, shipbuilder and politician
• July 27 – Augustin-Norbert Morin, lawyer, judge, politician and Joint Premier of the Province of Canada
• July 30 – Étienne-Paschal Taché, doctor, politician, and deputy adjutant-general of the militia
• August 27 – Thomas Chandler Haliburton, author, judge and politician

  Historical Documents