1896 in Canada

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Victoria

  Federal government

• Governor general – John Hamilton-Gordon
• Prime minister – Mackenzie Bowell then Charles Tupper then Wilfrid Laurier
• Chief Justice – Samuel Henry Strong
• Parliament – 7th then 8th

  Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Edgar Dewdney
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – James Colebrooke Patterson
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – John James Fraser then Jabez Bunting Snowball
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Malachy Bowes Daly
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – George Airey Kirkpatrick then Casimir Gzowski
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – George William Howlan
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau

  Premiers

• Premier of British Columbia – John Herbert Turner
• Premier of Manitoba – Thomas Greenway
• Premier of New Brunswick – Andrew George Blair then James Mitchell
• Premier of Nova Scotia – William Stevens Fielding then George Henry Murray
• Premier of Ontario – Oliver Mowat then Arthur Sturgis Hardy
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – Frederick Peters
• Premier of Quebec – Louis-Olivier Taillon then Edmund James Flynn

  Territorial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Keewatin – James Colebrooke Patterson
• Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories – Charles Herbert Mackintosh

  Premiers

• Chairman of the Executive Committee of the North-West Territories – Frederick Haultain

  Events

• April 27 – Sir Mackenzie Bowell resigns as Prime Minister due to cabinet infighting. He is replaced by Sir Charles Tupper.
• May 1 – Sir Charles Tupper becomes prime minister, replacing Sir Mackenzie Bowell
• May 11 – Edmund Flynn becomes Premier of Quebec, replacing Sir Louis-Olivier Taillon
• May 26 – A bridge collapse in Victoria, British Columbia kills 55 people
• June 23 – Federal election: Wilfrid Laurier's Liberals win a majority, defeating Sir Charles Tupper's Conservatives. One of the key issues in the campaign has been the Manitoba Schools Question
• July 11 – Wilfrid Laurier becomes prime minister, replacing Sir Charles Tupper
• July 20 – George H. Murray becomes premier of Nova Scotia, replacing William Fielding
• July 25 – Arthur S. Hardy becomes premier of Ontario, replacing Sir Oliver Mowat
• July – James Mitchell becomes premier of New Brunswick, replacing Andrew Blair
• August 17 – Gold is discovered in the Yukon, prompting the Klondike gold rush

  Full date unknown

• A plan to populate the western prairies with immigration from eastern Europe is unveiled
• The first Canadian blast furnace opens in Hamilton, Ontario

  Sport

• February 14 – Winnipeg Victorias win their First Stanley Cup by defeating Montreal Victorias 2 goals to 0 at Montreal's Victoria Skating Rink

  Births

January to June

• March 8 – Charlotte Whitton, feminist, politician and mayor of Ottawa
• March 16 – Harry Banks, soldier
• March 21 – Errick Willis, politician
• April 11 – Léo-Paul Desrosiers, journalist, writer
• April 20 – Wilfrid R. "Wop" May, World War I flying ace and pioneering bush pilot
• May 2 – Elmore Philpott, journalist and politician
• May 18 – Brock Chisholm, doctor and first Director-General of the World Health Organization
• June 22 – Leonard W. Murray, naval officer

  July to December

• July 2 – Prudence Heward, painter
• July 4 – Frederick Cronyn Betts, politician
• July 10 – Thérèse Casgrain, feminist, reformer, politician and Senator
• July 27 – Anne Savage, painter and art teacher
• August 12 – Mitchell Hepburn, politician and 11th Premier of Ontario
• August 18 – Jack Pickford, actor
• August 30 – Raymond Massey, actor
• August 31 – Alice Strike, Canada's last surviving female World War I veteran
• November 3 – Madeleine Fritz, paleontologist
• November 7 – Henry Botterell, World War I fighter pilot

  Deaths

• January 14 – Christopher William Bunting, politician, merchant, newspaper owner and newspaper publisher
• February 20 – Hart Massey, businessman and philanthropist
• April 13 – John Christian Schultz, politician and Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba
• May 4 – Timothy Anglin, politician and Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada
• June 7 – Wyatt Eaton, painter
• June 10 – Donald Alexander Macdonald, politician
• June 19 – John Beverley Robinson, politician
• June 25 – Samuel Leonard Tilley, Premier of New Brunswick
• November 24 – John James Fraser, lawyer, judge, politician and 4th Premier of New Brunswick
• Anne Hill, dancer and actor

  Historical Documents

• Summary of Canada's imperial history and description of Governor General's Historical Ball
• sails Cape Horn solo on his globe-circling voyage
• Visitor describes constant boat traffic on the Muskoka Lakes, Ontario