1916 in Canada

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – George V

  Federal government

• Governor general – Duke of Connaught and Strathearn then Victor Cavendish
• Prime minister – Robert Borden
• Chief Justice – Charles Fitzpatrick
• Parliament – 12th

  Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – Robert Brett
• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Francis Stillman Barnard
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Douglas Colin Cameron then James Albert Manning Aikins
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Josiah Wood
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – David MacKeen then MacCallum Grant
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – John Strathearn Hendrie
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Augustine Colin Macdonald
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Pierre-Évariste Leblanc
• Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – Richard Stuart Lake

  Premiers

• Premier of Alberta – Arthur Sifton
• Premier of British Columbia – William John Bowser then Harlan Brewster
• Premier of Manitoba – 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 Mathieson
• Premier of Quebec – Lomer Gouin
• Premier of Saskatchewan – Thomas Walter Scott then William Melville Martin

  Territorial governments

Commissioners

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

  Events

January to June

• January 28 – Women are given the right to vote in Manitoba, after protests by people such as Nellie McClung
• February 3 – The Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa burns down
• February 10 – An anti-German riot hits Calgary
• March 14 – Saskatchewan women get the vote
• April 19 – Alberta women get the vote
• June – Rodeo's first side-delivery chute is designed and made by the Bascom brothers on their Bar-B-3 Ranch at Welling, Alberta.
• May 7 – The Government of Canada authorizes the creation of an all black battalion that became No. 2 Construction Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force.
• June 1 – June 13 – WWI: Canadians fight in the Battle of Mont Sorrel

  July to December

• July 1 – Prohibition of alcohol introduced in Alberta
• July 1 – November 18 25,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders are casualties at the Battle of the Somme
• July 24 – Earl Bascom enters his first steer riding contest at Welling, Alberta.
• July 29 – The Matheson Fire in the region northwest of North Bay, Ontario, begins. It eventually kills between 200 and 250 people and destroys six towns, including Matheson and Cochrane
• August 11 – The 4th Canadian Division arrives in France
• October 20 – William M. Martin becomes premier of Saskatchewan, replacing Walter Scott
• November 23 – Harlan Brewster becomes premier of British Columbia, replacing William John Bowser
• December 1 – An Order in Council authorizes an increase of troops to 500,000 in the First World War

  Full date unknown

• Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire becomes Governor General of Canada replacing Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught
• The National Research Council of Canada is established.
• The first Doukhobors arrive in Alberta
• Emily Murphy became the first female magistrate in Canada, and in the British Empire.

  Arts and literature

New works

• Lucy Maud Montgomery – The Watchman & Other Poems
• Max Aitken – Canada in Flanders
• Alfred Laliberté – Les petits Baigneurs

  Sport

• March 30 – The National Hockey Association's Montreal Canadiens beat the Portland Rosebuds of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association 3 games to 2 to win their first Stanley Cup. All Games were played at the Montreal Arena

  Births

January to June

• January 22 – Bill Durnan, ice hockey player
• February 4 – Pudlo Pudlat, artist
• February 10 – Claude Bissell, author and educator
• February 18 – Jean Drapeau, lawyer, politician and Mayor of Montreal
• February 23 – Molly Kool, North America's first registered female sea captain
• March 10 – Davie Fulton, politician and judge
• April 18 – Ian Wahn, politician and lawyer
• April 27 – Myfanwy Pavelic, artist
• May 3 – Léopold Simoneau, lyric tenor
• May 4 – Jane Jacobs, urbanist, writer and activist
• May 30 – Jack Dennett, radio and television announcer
• June 20 – Jean-Jacques Bertrand, politician and 21st Premier of Quebec

  July to December

• July 16 – John Gallagher, geologist and businessman
• July 21 – Wilfred Cantwell Smith, professor of comparative religion
• August 1 – Anne Hébert, author and poet
• September 5 – Frank Shuster, comedian
• September 18 – Laura Sabia, social activist and feminist
• October 9 – Bill Allum, ice hockey player
• October 30 – Roy Brown Jr., car design engineer
• November 17 – Martin J. Légère, businessman
• November 23 – P. K. Page, poet
• December 5 – Lomer Brisson, politician and lawyer
• December 7 – Margaret Carse, dancer
• December 16 – Harry Gunning, scientist and administrator
• December 20 – Michel Chartrand, activist
• December 23 – Ruth Dawson, artist

  Full date unknown

• John Wintermeyer, politician

  Deaths

• February 3 – Bowman Brown Law, politician
• May 12 – Joseph-Aldric Ouimet, politician
• May 29 – Louis-Alphonse Boyer, politician
• June 27 – Daniel Webster Marsh, businessman and Mayor of Calgary
• July 28 – Pierre-Amand Landry, lawyer, judge and politician
• August 8 – Edgar Dewdney, politician, Lieutenant Governor of Northwest Territories and Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia
• December 12 – Albert Lacombe, missionary

  Full date unknown

• Grace Annie Lockhart, first woman in the British Empire to receive a Bachelor's degree

  Historical Documents