Events from the year 1890 in Canada.
Incumbents
Crown
- Monarch – Victoria
Federal government
- Governor General – Frederick Stanley
- Prime Minister – John A. Macdonald
- Chief Justice – William Johnstone Ritchie (New Brunswick)
- Parliament – 6th
Provincial governments
Lieutenant governors
- Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Hugh Nelson
- Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – John Christian Schultz
- Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Samuel Leonard Tilley
- Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Archibald McLelan (until June 26) then Malachy Bowes Daly (from July 11)
- Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Alexander Campbell
- Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Jedediah Slason Carvell
- Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Auguste-Réal Angers
Premiers
- Premier of British Columbia – John Robson
- Premier of Manitoba – Thomas Greenway
- Premier of New Brunswick – Andrew George Blair
- Premier of Nova Scotia – William Stevens Fielding
- Premier of Ontario – Oliver Mowat
- Premier of Prince Edward Island – Neil McLeod
- Premier of Quebec – Honoré Mercier
Territorial governments
Lieutenant governors
- Lieutenant Governor of Keewatin – John Christian Schultz
- Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories – Joseph Royal
Premiers
- Chairman of the Lieutenant-Governor's Advisory Council of the North-West Territories – Robert Brett
Events
- March 31 — Manitoba Liberals under Thomas Greenway halt public funding of Catholic schools; causes uproar in Quebec.
- June 5 — Ontario election: Sir Oliver Mowat's Liberals win a sixth consecutive majority.
- July 20 — British Columbia election.
- August 10 — Prince Edward Island election.
Births
January to June
- April 20 — Maurice Duplessis, politician and 16th Premier of Quebec (d.1959)
- March 3 — Norman Bethune, physician and medical innovator (d.1939)
- March 21 — Norman Hipel, politician and Minister (d.1953)
- March 24 — Agnes Macphail, politician, first woman to be elected to the House of Commons of Canada (d.1954)
- March 27 — John Horne Blackmore, politician (d.1971)
- May 4 — Franklin Carmichael, painter and Group of Seven member (d.1945)
- May 17 — Lionel FitzGerald, artist
- May 30 — John Stuart Foster, physicist (d.1944)
July to December
- July 9 – Joseph-Alphida Crête, politician (d. 1964)
- July 27 — Ian Alistair Mackenzie, politician and Minister (d.1949)
- August 10 — Angus Lewis Macdonald, lawyer, law professor, politician and 19th Premier of Nova Scotia (d.1954)
- September 20 — Kathleen Parlow, violinist (d.1963)
- October 9 — Aimee Semple McPherson, evangelist (d.1944)
- October 28 — Louis Orville Breithaupt, 18th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (d.1960)
- December 10 — Byron Ingemar Johnson, politician and 24th Premier of British Columbia (d.1964)
- December 12 – Charles Basil Price, soldier and politician (d. 1975)
Deaths
- January 1 — Joseph Godéric Blanchet, politician (b.1829)
- January 17 — François-Xavier-Anselme Trudel, politician (b.1838)
- January 25 – William Kennedy, explorer involved in the search for Sir John Franklin (b.1814)
- February 13 — Éphrem-A. Brisebois, police officer (b. 1850)
- April 4 — Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau, Premier of Quebec (b.1820)
- April 25 — Crowfoot, a chief of the Siksika First Nation (b. c1830)
- September 26 — Henri Faraud, bishop of the Roman Catholic Church (b.1823)
- December — Silas Tertius Rand Bill, politician, merchant and shipowner (b.1842)
Historical Documents
Editorial tries to convince eastern Canadians to go west instead of south
British Methodist Episcopal bishop steals hearts of Canadian Methodist conference participants (Note: racial stereotypes)
Australians advised to avoid Canada's example of "disunion" as they consider federation
British socialist newspaper decries "that venerable fraud and child kidnapper, Doctor Barnardo" shipping boys to Canada
Victoria, B.C. Free Public Library has popular novels of Scott, Dickens, Trollope and Thackeray, and also Bulwer, Yonge, Braddon and Ouida
Montreal impresaria brings Metropolitan Opera orchestra (featuring Victor Herbert) to play symphonic favourites
Long neglected, foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) is coming back into favour in gardens
References
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