1898 in Canada

Events from the year 1898 in Canada.

← 1897 1896 1895 1898 in Canada → 1899 1900 1901
Decades:	1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s
See also:	History of Canada Timeline of Canadian history List of years in Canada

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Victoria^[1]

Federal government

• Governor General – John Hamilton-Gordon, 7th Earl of Aberdeen (until November 12) then Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto
• Prime Minister – Wilfrid Laurier
• Chief Justice – Samuel Henry Strong (Ontario)
• Parliament – 8th

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Thomas Robert McInnes
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – James Colebrooke Patterson
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Jabez Bunting Snowball
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Malachy Bowes Daly
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Oliver Mowat
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – George William Howlan
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau (until January 20) then Louis-Amable Jetté

Premiers

• Premier of British Columbia – John Herbert Turner (until August 15) then Charles Augustus Semlin
• Premier of Manitoba – Thomas Greenway
• Premier of New Brunswick – Henry Emmerson
• Premier of Nova Scotia – George Henry Murray
• Premier of Ontario – Arthur Sturgis Hardy
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – Alexander Warburton (until August 1) then Donald Farquharson
• Premier of Quebec – Félix-Gabriel Marchand

Territorial governments

Commissioners

• Commissioner of Yukon – James Morrow Walsh (until July 5) then William Ogilvie

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Keewatin – James Colebrooke Patterson
• Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories – Charles Herbert Mackintosh (until May 30) then Malcolm Colin Cameron (May 30 to September 26) then Amédée E. Forget (from October 4)

Premiers

• Premier of North-West Territories – Frederick Haultain

Events

• March 1 – 1898 Ontario election: A. S. Hardy's Liberals win a majority.
• June 13 – Yukon becomes a distinct territory from the North-West Territories.
• July 29 – White Pass and Yukon Route opens (Skagway–Whitehorse).
• August – Donald Farquharson becomes Premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing A. B. Warburton.
• August 8 – John Herbert Turner is dismissed as premier of British Columbia.
• August 15 – Charles Semlin becomes premier of British Columbia.
• September 11 – New Westminster, British Columbia destroyed by fire.
• September 29 – The Canadian referendum on the prohibition of alcohol.
• November 4 – The fourth election of the North-West Legislative Assembly.

Full date unknown

• The Parliament of Canada passes the Quebec Boundary Extension Act, expanding the provincial boundaries northward to include the lands of the aboriginal Cree.
• Kit Coleman covers the Spanish–American War as Canada's first female war correspondent.

Arts and literature

Births

• May 17 – A. J. Casson, Canadian painter (d. 1992)
• May 20 – Paul Gouin, politician (d.1976)
• May 27 – William Arthur Irwin, journalist
• July 7 – Hugh Llewellyn Keenleyside, diplomat, civil servant and 5th Commissioner of the Northwest Territories (d.1992)
• July 15 – Howard Graham, army officer (d. 1986)
• July 17 – Osmond Borradaile, cameraman, cinematographer and veteran of First and Second World War (d.1999)
• August 23 – Brooke Claxton, politician and Minister (d.1960)
• August 27
  • Gaspard Fauteux, politician, Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada and Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec (d.1963)
  • John Hamilton, bank robber (d. 1934)
• August 30 – Gleason Belzile, politician (d.1950)
• November 9 – Emmett Matthew Hall, jurist, civil libertarian and Supreme Court justice (d.1995)
• December 1 – Stuart Garson, politician, Minister and 12th Premier of Manitoba (d.1977)
• December 15 – George Lawrence Price, last Commonwealth casualty of World War I (d.1918)

Full date unknown

• Maurice Spector, Chairman of the Communist Party of Canada (d.1968)

Deaths

Theodore Davie

• January 1 – John Arthur Fraser, artist (b.1838)
• February 15 – Wilfrid Prévost, lawyer and politician (b.1832)
• March 7 – Theodore Davie, lawyer, politician and 9th Premier of British Columbia (b.1852)
• May 1 – Nazaire-Nicolas Olivier, lawyer and politician (b. c1860)
• May 13 – François Bourassa, farmer and politician (b.1813)

Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau

• April 12 – Elzéar-Alexandre Taschereau, Archbishop of Quebec (b.1820)
• June 13 – Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau, lawyer, politician and 5th Premier of Quebec (b.1840)
• July 14 – Louis-François Richer Laflèche, diocese of Trois-Rivières (b.1818)
• August 24 – Casimir Gzowski, engineer (b.1813)

Historical documents

Federal plebiscite on prohibition finds apathetic electorate (compared to general election turnout) delivers small majority in favour^[2]

Touring U.S. farmers find paradise of meadows, prairies and woodlands in Saskatchewan^[3]

Questionable building standards lead to fatal collapse of city hall floor in London, Ontario ^[4]

See also

• List of Canadian films