CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

1891 in Canada

overview of Canada-related events during the year of 1891

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 19, 2026
Entity authorityQ2810722
Source-derived summary

Events from the year 1891 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

Monarch – Victoria

Federal government

Governor General – Frederick Stanley

Prime Minister – John A. Macdonald (until June 6) then John Abbott (from June 16)

Chief Justice – William Johnstone Ritchie (New Brunswick)

Parliament – 6th (until 3 February) then 7th (from 29 April)

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 – Malachy Bowes Daly

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 (until April 27) then Frederick Peters

Premier of Quebec – Honoré Mercier (until December 21) then Charles Boucher de Boucherville

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 then Chairman of the Executive Committee of the North-West Territories – Robert Brett (until November 7) then Frederick Haultain

Events

February 21 – The first Springhill Mining Disaster occurs killing 125.

March 5 – Federal election: Sir John A. Macdonald's Conservatives win a fourth consecutive majority.

April 27 – Frederick Peters becomes premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Neil McLeod.

June 6 – Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald dies in office.

June 8 – Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald lies in state in the Senate Chamber.

June 16 – Sir John Abbott becomes prime minister.

September 29 – Thomas McGreevy is expelled from the House of Commons due to corruption.

November 7 – The election of the 2nd North-West Legislative Assembly.

December 10 – The Calgary and Edmonton Railway opens, connecting Edmonton to the national railway network for the first time.

Editorial summary

“1891 in Canada” enters the record as overview of Canada-related events during the year of 1891. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Canada, overview and Canada-related can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1891—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Canada, overview and Canada-related.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“1891 in Canada” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Canada, overview and Canada-related provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2810722. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1891.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “1891 in Canada”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow 1891 in Canada primary sources, 1891 in Canada archive and Canada research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “1891 in Canada”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from 1891 in Canada” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.