1857 in Canada

Events from the year 1857 in Canada.

Events [edit]

March 12 — The bridge over Desjardins Canal, near Hamilton, Canada West, collapses under a Great Western Railway passenger train. About 60 people die.
December 31 — Ottawa is chosen as the new capital of the Canadas
Grand Trunk Railway (Windsor-Montreal) completed, but $7 million in debt.
Queen Victoria names Ottawa as capital of the Province of Canada.
The Palliser Expedition begins its exploration of Western Canada.
Coal mining begins at Coal Harbor on the Kenai Peninsula.

February 2 — Alexander Cameron Rutherford, lawyer and politician, first premier of Alberta (died 1941)
February 25 — Robert Bond, politician and Prime Minister of Newfoundland (died 1927)
February 27 — Adelaide Hoodless, educational reformer who founded the Women's Institute (died 1910)
March 17 — Willis Keith Baldwin, politician (died 1935)
June 20 — Adam Beck, politician and hydro-electricity advocate (died 1925)

July 27 — Ann Stowe-Gullen, doctor
August 15 — Theodore Arthur Burrows, politician and Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba (died 1929)
August 15 — John Strathearn Hendrie, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (died 1923)
September 12 — George Halsey Perley, politician and diplomat (died 1938)
October 10 — Cassie Chadwick, fraudster (died 1907)
October 10 — George Johnson Clarke, lawyer, journalist, politician and 14th Premier of New Brunswick (died 1917)
November 25 — Frederick W. A. G. Haultain, politician and 1st Premier of the Northwest Territories (died 1942)

February 10 — David Thompson, fur trader, surveyor and map-maker (born 1770)
March 13 — William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst, diplomat and governor general (born 1773)
September 3 — John McLoughlin, physician, fur trader, and merchant (born 1784)
November 3 — William Fitzwilliam Owen, naval officer, hydrographic surveyor (born 1774)