Head of state (monarch) – Queen Victoria (consort – Vacant)
Governor general – John Campbell (viceregal consort – Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll)
Prime minister – John A. Macdonald
Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Albert Norton Richards
Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Joseph Édouard Cauchon
Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Edward Barron Chandler
Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Adams George Archibald
Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Donald Alexander Macdonald
Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Robert Hodgson (until July 10) then Thomas Heath Haviland
Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Luc Letellier de St-Just (until July 26) then Théodore Robitaille
Premier of British Columbia – George Anthony Walkem
Premier of Manitoba – John Norquay
Premier of New Brunswick – John James Fraser
Premier of Nova Scotia – Simon Hugh Holmes
Premier of Ontario – Oliver Mowat
Premier of Prince Edward Island – Louis Henry Davies (until April 25) then William Wilfred Sullivan
Premier of Quebec – Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière (until October 31) then Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau
Lieutenant Governor of Keewatin – Joseph Édouard Cauchon
Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories - David Laird
February 4 - Prince Edward Island election: William Wilfred Sullivan's Conservatives win a third consecutive majority
March 12 - Sir John A. Macdonald introduces protective tariffs on manufactured goods being imported into Canada, a transcontinental railway, and immigration to the west in his National Policy.
April 25 - Sir William Wilfred Sullivan becomes premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Sir Louis Davies
June 5 - Ontario election: Sir Oliver Mowat's Liberals win a third consecutive majority
(date unknown) - The Toronto Industrial Exhibition opens for the first time, precursor to the Canadian National Exhibition
October 31 - Sir Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau becomes premier of Quebec, replacing Henri-Gustave de Lotbinière
December 16 - Manitoba election
December 19 - The Alberta Canada Cannibal. Swift Runner was executed for murdering and then eating eight members of his own family over the previous winter. He believed he was possessed by Wendigo, a terrifying mythological creature with a ravenous appetite for human flesh.
It wasn't an isolated case. During the late 1800s and into the 20th Century, fear of Wendigo (or Windigo) haunted northern Alberta communities, resulting in several grisly deaths. All other deaths he can document were cases of "Wendigo executions," where others have killed the person believed to be possessed. They were acts of self-preservation, attempts to protect their community.
January 15 - Mazo de la Roche, author (d.1961)
January 17 - Richard Gavin Reid, politician and 7th Premier of Alberta (d.1980)
January 25 - Humphrey T. Walwyn, naval officer and Governor of Newfoundland (d.1957)
February 14 - Eli Burton, physicist
March 20 - Maud Menten, medical scientist (d.1960)
May 25 - Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, business tycoon, politician and writer (d.1964)
June 12 - Charles Dow Richards, judge, politician and 18th Premier of New Brunswick (d.1956)
August 1 - Eva Tanguay, singer and entertainer (d.1947)
August 16 - Samuel Lawrence, politician and trade unionist (d.1959)
October 6 - James Langstaff Bowman, politician and Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons (d.1951)
October 9 - William Warren, lawyer, politician, judge and Prime Minister of Newfoundland (d.1927)
November 3 - Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Arctic explorer and ethnologist (d.1962)
November 11 - Violet McNaughton, feminist
November 25 - Joseph-Arsène Bonnier, politician (d.1962)
December 24 - Émile Nelligan, poet (d.1941)
January 4 - Pierre-Alexis Tremblay, politician (b.1827)
January 16 - Octave Crémazie, poet (b.1827)
April 4 - Jean-Baptiste Thibault, missionary and a Father of Confederation (b.1810)
October 7 - William Henry Pope, lawyer, politician, judge and a Father of Confederation (b.1825)
