1916 in Canada

Crown

Head of state (monarch) – King George V (consort – Mary of Teck)

Federal government

Governor general – Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (until November 11) then Victor Cavendish (viceregal consort – Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia then Evelyn Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire)

Prime minister – Robert Borden

Lieutenant governors

Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – Robert Brett

Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Francis Stillman Barnard

Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Douglas Colin Cameron (until August 3) then James Albert Manning Aikins

Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Josiah Wood

Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – David MacKeen (until November 13) then MacCallum Grant (from November 29)

Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – John Strathearn Hendrie

Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Augustine Colin Macdonald

Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Pierre-Évariste Leblanc

Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – Richard Stuart Lake

Premiers

Premier of Alberta – Arthur Sifton

Premier of British Columbia – William John Bowser (until November 23) then Harlan Brewster

Premier of Manitoba – Tobias Norris

Premier of New Brunswick – George Johnson Clarke

Premier of Nova Scotia – George Henry Murray

Premier of Ontario – William Hearst

Premier of Prince Edward Island – John Mathieson

Premier of Quebec – Lomer Gouin

Premier of Saskatchewan – Thomas Walter Scott (until October 20) then William Melville Martin

Commissioners

Commissioner of Yukon - George Black (until October 13) then George Norris Williams (acting)

Gold Commissioner of Yukon – George P. MacKenzie

Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Frederick D. White

January to June

January 28 - Women are given the right to vote in Manitoba, after protests by people such as Nellie McClung

February 3 - The Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa burns down

February 10 - An anti-German riot hits Calgary

March 14 - Saskatchewan women get the vote

April 19 - Alberta women get the vote

June - Rodeo's first side-delivery chute is designed and made by the Bascom brothers on their Bar-B-3 Ranch at Welling, Alberta.

May 7 - The Government of Canada authorizes the creation of an all black battalion that became No. 2 Construction Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force.

June 1 - June 13 - WWI: Canadians fight in the Battle of Mont Sorrel

July to December

July 1 - Prohibition of alcohol introduced in Alberta

July 1–November 18 25,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders are casualties at the Battle of the Somme

July 24 - Earl Bascom enters his first steer riding contest at Welling, Alberta and later becomes an international celebrity in the rodeo and fine art worlds. He is known as the first rodeo cowboy to become a professional cowboy artist and sculptor and the first cowboy artist to be honored as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts of London, England.

July 29 - The Matheson Fire in the region northwest of North Bay begins. It eventually takes the lives of between 200 and 250 people and destroys six towns, including Matheson and Cochrane

August 11 - The 4th Canadian Division arrives in France

October 20 - William M. Martin becomes premier of Saskatchewan, replacing Walter Scott

November 23 - Harlan Brewster becomes premier of British Columbia, replacing William John Bowser

December 1 - An Order in Council authorizes an increase of troops to 500,000 in the First World War

Full date unknown

Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire becomes Governor General of Canada replacing Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught

The National Research Council of Canada is established.

The first Doukhobors arrive in Alberta

Emily Murphy became the first female magistrate in Canada, and in the British Empire. She is best known for her contributions to Canadian feminism, specifically to the question of whether women were "persons" under Canadian law.

New works

Lucy Maud Montgomery - The Watchman & Other Poems

Max Aitken - Canada in Flanders

Alfred Laliberté - Les petits Baigneurs

Sport

The Montreal Canadiens beat the Portland Rosebuds of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association to win their first Stanley Cup

January to June

January 22 - Bill Durnan, ice hockey player (d.1972)

February 4 - Pudlo Pudlat, artist (d.1992)

February 10 - Claude Bissell, author and educator (d.2000)

February 18 - Jean Drapeau, lawyer, politician and Mayor of Montreal (d.1999)

February 23 - Molly Kool, North America's first registered female sea captain (d.2009)

March 10 - Davie Fulton, politician and judge (d.2000)

April 18 - Ian Wahn, politician and lawyer (d.1999)

April 27 - Myfanwy Pavelic, artist (d.2007)

May 3 - Léopold Simoneau, lyric tenor (d.2006)

May 4 - Jane Jacobs, urbanist, writer and activist (d.2006)

May 30 - Jack Dennett, radio and television announcer (d.1975)

June 20 - Jean-Jacques Bertrand, politician and 21st Premier of Quebec (d.1973)

July to December

July 16 - John Gallagher, geologist and businessman (d.1998)

July 21 - Wilfred Cantwell Smith, professor of comparative religion (d.2000)

August 1 - Anne Hébert, author and poet (d.2000)

September 5 - Frank Shuster, comedian (d.2002)

September 18 - Laura Sabia, social activist and feminist (d.1996)

October 9 - Bill Allum, ice hockey player (d.1992)

October 30 - Roy Brown Jr., car design engineer (Edsel, Ford Consul, Ford Cortina) (d.2013)

November 17 - Martin J. Légère, businessman (d.2013)

November 23 - P. K. Page, poet (d.2010)

December 5 - Lomer Brisson, politician and lawyer (d.1981)

December 7 - Margaret Carse, dancer

December 16 - Harry Gunning, scientist and administrator (d.2002)

December 20 - Michel Chartrand, activist (d.2010)

December 23 - Ruth Dawson, artist

Full date unknown

John Wintermeyer, politician (d.1994)

Deaths

February 3 - Bowman Brown Law, politician (b.1855)

May 12 - Joseph-Aldric Ouimet, politician (b.1848)

May 29 - Louis-Alphonse Boyer, politician (b.1839)

June 27 - Daniel Webster Marsh, businessman and Mayor of Calgary (b.1838)

July 28 - Pierre-Amand Landry, lawyer, judge and politician (b.1846)

August 8 - Edgar Dewdney, politician, Lieutenant Governor of Northwest Territories and Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia (b.1835)

December 12 - Albert Lacombe, missionary (b.1827)

Full date unknown

Grace Annie Lockhart, first woman in the British Empire to receive a Bachelor's degree (b.1855)