1857 in Canada
Events from the year 1857 in Canada.
Incumbents
- Monarch — Victoria
Federal government
Governors
- Governor General of the Province of Canada — Edmund Walker Head
- Colonial Governor of Newfoundland — Charles Henry Darling
- Governor of New Brunswick — John Manners-Sutton
- Governor of Nova Scotia — John Gaspard Le Marchant
- Governor of Prince Edward Island — Dominick Daly
Premiers
- Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada —
- *, Canada West Premier
- *, Canada East Premier
- *,
- Premier of Newfoundland — Philip Francis Little
- Premier of New Brunswick — Charles Fisher
- Premier of Nova Scotia — William Young
- Premier of Prince Edward Island — John Holl
Events
- March 12 — Desjardins Canal disaster - The bridge over Desjardins Canal, near Hamilton, Canada West, collapses under a Great Western Railway passenger train. About 60 people die.
- Grand Trunk Railway completed, but $7 million in debt.
- December 31 - Queen Victoria names Ottawa as capital of the Province of Canada.
- The Palliser Expedition begins its exploration of Western Canada.
Births
January to June
- February 2 — Alexander Cameron Rutherford, lawyer and politician, first premier of Alberta
- February 25 — Robert Bond, politician and Prime Minister of Newfoundland
- February 27 — Adelaide Hoodless, educational reformer who founded the Women's Institute
- March 17 — Willis Keith Baldwin, politician
- June 20 — Adam Beck, politician and hydro-electricity advocate
July to December
- July 27 — Ann Stowe-Gullen, doctor
- August 15 — Theodore Arthur Burrows, politician and Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba
- August 15 — John Strathearn Hendrie, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
- September 12 — George Halsey Perley, politician and diplomat
- October 10 — Cassie Chadwick, fraudster
- October 10 — George Johnson Clarke, lawyer, journalist, politician and 14th Premier of New Brunswick
- November 25 — Frederick W. A. G. Haultain, politician and 1st Premier of the Northwest Territories
Deaths
- February 10 — David Thompson, fur trader, surveyor and map-maker
- March 13 — William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst, diplomat and governor general
- September 3 — John McLoughlin, physician, fur trader, and merchant
- November 3 — William Fitzwilliam Owen, naval officer, hydrographic surveyor
Full date unknown
- Isabella Clark, first wife of John A. Macdonald, premier of the Province of Canada