1879 in Canada

The Opening of Canadian Parliament in 1879.

• 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 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)

Government scheme to divide 100 million acres of CPR land for settlement[2]

Ottawa memo outlines the "utter destitution" of some Indigenous people in the N.W.T.[3]

Federal commissioner reports on the dependency of Indigenous people at Fort Walsh[4]

Visitor fears the Metis on the Assiniboine River will not hold on to their lands much longer[5]

Description of Mennonite cooperative farming near Winnipeg[6]

All aboard the steamer Waubuno are lost in a gale on Georgian Bay[7]

Anti-Irish-Catholic opinion is published in the Irish Canadian[8]