1910

From the big scrapbook of time, here’s a look at Canada in 1910-

January 1: The population of the Dominion of Canada is nearing 7,000,000 people. The Dominion of Newfoundland is home to 200,000 souls.

January – Dominion Motors is registered and begins assembly of Royal automobiles in Walkerville (Windsor), Ontario. The four-cylinder touring car costs $1,850 and includes a set of tools, a magneto and lamps. It will appear at the CNE auto show but not return for the 1911 selling season.

January 3: The headline on page 5 of the London Times reads, “Happiness and content are found from one end of Canada to the other.” According to the newspaper, folks from Sydney to Victoria live in the best part of the British Empire.

January 10: A new newspaper is delivered to people’s doors in Montréal. Le Devoir is conservative in its views, reflecting the opinions of its editor, Henri Bourassa who is the federal Member of Parliament for the riding of St. Hyacinthe.

January 27: Newspapers in Newfoundland are printed on paper from domestic mills for the first time.

January 21: Canadian Pacific Railways Train No. 7 derails in Webbwood, Ontario—a small town near Sudbury—kills 42.

February--The first shipment of paper leaves The A.E Reed Company Limited pulp and paper mill, in Bishop's Falls, Newfoundland on the new railroad to Botwood. The plant will close down in 1952.

February 8: Thirteen sailors, from the Calcium, arrive in Halifax after being rescued at sea from their burning vessel. The unlucky 13-year old ship sailed on the 13th of the month from French Guyana. It was bound for New York City when the ship caught fire.

February 6: A report is released in Ottawa by the Veterinary Director General that some 3,000 dogs in southwestern Ontario have rabies. Dogs are to be locked in outbuildings or wear muzzles. Failure to comply with the order will result in fines of up to $200.

March 5: An avalanche at Rogers Pass in Alberta kills a CPR work crew of 65 men.

March 8: Minister Cashin delivers the budget speech in the House of Assembly in. St. John's. The government of Newfoundland is sitting pretty with $9 million in the bank. The Dominion does brisk business with Canada--to the tune of $12 million a year.

March 10: Prince Rupert is incorporated as a city. The British Columbia municipality is the province’s Gateway to the North.

March 11: Steamers depart St. John's, Newfoundland for the annual seal hunt.

March 12: The Berlin (Kitchener) Union Jacks lose the Stanley Cup to the Montréal Wanderers. The final score is 7 to 3.

March 20: Federal Finance Minister, William S. Fielding, is in Washington, DC for secret talks with US President Taft. They will discuss the possibility of reciprocity—free trade--between the two countries.

March 23: Dome Mines Limited is incorporated. The company’s founders have filed a claim for a vein of gold 45 metres wide and several hundred metres in length at Porcupine Ridge, 12 kilometres outside of Timmins, Ontario. In 2007 the company will be called Barricks and hold the distinction of being the largest gold mining company in the world.

A 1910 Cadillac Model 30 is seen here.

April --: It is illegal to operate a motor vehicle in Kings County Nova Scotia on the Lord’s Day. A fine of $50 will be levied against a first time offender, $100 for a second offence and $200 for a third repeat offender. Sunday is a day of rest and spiritual activity.

April 2: Amendments to the Temperance Act come into effect today for all saloons in Newfoundland. Operating hours will be from nine to nine on weekdays, they must close on Sunday and credit may not be extended to "tipplers."

April 20: The Royal Canadian Navy is established by Parliament. Because we are a colony, it will be under the control of Britain in the event of war.

April 26: Parliament passes the Anti-Combines Bill. When given Royal Assent, the law will allow MPs to examine unfair business practices and when necessary “shame them into proper behaviour.”

May 6: The nation is in mourning as His Majesty, King Edward VII dies of heart failure at Buckingham Palace. He is succeeded by his son, George V who will be Ruler of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales; Emperor of India, King of the British Dominions and Defender of the Faith.

May 24: A sanatorium to treat tuberculosis is opened today in Sinette, Manitoba. The 65-bed institution is the second TB treatment centre in Western Canada.

June 2: Florence Jane Bell is born in Toronto. She will grow up to become a track star, bringing home gold for Canada in the 1928 Olympics in the 4 x 100 metre relay race—along with teammates Myrtle Cook, Fanny Rosenfeld and Ethel Smith.

June 8: The Hamilton Steel & Iron Company merges with Montreal Rolling Mills to become the Steel Company of Canada, Limited. The new entity (Stelco) is the largest steel manufacturer in the Dominion.

June 15: The Blackfoot tribe in Gleichen, Alberta votes to sell half their reservation. The tribe’s population has dropped from 2,000 in 1880 to less than 800 today. The final tally is a squeaker with 69 in favour and 64 opposed to the sale. The deal makes the Blackfoot the richest Aboriginals in the country. The land will be snapped up by eager European settlers.

A 1910 Oldsmobile Fire Engine is seen here.

July 11: A fire that started in a mill in Campbellton (Mirimichi City), New Brunswick sweeps the town leaving four dead and 4,000 people homeless. Damages are estimated at $2.5 million.

July 13: The first aeroplane flies over the city of Toronto. Phone lines to newspapers are jammed as callers report the unnatural phenomenon that continues for 30 minutes. The pilot of the Bleriot monoplane is Count De Lesseps of France, who is in Hogtown for an air show.

July 29: Sir Wilfred Laurier is in Regina to lay the cornerstone of the first building on the campus of the University of Saskatchewan. The Prime Minister speaks to those assembled and tells the audience that, “Education is true patriotism… The parent who can give a good education to his boy gives the best heritage, better than gold and diamonds.”

The telegraph is state-of-the-art technology. It allows instant communication.

July 31: Wanted for the murder of his wife in the UK, Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen is caught by police when his ship docks in Québec City. It is the first time a criminal has been identified and arrested with the use of wireless communications.

August 4: The HMCS Rainbow, is commissioned today in Portsmouth, England as the first ship of the Royal Canadian Navy. The 2,600-tonne Apollo-class cruiser will report for duty in Esquimalt, BC on November 7. It is expected the Rainbow will carry out fishery patrols, undertake ceremonial duties and provide training for sailors. She will be sold for scrap in 1920.

August 10: Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier is in Red Deer, Alberta to drive the first spike into a railroad tie for the Alberta Central Railway.

August 17: Citizens of Cupids, Newfoundland celebrate the town's 300th birthday by flying the second largest Union Jack in the world. Cupids holds the distinction of being the second permanent English settlement in North America. A special stamp has been issued to mark the occasion.

August 25: Ethel Hilda Keeler is born in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. She will grow up, change her name to Ruby and become a star of radio and the silver screen. She will be married to singer Al Jolson from 1928 to 1940. The famed actress will die of cancer in 1993.

September 7: The International Tribunal in The Hague has ruled that St. John’s has the right to set the regulations for domestic fishermen, Canadians, Americans and others who fish in the waters off the coast of the Dominion of Newfoundland.

October 1:L'Université de Montréal grants a Bachelor’s degree to a woman, becoming the first Francophone institution in the country to bestow a degree upon a member of the 'fairer sex'.

October 8: Ray Lewis is born in Hamilton, Ontario. He will grow up to become the first African-Canadian Olympic medalist at the Los Angeles games in 1932. Rapid Ray will die in 2003 and a school will be named in his honour in 2005.

October 9:  Made by Westclox, a Big Ben sells for $3.

October 21: The HMCS Niobe steams into Halifax Harbour. The Diadem class cruiser is part of the new Royal Canadian Navy. The formidable 11,000-tonne vessel boasts three torpedo tubes, a dozen 12-pounders and 16 six-inch guns.

November 8: A new cooperative called Canadian Press is founded in Toronto. Newspapers throughout the Dominion will share stories through a national wire service.

Hugh Gall, last year's MVP,  plays for the University of Toronto in the Second Grey Cup.

November 26: The University of Toronto beats the Hamilton Tigers to take home the Grey Cup. The score is 16 to 7.

December 9: An explosion in the Bellevue coalmine kills 35 men in Alberta.

December 12: More than 1,000 farmers from all corners of the Dominion have converged upon Ottawa to demand reciprocity—free trade—with the United States and that Parliament expropriate all railroads and make them into a Crown corporation.

December 21: RCMP Inspector Francis Fitzgerald and three other officers leave Fort McPherson, in the Yukon for a routine patrol of the Mackenzie River. They will never return. Encountering fierce snowstorms they will get lost, wind up eating their sled dogs. Three will starve to death; a fourth will commit suicide. Their bodies and Fitzgerald’s diary will be found next spring.

A 1:32 scale model of a 1910 Ford, affectionately known as 'Tin Lizzie'. 

December 31: There are 5,890 automobiles registered across Canada from Cape Breton to Vancouver Island.