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- 1867 - First Federal (Dominion) Election - Only a small minority of the population can vote in a country that has only four provinces, represented by 181 members of Parliament. The laws of individual provinces are used to determine who had the right to vote.
- 1867 - 1st general election - Conservative Party led by John A. Macdonald is elected to form Canada's first majority government, defeating the Liberals and their de facto leader George Brown.
- 1867 - Alexander Muir Writes The Maple Leaf Forever
- April 7, 1868 - D'Arcy McGee Assassinated; one of the fathers of Confederation and an outspoken enemy of the Fenians, he was shot by a Fenian ( Irish nationalist) outside his Ottawa home.
- October 30, 1869 - Georges Desbarats publishes the first issue of his Canadian Illustrated News, the world's first periodical to use the half-tone technique to reproduce a photograph.
- 1869 - George-Étienne Cartier negotiates the purchase of Rupert's Land from the Hudson's Bay Company.
- November, 1869 - Louis Riel leads the Métis in occupying Fort Garry on the site of Winnipeg; his people threatened by lack of control over land speculators and surveyors.
- November 2, 1869 - Red River Insurrection Begins; to to resist Canadian authority in the northwest and get a better deal for the Metis.
- January, 1870 - Louis Riel declares the provisional government of Manitoba.
- August, 1870 - Louis Riel and supporters driven out of Fort Garry by General Wolseley.
- July 15, 1870 - George-Etienne Cartier's Manitoba Act comes into effect, creating the province of Manitoba as the fifth Canadian province; from the old District of Assiniboia, acquired from the Hudson's Bay Company. The new province incorporates most Métis demands. The name means 'The Great Spirit Speaks', after a cave on the shore of Lake Manitoba, where the wind made a haunting sound.
- 1870 - Battle of Eccles Hill
- 1870s - Bison Disappear From Plains - Demand for leather belts for machinery and bone black leads to the destruction of Canadian bison herds, and the Plains Aboriginal and Métis economy.
- July 20, 1871 - British Columbia joins Confederation. BC becomes the sixth Canadian province.
- May 8, 1871 - John A. Macdonald signs the Treaty of Washington as part of the British delegation to Washington, DC; US gets fishing rights in Canadian inshore waters, as well as some navigation rights on Canadian rivers, including allowing Maine's lumber industry to float logs down the Saint John River; also use of Canadian canals; both countries have freedom of navigation on the Great Lakes.
- 1872 - 2nd general election, Conservatives under John A. Macdonald are re-elected with a second majority, defeating the Liberals and their de facto leader Edward Blake.
- July 1, 1873 - Prince Edward Island joins Confederation. PEI becomes the seventh Canadian province.
- May 31, 1873 - Cypress Hills Massacre in Southern Alberta
- 1873 - Founding of the North-West Mounted Police
- November 5, 1873 - John A. Macdonald resigns over the Pacific Scandal, which brought attention to campaign contributions made by shipping magnate Sir Hugh Allan in exchange for a charter to build the Canadian Pacific Railway.
- 1873 - Alexander Mackenzie, a Liberal, becomes Canada's second prime minister when John A. Macdonald lost the confidence of the House.
- 1873 - Wreck of Atlantic in fog off Prospect, Nova Scotia - 562 drowned
- February, 1874 - Louis Riel elected to the House of Commons but cannot take his seat because of an Ontario arrest warrant.
- July 26, 1874 - **Alexander Graham Bell First Describes His Idea for the Telephone to his father at the family home on the outskirts of Brantford, Ontario.
- 1874 - Anabaptists (Russian Mennonites) start to arrive in Manitoba from various Russian colonies.
- 1874 - First Secret Ballot - Parliament passes legislation adopting the use of the secret ballot, with paper ballots and voting booths. The entire general election had to be held on the same day in all ridings.
- 1874 - Federal Election - Liberal Party of Canada, led by Alexander Mackenzie, retains power with a majority after having formed a government when Macdonald lost the confidence of the House in 1873.
- March 3, 1875 - **World's First Indoor Hockey Game
- June, 1875 - Alexander Graham Bell's first functioning telephone is demonstrated in Boston.
- August 25, 1875 - **NWMP Establish a Fort at Calgary
- 1875 - Louis Riel is granted amnesty with the condition that he be banished for five years.
- 1875 - Supreme Court of Canada is established.
- 1875 - Jennie Trout becomes the first woman licensed to practice medicine in Canada, although Emily Stowe has been doing so without a license in Toronto since 1867.
- 1875 - Grace Lockhart receives from Mount Allison University the first Bachelor of Arts degree awarded to a woman.
- 1875 - S.S. Pacific Sinks near Victoria, BC - 236 drowned
- July 1, 1876 - The Intercolonial Railway, growing out of the Halifax-Truro line, links central Canada and the Maritimes.
- August 10, 1876 - Alexander Graham Bell makes world's first long-distance phone call, from the Bell residence in Brantford to a shoe and boot store in nearby Paris, Ontario.
- 1876 - Toronto Women's Literary Club is founded as a front for the suffrage movement.
- 1877 - Manitoba charters the University of Manitoba, the oldest University in western Canada.
- September 23, 1877 - **Blackfoot, Sarcee and Stoney Nations Sign Treaty 7
- 1877 - Great Fire of Saint John, New Brunswick - 11-100 killed
- 1878 - 4th general election, Conservatives, led by John A. Macdonald, defeat Alexander Mackenzie's Liberals, returning Macdonald to power with a third majority.
- 1878 - Anti- Chinese sentiment in British Columbia reaches a high point as the government bans Chinese workers from public works.
- March 12, 1879 - John A. Macdonald introduces protective tariffs, a transcontinental railway, and immigration to the west in his National Policy.
- June 24, 1880 - **O Canada First Performed
- November 15, 1880 - Ned Hanlan Becomes World Champion Rower
- 1880 - The Canadian Pacific Railway starts to recruit thousands of Chinese Labourers; to 1884.
- 1880 - Emily Stowe is finally granted a license to practice medicine in Toronto.
- 1881 - Excursion boat Victoria flips over on Thames River near London, Ontario - 182 drowned
- 1882 - 5th general election, Conservatives, led by John A. Macdonald, are re-elected with a fourth majority, defeating Edward Blake's Liberals.
- 1882 - **John Ware Arrives in Alberta
- 1883 - Augusta Stowe, daughter of Emily, is the first woman to graduate from the Toronto Medical School.
- 1883 - The Toronto Women's Suffrage Association replaces the Literary Club of 1876.
- August 22, 1884 - Founding of the Calgary and District Agricultural Society; to hold an annual exhibition; the 1885 fair will be disrupted by the North West Rebellion, but is held successfully in 1886; forerunner of the Calgary Stampede.
- January 28, 1885 - **The Nile Voyageurs Reach Khartoum
- 1885 - **$50 Head Tax Imposed to Discourage Chinese Immigration
- 1885 - New Federal Franchise - Parliament draws up a complicated federal franchise, based on property ownership. The application of the rules differs from town to town and from province to province.
- 1885 - Louis Riel, who had become an American citizen in Montana in 1883 only to return to Canada in 1884, leads the North West Rebellion.
- March 19, 1885 - North West Rebellion - **Louis Riel Declares the Provisional Government of Saskatchewan
- March 26, 1885 - North West Rebellion - Battle of Duck Lake - Gabriel Dumont and Métis drive back NWMP Superintendent Leif Crozier and Prince Albert Volunteers
- April 2, 1885 - North West Rebellion - Frog Lake Massacre - Wandering Spirit and Cree warriors attack the village of Frog Lake, Alberta
- April 24, 1885 - North West Rebellion - Battle of Fish Creek - Métis forces halt Major General Frederick Middleton's advance on Batoche
- April 15, 1885 - North West Rebellion - Battle of Fort Pitt - Big Bear and Métis get surrender of fort from NWMP garrison commander Francis Dickens
- May 2, 1885 - North West Rebellion - **Poundmaker Defeats Otter at Cut Knife Hill
- May 12, 1885 - North West Rebellion - **Metis Defeated at Battle of Batoche
- May 28, 1885 - North West Rebellion - Battle of Frenchman's Butte - Wandering Spirit and Little Poplar force Alberta Field Force and two NWMP units to retreat
- June 3, 1885 - North West Rebellion - Battle of Loon Lake - Sam Steele leads NWMP force, with Alberta Mounted Rifles and Steele's Scouts against a band of Plains Cree warriors and their white and Métis hostages; last battle of the rebellion.
- July 6, 1885 - North West Rebellion - **The Trial of Louis Riel
- 1885 - November 7 - **Donald Smith Drives in Last Spike of the CPR
- November 16, 1885 - North West Rebellion -Louis Riel Hanged
- 1885 - Smallpox Outbreak, Montréal, Québec - 5,864 killed
- 1887 - The Liberals choose Wilfrid Laurier as leader.
- 1887 - 6th general election, Conservatives, led by John A. Macdonald, are re-elected with a fifth majority, defeating Edward Blake's Liberals.
- 1887 - First provincial Premiers' conference takes place in Québec City.
- March 31, 1890 - Manitoba School Act; Manitoba Liberals under Thomas Greenway halt public finding of Catholic schools.
- December 15, 1891 - **James Naismith Invents Basketball
- 1891 - 7th general election, Conservatives, led by John A. Macdonald, are re-elected with a sixth majority, in Macdonald's final election before his death shortly after. Macdonald defeated rookie Liberal opposition leader Wilfrid Laurier.
- March 18, 1892 - **Lord Stanley Announces Donation of a Cup for Hockey Supremacy
- 1893 - The National Council of Women of Canada is founded.
- February 23, 1893 - **Lord Stanley Awards First Stanley Cup to the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association
- January 20, 1894 - **Lady Aberdeen Watches Hockey Game at Rideau Hall
- March 22, 1894 - **First Stanley Cup Game
- 1896 - Clifford Sifton Encourages Immigration
- 1896 - Streetcar Falls from Point Ellice Bridge, Victoria, BC - 55 killed
- August 17, 1896 - Gold is discovered in the Yukon; Klondike Gold Rush Begins
- June 23, 1896 - Federal Election - Wilfrid Laurier leads Liberals to majority victory in the 8th general election, beating Charles Tupper's Conservatives 123 seats to 88; with 45.1% of popular vote vs. Tupper's 46.1%; runs on reciprocity; 49 of his 118 MPs from Québec; PM until 1911. Laurier the first French Canadian prime minister; wins election partly on the Manitoba Schools Question, though his compromises are not instituted until 1897.
- 1897 - L.T. Snow patents a simple mechanical meat grinder.
- June 3, 1898 - **Joshua Slocum the First Person to Sail Around the World Alone
- 1898 - The Yukon provisional district is identified as a Territory separate from the Northwest Territories.
- October 11, 1899 - **Boer War Breaks Out - Canada's Imperial Adventure.
- October 30, 1899 - Clara Martin becomes Canada's first woman lawyer.
- December 23, 1900 - **Reginald Fessenden First Transmits Voice by Radio Waves
- 1900 - 9th general election, Liberals, led by Wilfrid Laurier, are re-elected with a second majority, defeating Charles Tupper's Conservatives.
- December 12, 1901 - **Marconi Sends and Receives First Transatlantic Radio Message
- July 1, 1902 - Canada's first rodeo Stampede was produced at Raymond, Alberta by millionaire rancher Raymond Knight.
- October 20, 1903 - **Canada Loses the Alaska Boundary Dispute when British tribunal representative Lord Alverstone sides with the U.S.
- 1903 - Silver is discovered in Northern Ontario.
- 1903 - First nude demonstrations of the Doukhobours take place near Yorkton, Saskatchewan, to protest governmental policy regarding individual ownership.
- 1903 - **Roald Amundsen Completes the Northwest Passage.
- April, 1903 - **The Founding of Lloydminster
- April 29, 1903 - **Frank Slide Kills 70 as Turtle Mountain crashes into Frank, Alberta
- July 1, 1903 - History's first rodeo bucking chute and the first rodeo grandstands are made by rodeo producer Raymond Knight at Raymond, Alberta.
- September 1, 1905 - The Provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan are founded. Alberta and Saskatchewan become the eighth and ninth Canadian provinces.
- 1904 - 10th general election, Liberals, led by Wilfrid Laurier, are re-elected with a third majority, defeating the Conservatives of Robert Borden.
- January 16, 1905 - Hockey - Frank McGee scores 14 goals as the Ottawa Silver 7 beat the Dawson City Nuggets 23-2 for the Stanley Cup; the most lopsided playoff game in Cup history; the Yukon team had trekked almost 7, 000 km on foot and by dogsled, boat and train to be able to play in the Ottawa tournament.
- March 17, 1905 - **Haultain Asks For One Province
- November 24, 1905 - **Bulyea Drives Last Spike of Canadian Northern Railway
- September 1, 1905 - **Alberta Inauguration Day
- September 4, 1905 - **Saskatchewan Inauguration Day; Walter Scott sworn in as first Premier
- May 7, 1906 - Adam Beck gets a charter for the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, the largest such company in Canada.
- May 14, 1906 - Adam Beck Inaugurates Ontario Hydro
- December 24, 1906 - **Fessenden Makes World's First Radio Broadcast
- December 28, 1906 - **Toronto Ices First Professional Hockey Team
- 1907 - Charles Saunders Develops Marquis Wheat
- January 21, 1907 - **Kenora Thistles Win Stanley Cup
- August 29, 1907 - First Quebec Bridge collapse, as the south cantilever arm twists during construction, falling 46 metres into St. Lawrence River. - 75 killed, 11 injured in Canada's worst bridge disaster
- September 8, 1907 - **Anti-Asian Riot in Vancouver
- September 30, 1907 - **Alexander Graham Bell Founds the Aerial Experiment Association
- 1908 - Peter Verigin, leader of the Doukhobours since his arrival in Canada in 1902, leads the extremist Sons of Freedom to British Columbia.
- 1908 - 11th general election, Liberals, led by Wilfrid Laurier, are re-elected with a fourth majority, defeating Robert Borden and the Conservatives.
- 1909 - The Department of External Affairs is formed.
- 1909 - **Earl Grey Donates Grey Cup for Football Supremacy
- February 23, 1909 - J.A.D. McCurdy Flies Silver Dart, as Canada's first powered air flight takes place at Baddeck, Nova Scotia.
- July 1, 1909 - Captain Bernier Proclaims Canadian Sovereignty in the Arctic
- 1910 - **Laurier's Naval Service Bill Creates the Royal Canadian Navy
- 1911 - 12th general election, Conservatives, led by Robert Borden, defeat Wilfrid Laurier's Liberals with a majority on the issue of Reciprocity.
- 1912 - Botanist Carrie Derrick is Canada's first woman professor, at McGill University.
- June 30, 1912 - Regina Cyclone - Tornado or Cyclone hits Regina, Saskatchewan - 28-30 killed
- April 14, 1912 - **St. John's Wireless Operators Hear Last Messages from Striken Titanic; collided with iceberg 600km SE of Newfoundland - 1,522 drown
- August 27, 1912 - Thomas Wilby & Jack Haney start First cross-Canada motor trip in REO Special; to establish the All Red Route; their trip takes 52 days to Victoria, BC; Wilby is an English journalist, Haney an REO Motor Car Company mechanic/driver. Halifax, Nova Scotia
- September 2, 1912 - **Guy Weadick Launches First Calgary Stampede
- October 7, 1913 - **Dingman Discovery Launches Alberta Oil Boom
- November 7, 1913 - Thirty-four ships sink in Great Lakes Storm of 1913, to November 13 - 248-270 drowned
- January 28, 1914 - **The Winnipeg Mock Parliament
- April 7, 1914 - **The Last Spike of the Grand Trunk Pacific
- May 23, 1914 - **The Komagata Maru Arrives in Vancouver
- May 29, 1914 - **Empress of Ireland Sinks in the Saint Lawrence River after collision with collier Storstad in fog in Saint Lawrence River off Rimouski, Québec, and sinks within fifteen minutes - 1,014 killed.
- August 4, 1914 - Britain declares war on Germany, automatically drawing Canada into the conflict.
- October 3, 1914 - World War I - First Canadian troops leave for England.
- June 19, 1914 - Hillcrest Mine Coal Dust Explosion, Crowsnest Pass area - Hillcrest, Alberta - 189 killed
- 1914 - Parliament passes the War Measures Act, allowing suspension of civil rights during periods of emergency.
- 1914 - **Ukrainian Canadians Interned Under War Measures Act
- 1915 - Franchise Extended to Military - The right to vote is granted to all military personnel on active service.
- May 3, 1915 - **John McCrae Writes In Flanders Fields
- 1915 - National Transcontinental, the eastern division of the Grand Trunk Railway, consolidates a line from Moncton to Winnipeg.
- April 22, 1915 - World War I - **Canadians Survive First Gas Attack at Ypres
- February 3, 1916 - Parliament buildings are destroyed by fire.
- July 1, 1916 - World War I - **Carnage at Beaumont Hamel as the Newfoundland Regiment is nearly wiped out in the Battle of the Somme.
- July 29, 1916 - Forest fire ignited by lightning destroys towns of Cochrane, Ontario and Matheson, Ontario - 233 killed
- August, 1916 - World War I - 1st Canadian Division discovers that the Canadian-made Ross rifle (controversial since 1905) is unreliable in combat conditions. It is withdrawn from service and replaced by the British-made Lee-Enfield.
- September 11, 1916 - Second Quebec Bridge collapse, as the centre span falls into the river as it is being hoisted into place Québec, Québec - 13 killed
- 1916 - Rodeo's first side-delivery bucking chute is designed and made by John W. Bascom and his sons Raymond, Mel and Earl at Welling, Alberta.
- 1916 - National Research Council is established to promote scientific and industrial research.
- 1916 - Female suffrage is first granted in Canada in Manitoba.
- February 23, 1917 - Robert Borden sits as a member of the Imperial War Cabinet, giving Canada a voice in international war policy.
- April 6, 1917 - World War I - **German U-Boat Sinks Cunard Liner Lusitania
- April 9, 1917 - World War I - **Canadians Capture Vimy Ridge
- May 18, 1917 - Robert Borden Announces Conscription.
- June 11, 1917 - Borden government introduces military service bill, leading to a conscription crisis dividing French and English Canada.
- November 6, 1917 - World War I - **Canadians Capture Passchendaele.
- December 6, 1917 - **Halifax Explosion Kills Almost 2,000 People
- December 17, 1917 - 13th general election - Robert Borden leads his pro-conscription Unionist Party of Canada coalition to second consecutive majority victory in the federal election.
- December 19, 1917 - **NHL Starts Inaugural Season.
- 1917 - Franchise Extended to Women and Relatives of Soldiers - Parliament passes the Wartime Elections Act and the Military Voters Act. The acts extended the right to vote to all British subjects, male or female, who were active or retired members of the armed forces, including Indian persons and persons under 21 years of age. Civilian men who were not landowners, but who had a son or grandson in the armed forces, were also temporarily granted the franchise, as were women with a father, mother, husband, son, daughter, brother or sister then serving, or who had previously served in the Canadian forces.
- 1917 - First Votes for Women - Women allowed to vote if they meet an exception for military personnel stationed abroad; Army nurses (Bluebirds) in Europe in World War I are the first women to vote legally in a Canadian federal election [women who owned property could vote before Confederation, but after 1867 they were legally barred from voting].
- 1917 - Income tax is introduced as a temporary wartime measure.
- 1917 - Alberta, Louise McKinney becomes the first woman elected to a legislature in the British Commonwealth.
- August 8, 1918 - World War I - **Canadians Break Through the German Trenches at Amiens, Beginning Canada's Hundred Days
- November 11, 1918 - World War I - Private George Price of Saskatchewan's 28th Battalion is shot and killed by a German sniper at 10:50 am, ten minutes before the Armistice is declared and the guns fall silent; Price is the last Commonwealth casualty of the Great War. Mons, Belgium
- 1918 - First Time All Women Allowed to Vote - Parliament extends the franchise at federal elections to all women 21 years of age and over. Women now had the same voting rights as men in federal elections.
- 1918 - Imprisoned in South Dakota for pacificism, Hutterites flee northward into the Prairie provinces after the war.
- 1918 - Steamer Princess Sophia runs aground on Vanderbilt Reef off Northern BC - 343 drowned
