Crown

• Monarch – Victoria^[1]

Federal government

• Governor General – John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne
• Prime Minister – John A. Macdonald
• Chief Justice – William Johnstone Ritchie (New Brunswick)
• Parliament – 4th (until 18 May)

Provincial governments

Territorial governments

Full date unknown

• Daniel Hanington becomes premier of New Brunswick, replacing James Fraser.
• John Ware, a Texas cowboy, moves to Alberta. He introduces longhorn cattle into Canada and pioneers the development of rodeo.
• Newfoundland election
• The North-West Mounted Police (which later became the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) established a post in 1882 in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (R.C.M.P.) have since established their main training academy there, which is called "Depot", or Depot Division.
• The North Bay Police Service is founded.

January to June

• January 8 – David Milne, painter, printmaker and writer (d.1953)
• February 1 – Louis St. Laurent, politician and 12th Prime Minister of Canada (d.1973)
• February 2 – Geoffrey O'Hara, composer, singer and music professor (d.1967)
• February 4 – E. J. Pratt, poet (d.1964)
• February 11 – John Queen, politician (d.1946)
• March 6 – Barbara Hanley, first woman to be elected a mayor in Canada (d.1959)
• April 18 – Isabel Meighen, wife of Canadian prime minister Arthur Meighen (d. 1985)
• May 26 – Charles Edward Bothwell, politician and barrister (d.1967)
• June 9 – Robert Kerr, sprinter and Olympic gold medallist (d.1963)

July to December

• July 16 – Edward Earle, Canadian-born American actor (d. 1972 in the United States)
• July 19 – Sarah Ramsland, politician and first woman elected to the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan (d.1964)
• October 3 – A. Y. Jackson, painter, one of the Group of Seven (d.1974)
• December 18 – Albert James Bradshaw, politician (d.1956)
• December 25 – John Stewart McDiarmid, politician and Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba (d.1965)