1954 in Canada

Events from the year 1954 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Elizabeth II

Federal government

• Governor General – Vincent Massey
• Prime Minister – Louis St. Laurent
• Chief Justice – Thibaudeau Rinfret (Quebec) (until 22 June) then Patrick Kerwin (Ontario)
• Parliament – 22nd

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – John J. Bowlen
• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Clarence Wallace
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – John Stewart McDiarmid
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – David Laurence MacLaren
• Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland – Leonard Outerbridge
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Alistair Fraser
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Louis Orville Breithaupt
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Thomas William Lemuel Prowse
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Gaspard Fauteux
• Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – William John Patterson

Premiers

• Premier of Alberta – Ernest Manning
• Premier of British Columbia – W.A.C. Bennett
• Premier of Manitoba – Douglas Campbell
• Premier of New Brunswick – Hugh John Flemming
• Premier of Newfoundland – Joey Smallwood
• Premier of Nova Scotia – Angus Macdonald (until April 13) then Harold Connolly (April 13 to September 30) then Henry Hicks
• Premier of Ontario – Leslie Frost
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – Alex Matheson
• Premier of Quebec – Maurice Duplessis
• Premier of Saskatchewan – Tommy Douglas

Territorial governments

Commissioners

• Commissioner of Yukon – Wilfred George Brown
• Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Robert Gordon Robertson

Events

• January 1 – Metropolitan Toronto comes into being to coordinate services among the various municipalities around Toronto.
• January 8 – The first oil from Alberta arrives in Sarnia through the new pipeline
• March 30 – The Yonge St. subway, the first subway system in Canada, opens in Toronto
• April 13 – Angus Lewis Macdonald, Premier of Nova Scotia, dies in office
• April 14 – Harold Connolly becomes premier of Nova Scotia
• May 31 – Winnipeg's first television station, CBWT a CBC Television owned and operated station, begins broadcasting
• August 10 – The groundbreaking ceremony for the St. Lawrence Seaway begins
• September 9 - The 1954 Series of banknotes is introduced.
• September 9 – Marilyn Bell becomes the first person to swim Lake Ontario
• September 18 – Marie-Victorin Statue unveiled
• September 30 – Henry Hicks becomes premier of Nova Scotia, replacing Harold Connolly
• October 15 – Hurricane Hazel hits Toronto killing 81.

Full date unknown

• Canada contributes to a peacekeeping force in Indochina
• Sir Adam Beck Generating Station built on the Canadian side of the Niagara River
• Pinetree Line radar system completed
• Yahtzee is invented by a Canadian couple
• Jean Drapeau first elected mayor of Montreal
• Streetcars leave Winnipeg

Arts and literature

New books

• Mordecai Richler – The Acrobats
• Gabrielle Roy – Alexandre Chenevert
• Igor Gouzenko – The Fall of a Titan

Awards

• See 1954 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Stephen Leacock Award: Joan Walker, Pardon My Parka

Sport

• April 16 – The Detroit Red Wings win their sixth Stanley Cup by defeating the Montreal Canadiens 4 games to 3.
• May 16 – The Ontario Hockey Association's St. Catharines Teepees win their first Memorial Cup by defeating the Central Alberta Hockey League's Edmonton Oil Kings 4 games to 0 (with 1 tie). All games were played at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto
• July 30 – The Miracle Mile is run at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver. Empire Stadium is opened on the same day.
• August 28 – The BC Lions are established, the fifth team in the Western Interprovincial Football Union.
• November 27 – The Edmonton Eskimos win their first Grey Cup by defeating the Montreal Alouettes 26 to 25 in the 42nd Grey Cup played at Varsity Stadium in Toronto

Births

January to June

• January 11 – Jim Wych, snooker player and sports announcer
• January 29 – Doug Risebrough, ice hockey player and coach

• February 3 – Tiger Williams, ice hockey player
• February 24 – Sid Meier, Canadian-American programmer
• March 2 – Ed Johnstone, ice hockey player
• March 4 – Catherine O'Hara, actress (d. 2026)
• April 5 - Claude-André Lachance, politician and son of Georges-C. Lachance
• April 7 – Clark Gillies, ice hockey player (d. 2022)
• April 17 – Roddy Piper, wrestler and actor (d. 2015)
• April 20 – Gilles Lupien, ice hockey player and agent (d. 2021)
• May 4 – Sylvia Burka, ice speed skater and World Champion, cyclist
• May 10 – Eleni Bakopanos, politician
• May 13 – David Bissett, field hockey player
• May 14 – Danny Gare, ice hockey player
• May 16 – Dafydd Williams, physician and astronaut
• May 26 – Aritha Van Herk, writer, critic, editor and university professor
• May 28 – John Tory, businessman, politician and broadcaster
• June 3 – Wally Weir, Canadian ice hockey player
• June 28 – Jean-Serge Brisson, author and politician

July to December

• July 6 – Brian Pallister, politician
• July 9 – Kevin O'Leary, businessman, television personality, and political candidate
• July 18 – Audrey Vandervelden, volleyball player
• August 11 – Gulzar Singh Cheema, politician

• August 16 – James Cameron, film director, producer and screenwriter
• September 3 – Avis Gray, politician
• September 18 – Steven Pinker, cognitive psychologist
• September 26 – Don Irvine, sprint canoer
• October 21 – Brian Tobin, politician
• November 7 – Guy Gavriel Kay, fantasy fiction author
• November 12 – Dave Edge, long-distance runner
• November 24 – Stuart Murray, politician
• December 14 – Steven MacLean, astronaut
• December 20 – John Kinch, football player (d. 2022)
• December 28 – Lanny Poffo, wrestler (d. 2023)

Full date unknown

• Alan Kane, author
• Jim St. James, actor and HIV/AIDS activist

Deaths

• January 24 – H. H. Wrong, diplomat (b. 1894)
• February 13 – Agnes Macphail, politician, first woman to be elected to the House of Commons of Canada (b. 1890)
• March 15 – Charles MacOdrum, politician
• March 31 – John Walter Jones, politician and Premier of Prince Edward Island (b. 1878)
• April 4 – Abraham Albert Heaps, politician and labor leader (b. 1885)
• April 8 – Winnifred Eaton, author (b. 1875)
• April 13 – Angus Lewis Macdonald, lawyer, law professor, politician and 19th Premier of Nova Scotia (b. 1890)
• June 18 – Welland Gemmell, politician and minister
• June 21 – Rod Keller, general (b. 1900)
• August 6 – Emilie Dionne, one of the Dionne Quintuplets (b. 1934)
• November 26 – Wallace Rupert Turnbull, engineer and inventor (b. 1870)

Full date unknown

• James Endicott, church leader and missionary (b. 1865)

See also

• 1954 in Canadian television
• List of Canadian films

References