1931 in Canada

Events from the year 1931 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

Monarch – George V

Federal government

Governor General – Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon (until April 4) then Vere Ponsonby, 9th Earl of Bessborough
Prime Minister – Richard Bedford Bennett
Chief Justice – Francis Alexander Anglin (Ontario)
Parliament – 17th

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – William Egbert (until May 5) then William Legh Walsh
Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Robert Randolph Bruce (until July 18) then John William Fordham Johnson
Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – James Duncan McGregor
Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Hugh Havelock McLean
Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Frank Stanfield (until September 25) then Walter Harold Covert (from October 5)
Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – William Donald Ross (until October 25) then William Mulock
Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Charles Dalton
Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Henry George Carroll
Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – Henry William Newlands (until March 31) then Hugh Edwin Munroe

Premiers

Premier of Alberta – John Edward Brownlee
Premier of British Columbia – Simon Fraser Tolmie
Premier of Manitoba – John Bracken
Premier of New Brunswick – John Baxter (until May 19) then Charles Dow Richards
Premier of Nova Scotia – Gordon Sidney Harrington
Premier of Ontario – George Stewart Henry
Premier of Prince Edward Island – Walter Lea (until August 29) then James D. Stewart
Premier of Quebec – Louis-Alexandre Taschereau
Premier of Saskatchewan – James Thomas Milton Anderson

Territorial governments

Commissioners

Gold Commissioner of Yukon – George Ian MacLean
Commissioner of Northwest Territories – William Wallace Cory (until March 31) then Hugh Rowatt

Events

May 19 – Charles Richards becomes premier of New Brunswick, replacing John Baxter
August 29 – James D. Stewart becomes premier of Prince Edward Island for the second time, replacing Walter Lea
November 12 – Maple Leaf Gardens opens in Toronto
September 29 – Striking coal miners clash with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the Estevan riot.
December 11 – the Statute of Westminster goes into effect: Canada is granted full legislative independence in national and international affairs, with the Crown represented by the Governor General.
The Beauharnois Scandal breaks out

Sport

March 27 - The Manitoba Junior Hockey League's Elmwood Millionaires win their only Memorial Cup by defeating Ottawa City Junior Hockey League's Ottawa Primroses 2 games to 1. The deciding Game 3 was played at Ottawa Auditorium
April 14 - The Montreal Canadiens win their fourth Stanley Cup by defeating the Chicago Black Hawks 3 game to 2. The deciding game was played at the Montreal Forum
November 12 - Maple Leaf Gardens opens
December 5 - The Montreal AAA Winged Wheelers win their first and only Grey Cup by defeating the Regina Roughriders 22 to 0 in the 19th Grey Cup played Percival Molson Memorial Stadium in Montreal

Births

January to March

thumb|right|150px|William Shatner

January 5 - Percy Schmeiser, businessman, farmer, and politician (d. 2020)
January 6 - Dickie Moore, ice hockey player, businessman and philanthropist (d. 2015)
January 7 - Elizabeth Kishkon, politician (d. 2018)
January 19 - Robert MacNeil, Canadian-American journalist (d. 2024)
January 27 - Mordecai Richler, author, screenwriter and essayist (d. 2001)
January 30 - John Crosbie, politician and Minister (d. 2020)
February 16 - Bernie Geoffrion, ice hockey player (d. 2006)
February 17 - Mark MacGuigan, academic and politician (d. 1998)
February 26 - C. William Doody, politician and Senator (d. 2005)
March 10 - Georges Dor, author, composer, playwright, singer, poet, translator and theatrical producer and director (d. 2001)
March 12 - Danny Lewicki, Canadian professional ice hockey player (d. 2018)
March 20 - Hubert Desbiens, politician (d. 2009).
March 22 - William Shatner, actor and novelist
March 22 - Monte Kwinter, politician
March 25 - Jack Chambers, artist and filmmaker (d. 1978)
March 28 - Jane Rule, novelist and non-fiction writer (d. 2007)
March 30 - Gérard Bruchési, politician

April to June

April 2 - Howard Engel, writer and television producer (d. 2019)
April 9 - Richard Hatfield, politician and 26th Premier of New Brunswick (d. 1991)
April 13 - Cliff Lumsdon, world champion marathon swimmer (d. 1991)
April 15 - Helen Maksagak, politician, first woman and first Inuk Northwest Territories Commissioner (d. 2009)
April 19 - Walter Stewart, writer, editor and journalism educator (d. 2004)
April 22 - John Buchanan, lawyer, politician and 27th Premier of Nova Scotia
April 29 - Chris Pearson, 1st Premier of the Yukon (d. 2014)
May 18 - Clément Vincent, politician (d. 2018)
May 21 - Jeannine Pelland, former President of the Order of nurses of Quebec
May 22 - Arthé Guimond, Roman Catholic prelate, Archbishop of Grouard-McLennan (2000–2006) (d. 2013).
May 24 - Bruce Owen, politician and lawyer (d. 2022)
May 25 - Herb Gray, politician, Canada's first Jewish federal cabinet minister
June 23 - Charles Keith Taylor, politician
June 25 - Stan Dromisky, politician
June 27 - Charles Bronfman, businessman and philanthropist
June 30 - Joyce Wieland, experimental filmmaker and mixed media artist (d. 1998)

July to September

July 2 - Robert Ito, actor
July 5 - Peter Silverman, broadcast journalist (d. 2021)
July 6 - Jean Campeau, Quebec businessman and politician
July 7 - Charles Alexander Best, politician (d. 1978)
July 10 - Alice Munro, short-story writer (d. 2024)
July 15 - Jacques-Yvan Morin, politician (d. 2023)
July 19 - Allan Slaight, rock and roll radio pioneer, media mogul, and philanthropist (d. 2021)
July 20 - Gilles Morin, politician
August 18 - Bramwell Tillsley, General of The Salvation Army
August 29 - Lise Payette, politician, feminist, writer and columnist
August 30 - Frank Zakem, politician and businessman (d. 2013)
August 31 - Jean Béliveau, ice hockey player
September 23 - Gerald Merrithew, politician (d. 2004)

October to December

thumb|right|150px|Charles Taylor

October 4 - Werner Israel, physicist (d. 2022)
October 8 - Isadore Sharp, businessman
November 5 - Charles Taylor, philosopher
November 8 – Morley Safer, journalist (60 Minutes) (d. 2016)
November 13 - Andrée Lachapelle, actress (d. 2019)
November 28 - George Ramsay Cook, historian (d. 2016)
November 30 - Harry Enns, politician
December 4 - Alex Delvecchio, ice hockey player (d. 2025)
December 10 - Jack Riddell, politician (d. 2024)
December 15 - John Allen Fraser, politician, Speaker of the House of Commons (d. 2024)

Deaths

thumb|right|150px|Henrietta Edwards

July 10 - Louise McKinney, first woman sworn into the Legislative Assembly of Alberta and first woman elected to a legislature in Canada and in the British Empire (b. 1868)
July 28 - Charles Doherty, politician and jurist (b. 1855)
November 10 - Henrietta Edwards, women's rights activist and reformer (b. 1849)
December 30 - George Eulas Foster, politician and academic (b. 1847)

Full date unknown

Fred Dixon, politician (b. 1881)