Events from the year 1952 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

  • Monarch – George VI (until February 6), then Elizabeth II

Federal government

  • Governor General – the Viscount Alexander of Tunis (until February 28), then Vincent Massey
  • Prime Minister – Louis St. Laurent
  • Chief Justice – Thibaudeau Rinfret (Quebec)
  • Parliament – 21st

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

  • Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – John J. Bowlen
  • Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Clarence Wallace
  • Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Roland Fairbairn McWilliams
  • Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – David Laurence MacLaren
  • Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland – Leonard Outerbridge
  • Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – John Alexander Douglas McCurdy (until September 1) then Alistair Fraser
  • Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Ray Lawson (until February 18) then 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 – Byron Johnson (until August 1) then W.A.C. Bennett
  • Premier of Manitoba – Douglas Campbell
  • Premier of New Brunswick – John McNair (until October 8) then Hugh John Flemming
  • Premier of Newfoundland – Joey Smallwood
  • Premier of Nova Scotia – Angus Macdonald
  • Premier of Ontario – Leslie Frost
  • Premier of Prince Edward Island – J. Walter Jones
  • Premier of Quebec – Maurice Duplessis
  • Premier of Saskatchewan – Tommy Douglas

Territorial governments

Commissioners

  • Commissioner of Yukon – Frederick Fraser (until November 5) then Wilfred George Brown
  • Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Hugh Andrew Young

Events

  • January 24 – Vincent Massey appointed first Canada-born Governor General of Canada
  • February 6 – Elizabeth II becomes Queen of Canada upon the death of her father George VI.
  • June 11 – Saskatchewan election: Tommy Douglas's Co-operative Commonwealth Federation wins a third consecutive majority
  • May 25 – Korean War: Canadian troops are dispatched to the troubled Geoje POW Camp
  • July 16 – Quebec election: Maurice Duplessis' Union Nationale wins a third consecutive majority
  • August 1 – W.A.C. Bennett becomes premier of British Columbia, replacing Byron Johnson
  • August 5 – Alberta election: Ernest Manning's Social Credit Party wins a fifth consecutive majority
  • September 6 – The first CBC Television station, CBFT, goes on the air in Montreal, Quebec
  • September 8 – CBLT (CBC Toronto) goes on air
  • September 11 – Volkswagen of Canada is founded.
  • September 16 – The Boyd Gang is captured
  • October 2 – Korean War: , while shelling an enemy train in Korea, is hit by return fire from shore batteries. Three sailors were killed and 10 wounded: the only Royal Canadian Navy casualties of the war.
  • October 8 – Hugh John Flemming becomes premier of New Brunswick, replacing John McNair
  • October 14 – Lester B. Pearson is elected President of the United Nations General Assembly.

Full date unknown

  • Fighting in the Korean War drags on as the factions attempt to negotiate an armistice.
  • The pension system is reformed with the introduction of the Old Age Security Act.
  • Roy Thomson acquires The Scotsman and emigrates to Britain
  • Painters Eleven founded.
  • Atomic Energy Canada founded.
  • Manitoba women were first permitted to serve on juries. (New Brunswick women become jurors in 1954, and PEI women in 1966).

Arts and literature

New books

  • Thomas B. Costain: The Silver Chalice

Awards

  • See 1952 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
  • Stephen Leacock Award: Jan Hilliard, The Salt Box

Sport

  • February 24 – Canada men's national ice hockey team (represented by the Edmonton Mercurys) win their 7th (consecutive and last until 2002) Gold Medal at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway
  • April 15 – The Detroit Red Wings win their fifth Stanley Cup by defeating the Montreal Canadiens 4 games to 0.
  • May 2 – The Ontario Hockey Association's Guelph Biltmores win their only Memorial Cup by defeating the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League's Regina Pats 4 games to 0. The deciding Game 4 was played at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto
  • November 29 – The Toronto Argonauts win their tenth (and last until 1983) Grey Cup by defeating the Edmonton Eskimos 21–11 in the 40th Grey Cup played at Toronto's Varsity Stadium

Births

thumb|right|150px|Kathy Dunderdale on May 31, 2011

January to June

  • January 1 – Rosario Marchese, Italian-Canadian educator and politician
  • January 19 – Michel Plante, ice hockey left winger
  • February – Kathy Dunderdale, politician and 10th Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador
  • February 3 – Wayne Erdman, judoka
  • February 18 – Bernard Valcourt, politician and lawyer
  • February 27 – Maureen McTeer, author and lawyer
  • March 4 – Svend Robinson, politician, Canada's first openly homosexual elected official and prominent activist for gay rights
  • May 13 – Mary Walsh, actress and comedian
  • May 17 – Howard Hampton, politician
  • June 1 – Ferron, folk singer-songwriter and poet
  • June 6 – Jean Hamel, ice hockey player
  • June 22 – Graham Greene, actor (d. 2025)
  • June 29 – David Dingwall, politician, Minister and civil servant

July to September

thumb|[[Dan Aykroyd|231x231px]]

  • July 1
  • Dan Aykroyd, comedian, actor, screenwriter and musician
  • Sam George, native rights activist (d. 2009)
  • Deborah Grey, politician
  • July 3 – Rohinton Mistry, author
  • July 6 – George Athans, world-champion water skier
  • July 7 – David Milgaard, wrongfully convicted of murder (d. 2022)
  • July 13 – Rosemary Dunsmore, actress
  • July 25 – Nancy Allan, politician
  • July 31 – Kent Angus, businessman (d. 2021)
  • August 9 – Gary Kowalski, politician
  • September 8 – Sue Barnes, politician
  • September 10 – Vic Toews, politician
  • September 12 – Neil Peart, drummer and author (d. 2020)

October to December

thumb|right|150px|Lorne Calvert

  • October 2 – Marie Deschamps, jurist and puisne justice on the Supreme Court of Canada
  • October 4 – Angela Coughlan, swimmer and Olympic bronze medalist (d. 2009)
  • October 22 – Peggy Baker, dancer
  • November 10 – Jim Maloway, politician
  • November 16 – Candas Jane Dorsey, poet and science fiction novelist
  • November 27 – Sheila Copps, journalist and politician
  • December 12 – Herb Dhaliwal, politician and Minister
  • December 24 – Lorne Calvert, politician and 13th Premier of Saskatchewan
  • December 27 – Jay Hill, politician

Full date unknown

  • Di Brandt, poet and literary critic
  • David Macfarlane, journalist, playwright and novelist
  • Bob McLeod, politician and 12th Premier of the Northwest Territories

Deaths

  • February 6 – George VI, King of Canada (b. 1895)
  • June 21 – Wilfrid R. "Wop" May, World War I flying ace and pioneering bush pilot (b. 1896)
  • July 6 – Louis-Alexandre Taschereau, politician and 14th Premier of Quebec (b. 1867)
  • August 31 – Henri Bourassa, politician and publisher (b. 1868)
  • October 6 – Walter Stanley Monroe, businessman, politician and Prime Minister of Newfoundland (b. 1871)
  • October 18 – Joseph-Mathias Tellier, politician (b. 1861)
  • November 8 – Harold Innis, professor of political economy and author (b. 1894)

Full date unknown

  • James Breakey, politician (b. 1865)

See also

  • 1952 in Canadian television
  • List of Canadian films

References