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Events from the year 1962 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

  • Monarch – Elizabeth II

Federal government

  • Governor General – Georges Vanier
  • Prime Minister – John Diefenbaker
  • Chief Justice – Patrick Kerwin (Ontario)
  • Parliament – 24th (until 19 April) then 25th (from 27 September)

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

  • Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – John Percy Page
  • Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – George Pearkes
  • Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Errick Willis
  • Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Joseph Leonard O'Brien
  • Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland – Campbell Leonard Macpherson
  • Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Edward Chester Plow
  • Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – John Keiller MacKay
  • Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Frederick Walter Hyndman
  • Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Paul Comtois
  • Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – Frank Lindsay Bastedo

Premiers

  • Premier of Alberta – Ernest Manning
  • Premier of British Columbia – W.A.C. Bennett
  • Premier of Manitoba – Dufferin Roblin
  • Premier of New Brunswick – Louis Robichaud
  • Premier of Newfoundland – Joey Smallwood
  • Premier of Nova Scotia – Robert Stanfield
  • Premier of Ontario – John Robarts
  • Premier of Prince Edward Island – Walter Shaw
  • Premier of Quebec – Jean Lesage
  • Premier of Saskatchewan – Woodrow Lloyd

Territorial governments

Commissioners

  • Commissioner of Yukon – Frederick Howard Collins (until May 1) then Gordon Robertson Cameron
  • Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Robert Gordon Robertson

Events

  • March 21 – The birth-defect-causing drug thalidomide is banned
  • May 2 – The Canadian dollar is pegged to the U.S. currency
  • June 18 – In the 1962 Federal election John Diefenbaker's Progressive Conservative Party of Canada is reduced to a minority government
  • July 1 – First medicare plan is launched in Saskatchewan to great protest by doctors
  • July 30 – Trans-Canada Highway opens
  • August 6 – A Premiers Conference is held in Victoria, British Columbia
  • September 1 – Place Ville Marie opens in Montreal
  • September 29 – Alouette 1, Canada's first satellite, is launched.
  • October 25 – The Bedford Institute of Oceanography opens in Nova Scotia
  • October 25-November 12 – The Cuban Missile Crisis occurs. Diefenbaker refuses to put Canadian forces on alert, angering the U.S. government.
  • December 11 – Ronald Turpin and Arthur Lucas was hanged.
  • The Globe and Mail adds the Report on Business section

Arts and literature

New books

  • Max Aitken – The Decline and Fall of Lloyd George
  • W. O. Mitchell – The Kite
  • Marshall McLuhan – The Gutenberg Galaxy
  • George Woodcock – Anarchism
  • Farley Mowat – The Black Joke
  • Thomas B. Costain – The Last Plantagenets

Awards

  • See 1962 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
  • Stephen Leacock Award: W. O. Mitchell, Jake and the Kid

Television

  • Mister Rogers' Neighborhood premieres on CBC

Theatre

  • The first Shaw Festival opens

Sport

  • April 22 – The Toronto Maple Leafs win their tenth Stanley Cup by defeating the Chicago Black Hawks.
  • May 7 – The Ontario Hockey Association's Hamilton Red Wings win their only Memorial Cup by defeating the Central Alberta Hockey League's Edmonton Oil Kings 4 games to 1. The deciding Game 5 was played at Barton Street Arena in Hamilton, Ontario
  • December 1–2 – The Winnipeg Blue Bombers win the Grey Cup in the famous fog bowl.

Births

Unknown date

  • Perry Bellegarde, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations (2014–present)

January to June

  • January 17 – Jim Carrey, comedian and actor
  • January 22 – Kevin Lamoureux, politician
  • February 4 – Michael Riley, actor
  • February 23 – John Hatch, basketball player
  • February 27 – Susie Moloney, novelist
  • March 20 – Ross Young, politician (d. 2021)
  • March 21 – Kathy Greenwood, actress and comedian
  • March 27 – Jann Arden, singer-songwriter
  • March 29 – John Martin Crawford, serial killer (d. 2020)
  • April 1 – John Wallace, rower and Olympic gold medallist
  • April 11 – Colin Carrie, politician
  • May 5 – Manoj Sood, actor
  • May 31 – Corey Hart, musician
  • June 12
  • Jordan Peterson, author, clinical psychologist and professor of psychology
  • Camilla Scott, Canadian actress
  • June 23
  • Chris Collins, politician
  • Pat Kelly, ice speed skater

July to December

  • July 7 – Ross Rutledge, field hockey player (d. 2004)
  • July 10 – Mark Laforest, ice hockey player (d. 2025)
  • July 14 – Diane Ratnik, volleyball player
  • July 21 – Lee Aaron, rock and jazz singer
  • August 8 – Mike Zanier, ice hockey player
  • August 23 – Martin Cauchon, politician and Minister
  • August 27 – Adam Oates, ice hockey and lacrosse player
  • August 29 – Ian James Corlett, voice actor and producer
  • August 31 – Wanda Guenette, volleyball player
  • September 11 – Andrew Jackson, voice actor
  • September 14 – Robert Herjavec, Croatian-born Canadian businessman, investor and author
  • September 15 – Brad Willock, volleyball player
  • September 18 – John Mann, rock musician and actor (d. 2019)
  • September 22 – Normand D'Amour, actor
  • September 24 – Nia Vardalos, actress, screenwriter and producer
  • September 28 – Grant Fuhr, ice hockey player
  • October 14 - Charles E. Bastien, animation director
  • October 16 – Dan McTeague, politician
  • October 30 – Rex Harrington, ballet dancer
  • November 8 – Cliff Cullen, politician
  • November 9 – Teryl Rothery, actress
  • November 12 – Mark Hunter, ice hockey player, coach, and manager
  • December 4 – Julie Lemieux, Canadian voice actress
  • December 28 – Michelle Cameron, synchronized swimmer

Deaths

  • January 12 – James Garfield Gardiner, politician, Minister and Premier of Saskatchewan (b. 1883)
  • January 24 – James Charles Brady, politician (b. 1876)
  • March 3 – Cairine Wilson, Canada's first female Senator (b. 1885)
  • August 20 – Joseph-Arsène Bonnier, politician (b. 1879)
  • August 26 – Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Arctic explorer and ethnologist (b. 1879)
  • October 23 – John Thomas Haig, politician (b. 1877)
  • November 13 – Télesphore-Damien Bouchard, politician (b. 1881)
  • November 21 – Frank Amyot, sprint canoer and Olympic gold medalist (b. 1904)
  • December 8 – Allison Dysart, politician, lawyer, judge and 21st Premier of New Brunswick (b. 1880)
  • December 22 – Solon Earl Low, politician (b. 1900)

See also

  • 1962 in Canadian television
  • List of Canadian films

References