# 1952 in Canada

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: HMCS Iroquois, 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 Biltmore Mad Hatters 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
### 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 2 – Ferron, folk singer-songwriter and poet
* June 6 – Jean Hamel, ice hockey player
* June 22 – Graham Greene, actor
* June 29 – David Dingwall, politician, Minister and civil servant

### July to September

* 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

* 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)