# 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
* 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
* 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)