1952 in Canada

Crown

Head of state (monarch) – King George VI (until February 6) then Queen Elizabeth II (consort – Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon then The Duke of Edinburgh)

Federal government

Governor general – Earl Alexander of Tunis then Vincent Massey (viceregal consort – Margaret Alexander, Countess Alexander of Tunis then Alice Massey)

Prime minister – Louis Saint Laurent

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

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

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).

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 14-February 25: Winter Olympics in Oslo, Canada wins men's hockey gold.

February 24 – At the 1952 Winter Olympics the Canadian hockey team wins gold.

The Detroit Red Wings sweep the Montreal Canadiens to win the Stanley Cup.

January to June

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

July 1 – Sam George, native rights activist (d.2009)

July 1 – Deborah Grey, politician

July 3 – Rohinton Mistry, author

July 6 – George Athans, world-champion water skier

July 7 – David Milgaard, wrongfully convicted of murder

July 25 – Nancy Allan, politician

August 9 – Gary Kowalski, politician

September 8 – Sue Barnes, politician

September 10 – Vic Toews, politician

September 12 – Neil Peart, drummer and author

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

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

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)