1957 in Canada

Crown

Head of state (monarch) – Queen Elizabeth II (consort – Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh)

Federal government

Governor general – Vincent Massey (viceregal consort – Alice Massey)

Prime minister – Louis Saint Laurent (until June 21) then John Diefenbaker

Lieutenant governors

Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – John J. Bowlen

Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Frank Mackenzie Ross

Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – John Stewart McDiarmid

Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – David Laurence MacLaren

Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland – Leonard Outerbridge (until December 16) then Campbell Leonard Macpherson

Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Alistair Fraser

Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Louis Orville Breithaupt (until December 30) then John Keiller MacKay

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 – Robert Stanfield

Premier of Ontario – Leslie Frost

Premier of Prince Edward Island – Alex Matheson

Premier of Quebec – Maurice Duplessis

Premier of Saskatchewan – Tommy Douglas

Commissioners

Commissioner of Yukon – Frederick Howard Collins

Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Robert Gordon Robertson

Events

January 1 – The first Canadian peacekeepers arrive in Egypt after the Suez Crisis

January 17 – HMCS Bonaventure, Canada's third and last aircraft carrier, is commissioned

March 6 – Quebec's Padlock Law is ruled unconstitutional

March 20 – The seven-month-long Murdochville Strike begins

March 28 – The Canada Council is established

April 15 - White Rock secedes from Surrey in British Columbia following a referendum.

June 10 – Federal election: John Diefenbaker's PCs win a minority, defeating Louis Saint Laurent's Liberals

June 21 – John Diefenbaker becomes prime minister, replacing Louis Saint Laurent

July 31 – The DEW Line begins operation

September 12 – Canada and the United States sign the NORAD agreement

October 4 – The first prototype Avro Arrow is presented to the media. The rollout is completely overshadowed by the flight of Sputnik I the same day.

October 12 – Foreign Minister Lester B. Pearson wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the Suez Crisis

October 13 – Elizabeth II opens the Canadian parliament, the first monarch to do so

Thanksgiving is moved to its current date, the second Monday in October

Equalization payments are established.

New works

F. R. Scott – The Eye of the Needle: Satire, Sorties, Sundries

Mordecai Richler – A Choice of Enemies

W.L. Morton – Manitoba: The Birth of a Province

Farley Mowat – The Dog Who Wouldn't Be

Northrop Frye – Anatomy of Criticism

Awards

See 1957 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

Stephen Leacock Award: Robert Thomas Allen The Grass Is Never Greener

Television

Front Page Challenge premiers on CBC

January to June

January 8 - Wendy Mesley, broadcast journalist

January 22 – Mike Bossy, ice hockey player

January 28 – Michael Baker, politician (d.2009)

February 17 – Loreena McKennitt, singer, composer, harpist and pianist

March 10 – Shannon Tweed, actress

March 24 - Olivia Chow, politician and widow of Jack Layton

April 29 – Leona Dombrowsky, politician

May 4 – Kathy Kreiner, alpine skier and Olympic gold medalist

May 14 – Gilles Bisson, politician

May 17 – Todd Hardy, leader of the Yukon New Democratic Party from 2002 to 2009 (d. 2010)

July to September

July 2 – Bret Hart, wrestler and actor

July 6 – Ron Duguay, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

July 9 – George Nagy, swimmer

July 15 – Craig Martin, soccer player and coach

July 22 - Michèle Dionne, wife of Jean Charest, 29th Prime Minister of Quebec

July 26 – Mark Paré, National Hockey League linesman

August 6 – Francesca Gagnon, singer

August 11 – Tony Valeri, politician

August 15 – David L. Anderson, politician

August 16 – Mark Evans, rower and Olympic gold medalist

August 16 – Michael Evans, rower and Olympic gold medalist

August 20 – Cindy Nicholas, athlete and politician

August 23 – Georges Farrah, politician

August 26 – Rick Hansen, paraplegic athlete and activist for people with spinal cord injuries

September 10 – Darrell Dexter, politician and 27th Premier of Nova Scotia

September 23 – Sylvie Garant, model

October to December

October 10 – Art Boileau, long-distance runner

October 26 – Glen Murray, politician

October 30 – Joseph Cordiano, politician and Minister

November 12 – Andrée A. Michaud, writer

November 16 – Ferg Hawke, ultra-distance runner

November 22 – Glen Clark, politician and 31st Premier of British Columbia

November 30 – Colin Mochrie, comedian and actor

December 4 – Rob Shick, ice hockey referee

December 5 – Paul Steele, rower and Olympic gold medalist

December 6 – Louis Jani, judoka

December 12 – Robert Lepage, playwright, actor and film director

Full date unknown

Daniel J. Caron, national librarian of Library and Archives Canada

Robert Poulin, murderer responsible for the St. Pius X High School shooting (d.1975)

Nancy Richler, novelist

Deaths

January 16 – Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone, 16th Governor General of Canada (b.1874)

August 21 – Nels Stewart, ice hockey player (b.1902)

August 26 – Joseph Tyrrell, geologist, cartographer and mining consultant (b.1858)

October 21 – Arthur Puttee, politician (b.1868)

October 31 – Martha Black, politician and the second woman elected to the Canadian House of Commons (b.1866)

December 10 – Roland Fairbairn McWilliams, politician and Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba (b.1874)

December 29 – Humphrey T. Walwyn, naval officer and Governor of Newfoundland (b.1879)