1950 in Canada

Years in Canada:	1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953
Centuries:	19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades:	1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s
Years:	1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953

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Events from the year 1950 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Head of state (monarch) – King George VI (consort – Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon)

Federal government

• Governor general – Earl Alexander of Tunis (viceregal consort – Margaret Alexander, Countess Alexander of Tunis)
• Prime minister – Louis Saint Laurent

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – John C. Bowen (until February 1) then John J. Bowlen
• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Charles Arthur Banks (until October 1) then 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
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Ray Lawson
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Joseph Alphonsus Bernard (until October 4) then Thomas William Lemuel Prowse
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Eugène Fiset (until October 3) then Gaspard Fauteux
• Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – John Michael Uhrich

Premiers

• Premier of Alberta – Ernest Manning
• Premier of British Columbia – Byron Johnson
• Premier of Manitoba – Douglas Campbell
• Premier of New Brunswick – John McNair
• 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 – John Edward Gibben (until August 15) then Andrew Harold Gibson
• Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Hugh Llewellyn Keenleyside (until November 14) then Hugh Andrew Young

Events

• January 14 - The first non-stop trans-Canada flight is made
• February 14 - Nancy Hodges of BC becomes the first woman in the Commonwealth elected speaker of a legislature in Canadian history.
• Early May - The Winnipeg Flood along the Red River causes immense damage and one death in Winnipeg
• May 29 - The St. Roch becomes the first vessel to circumnavigate North America
• August 7 - Canada joins a United Nations force to fight in Korean War
• August 22 – August 30 - Rail workers strike shuts down much of the Canadian economy
• 29 October – 7 November 1956 - The Suez Crisis
• October 31 - The oil pipeline linking Edmonton to Sarnia is completed
• November 28 - Canada joins onto the Colombo Plan
• December 18 - Korean War: First Canadian troops arrive in Korea.

Full date unknown

• Cité libre magazine is first published
• British Columbia Provincial Police are disestablished.

Arts and literature

Awards

• See 1950 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and nominees for those awards.
• Stephen Leacock Award: Earle Birney, Turvey

Births

January to March

John Manley

• January 5 - John Manley, lawyer, businessman, politician and Minister
• January 13 - Joe Fontana, politician
• January 17 - Jean Poirier, politician
• January 18 - Gilles Villeneuve, motor racing driver (d.1982)
• February 8 - Keith Milligan, politician
• February 9 - Tom Wappel, politician
• February 12 - Michael Ironside, actor, voice actor, producer, film director and screenwriter
• March 6 - Bruce Simpson, pole vaulter
• March 17 - Jackson Davies, actor
• March 23 - Jerry Storie, politician
• March 23 - Ralph Eichler, politician
• March 26 - Martin Short, comedian, actor, writer, singer and producer

April to June

• April 1 - Daniel Paillé, leader of the Bloc Québécois
• April 19 - Gérard Asselin, politician and MP for Charlevoix and Manicouagan (1993-2011) (d. 2013)
• May 2 - Jose Kusugak, Inuit politician (d. 2011)
• May 12 - Louise Portal, actress, singer, and director
• May 27 - Brent St. Denis, politician
• June 1 - Perrin Beatty, corporate executive and politician
• June 7 - John Wood, Olympic canoeist (d. 2013)
• June 21 - Anne Carson, poet, essayist, translator and professor of Classics and comparative literature

July to September

Jack Layton

• July 5 - Deepak Obhrai, politician
• July 6 - Hélène Scherrer, politician and Minister
• July 7 - Leon Benoit, politician
• July 18 - Jack Layton, politician, leader of New Democratic Party of Canada (2003-2011) and Leader of the Official Opposition (2011) (d.2011)
• August 2 - Sue Rodriguez, advocate for assisted suicide (d.1994)
• August 6 - Carole Pope, rock singer-songwriter
• August 15 - Ron Lemieux, ice hockey player and politician
• August 16 - Stockwell Day, politician
• August 31 - Anne McLellan, academic, politician, Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Canada
• September 8 - Richard Henry Bain, criminal who is charged with the September 4, 2012, Montreal, Quebec, shooting that killed Denis Blanchette.
• September 9 - Janis Babson (d.1961)
• September 16 - Sheila Fraser, Auditor General of Canada
• September 18 - Darryl Sittler, ice hockey player

October to December

Dennis Fentie

• October 17 – Val Ross, writer and journalist (d.2008)
• October 31 - John Candy, comedian and actor (d.1994)
• November 2 - Wendy Lill, playwright and politician
• November 2 - Daryl Reid, politician
• November 5 - Susan Nattrass, sport shooter
• November 8 - Dennis Fentie, politician and 7th Premier of the Yukon
• November 14 - Colleen Peterson, singer (d.1996)
• December 18 - Martha Johnson, pop singer and songwriter
• December 20 - Carolyn Bennett, politician
• December 21 - Lap-Chee Tsui, geneticist

Full date unknown

• David Barr, Commander of the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command
• Denis Simpson, singer and actor (d. 2010)

Deaths

January to June

• February 7 - Thomas Langton Church, politician and Mayor of Toronto (b.1870)
• April 7 - Walter Huston, actor (b.1884)

William Lyon Mackenzie King

• May 15 - Hervé-Edgar Brunelle, politician and lawyer (b.1891)
• June 28 - James Allison Glen, politician, Minister and Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons (b.1877)

July to December

• July 22 - William Lyon Mackenzie King, lawyer, economist, university professor, civil servant, journalist, politician and 10th Prime Minister of Canada (b.1874)
• July 25 - Gleason Belzile, politician (b.1898)
• August 1 - Humphrey Mitchell, politician and trade unionist (b.1894)
• August 2 - Pierre-François Casgrain, politician and Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons (b.1886)
• November 11 - John Knox Blair, politician, physician and teacher (b.1875)

Full date unknown

• William Sanford Evans, politician (b.1869)