1954 in Canada

Events from the year 1954 in Canada.

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

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

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

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. This event is often seen as the beginning of the Canadian Football League despite the league being established three years later
 * 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

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, 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
 * 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)