1952 in Canada

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – George VI then Elizabeth II

  Federal government

• Governor general – Earl Alexander of Tunis then Vincent Massey
• Prime minister – Louis Saint Laurent
• Chief Justice – Thibaudeau Rinfret
• Parliament – 21st

  Provincial governments

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 then Alistair Fraser
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Ray Lawson 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 then W.A.C. Bennett
• Premier of Manitoba – Douglas Campbell
• Premier of New Brunswick – John McNair 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

  Territorial governments

Commissioners

• Commissioner of Yukon – Frederick Fraser 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 goes on air
• September 11 – Volkswagen of Canada is founded.
• September 16 – The Boyd Gang is captured
• October 2 – Korean War:, 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..

  Arts and literature

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 24 – Canada men's national ice hockey team Gold Medal at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway
• April 15 - Detroit Red Wings won their Fifth Stanley Cup by defeating the Montreal Canadiens 4 games to 0.
• May 2 - Ontario Hockey Association's Guelph Biltmore Mad Hatters won their only Memorial Cup by defeating Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League's Regina Pats 4 games to 0. The deciding Game 4 was played at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto
• November 29 - Toronto Argonauts won their Tenth Grey Cup by defeating the Edmonton Eskimos 21-11 in the 40th Grey Cup played at Toronto's Varsity Stadium

  Births

January to June

• January 1 – Rosario Marchese, Italian-Canadian educator and politician
• January 19 – Michel Plante, ice hockey left winger
• 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
• 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
• 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
• July 6 – Louis-Alexandre Taschereau, politician and 14th Premier of Quebec
• August 31 – Henri Bourassa, politician and publisher
• October 6 – Walter Stanley Monroe, businessman, politician and Prime Minister of Newfoundland
• October 18 – Joseph-Mathias Tellier, politician
• November 8 – Harold Innis, professor of political economy and author

  Full date unknown

• James Breakey, politician