1950 in Canada explained
Events from the year 1950 in Canada.
Incumbents
Crown
Federal government
Provincial governments
Lieutenant governors
Premiers
Territorial governments
Commissioners
Events
- January 14 - The first non-stop trans-Canada flight is made
- February 14 - Nancy Hodges of British Columbia 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
- 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
Arts and literature
Awards
Earle Birney, Turvey
Sport
Births
January to March
- 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 19 - Gérard Asselin, politician and MP for Charlevoix and Manicouagan (1993-2011) (d. 2013)
- May 2 - Jose Kusugak, Inuit politician (d. 2011)
- May 10 – Dale Wilson, voice actor
- 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 12 - David Onley, broadcaster and Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (d. 2023)
- June 19 - Rosie Shuster, comedy writer and actress
- June 21 - Anne Carson, poet, essayist, translator and professor of Classics and comparative literature
- June 25 – Barbara Gowdy, novelist
- June 27 - Rick Cluff, radio journalist (d. 2024)
July to September
- July 2 - Lee Maracle, writer and academic (d. 2021)
- July 5 - Deepak Obhrai, politician (d. 2019)
- 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)
- July 20 - Lucille Lemay, archer[3]
- 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
- 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
Deaths
January to June
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 House of Commons of Canada (b. 1886)
- October 19 - Charles Ballantyne, politician, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate (b. 1867)
- November 11 - John Knox Blair, politician, physician and teacher (b. 1873)
Full date unknown
See also
Historical documents
North Korea invades South and Opposition Leader says Canada is involved through UN role and because of immediacy of modern world[4]
Moral, not strategic, stakes require defeat of North Korea, so that "naked aggression" will not destroy state created by UN[5]
Film: newsreel of Canadian airmen leaving for Korea as U.S. troops fight on defensive near Pusan invasion beachhead[6]
Canada and U.S.A. agree to further defence industry mobilization at level of cooperation seen in Second World War[7]
"It is the function of diplomacy to seek accommodation" - Canada and allies send in diplomats as well as military to end Korean War[8]
Canadian troops arrive by ship at Pusan, Korea and U.S. Army band plays "If I Knew You Were Coming I'd Have Baked a Cake"[9]
"Uneasy equilibrium" - In countering Chinese attack in Korean War, Canada and allies must not provoke U.S.S.R. to start world war[10]
"Growing atmosphere of fear, suspicion, frustration, and isolation" - Authorities in Eastern Bloc countries harass diplomats[11]
"Our first duty to civilization is[...]sufficient military strength" - Prime Minister St. Laurent on liberalism against totalitarianism[12]
For federal-provincial accord on bill of rights, Senate committee says "control within Canada of the Canadian Constitution" is required[13]
Though "coloured troops introduced venereal disease[...]during the war," Canada can hardly refuse Black GIs since U.S. military integration[14]
Pakistani PM says idea that "commonwealth ties are mainly religious, historical or racial must be regarded as having outlived its use"[15]
"There is discrimination against Indians in the matter of immigration[...]and admission of relatives of Indians already settled"[16]
With Canada's "serious shortage of female domestics and nurses' aids," loans should go to Europeans in "this class of immigrant"[17]
"We can ASK...CRUSADE...DEMAND...and WIN" - Alton C. Parker and other Windsor, Ont. Blacks organize to oppose segregation[18]
Photo: Emily General from Six Nations of the Grand River shows Haldimand Treaty to members of UN Commission on Human Rights[19]
"Vast volume of water into every stream" - Signs of major flood event noted before Red River flood surge enters Manitoba[20]
Film: newsreel of Winnipeg flood extent and evacuations[21]
"Small measure of our gratitude for all the help we have had" - Britons donate unique household items to flood victims[22]
"Too willing to accept people at their face value" - RCMP security report on Canadian diplomat Herbert Norman[23]
Film: 30-minute short on cancer research and treatment includes laboratory, hospital and classroom shots, plus animation[24]
Film: newsreel of parachute personnel jumping from Dakota aircraft on practice rescue mission out of RCAF Station Trenton[25]
Notes and References
- Web site: King George VI The Canadian Encyclopedia . www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca . 4 December 2022.
- Book: Lentz . Harris M. . Heads of States and Governments Since 1945 . 4 February 2014 . Routledge . 978-1-134-26490-2 . 142 . en.
- Web site: Lucille LEMAY - Olympic Archery Canada . International Olympic Committee . 3 July 2019 . en . 15 June 2016.
- George Drew, "Supply; Department of National Defence" (June 26, 1950), House of Commons Debates, 21st Parliament, 2nd Session: Vol. 4, pg. 4119. Accessed 29 September 2020
- https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/206/301/faitc-aecic/history/2013-05-03/www.international.gc.ca/department/history-histoire/dcer/details-en.asp@intRefid=7676 "Secretary of State for External Affairs to All Missions Abroad"
- British Pathé, "Korea; Beach-Head Defences Strengthened" (1950). Accessed 27 July 2020
- United States Department of State, Letter to Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair (September 22, 1950), Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950; The United Nations; The Western Hemisphere; Canada, pgs. 585-6. Accessed 22 August 2022
- "17. Excerpts from a broadcast by the Secretary of State for External Affairs over the Trans-Canada Network, December 5, 1950," Documents on the Korean Crisis (1951), pgs. 16-17. Accessed 28 September 2020 http://www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/archives/canada_war/tribune/website/clippings/korea/Documents_on_the_Korean_Crisis18.shtml and http://www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/archives/canada_war/tribune/website/clippings/korea/Documents_on_the_Korean_Crisis19.shtml
- War diary, 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (December 18, 1950), PDF pg. 4. Accessed 28 September 2020 https://archives.ppcli.com/2vp-war-diary-dec-1950 (click on diary image to get scrollable PDF)song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18fL82AppJg
- United States Department of State, "Korea: Action in the United Nations" (External Affairs memorandum, December 27, 1950), The Period from November 28 to December 31, 1950[...], Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950; Korea, pgs. 1618-19. Accessed 28 September 2020
- https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/206/301/faitc-aecic/history/2013-05-03/www.international.gc.ca/department/history-histoire/dcer/details-en.asp@intRefid=7028 External Affairs memorandum
- Louis St. Laurent, "The Preservation of Civilization" (October 27, 1950). Accessed 28 September 2020 https://www.nlc-bnc.ca/primeministers/h4-4017-e.html or http://www.canadahistory.com/sections/documents/leaders/Louis_St_Laurent/Canada_and_The_Cold_War.html
- https://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.com_SOC_2102_2_1/409?r=0&s=1 "Report"
- https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/206/301/faitc-aecic/history/2013-05-03/www.international.gc.ca/department/history-histoire/dcer/details-en.asp@intRefid=7868 "Memorandum from Defence Liaison Division to Under Secretary of State for External Affairs"
- https://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.debates_HOC2102_03/972?r=0&s=2 "Appendix; Address of Honourable Liaquat Ali Khan"
- https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/206/301/faitc-aecic/history/2013-05-03/www.international.gc.ca/department/history-histoire/dcer/details-en.asp@intRefid=7726 "Memorandum of High Commission of India, November 7, 1950: Immigration of Indians into Canada"
- https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/206/301/faitc-aecic/history/2013-05-03/www.international.gc.ca/department/history-histoire/dcer/details-en.asp@intRefid=7985 "Cabinet Document: Loans to Immigrants"
- http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/explore/online/alvin_mccurdy/big/big_32_flyer.aspx Central Citizens' Association for the Advancement of Coloured People flyer
- United Nations, "Indian Tribesmen Visit United Nations" Photo #140569 (May 8, 1950). Accessed 28 September 2020
- http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/7174/10.html "Background to Disaster"
- British Pathé, "Winnipeg's Flood Peril Grows" (1950). Accessed 27 July 2020
- Women's Voluntary Services, "Token Gifts for Canada" The W.V.S. Bulletin, No. 127 (July 1950), pg. 7. Accessed 7 August 2020
- "RCMP Report on Norman" (November 27, 1950), "Death of a Diplomat: Herbert Norman & the Cold War" Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History. Accessed 28 September 2020
- National Film Board of Canada, "Challenge: Science Against Cancer" (1950). Accessed 11 April 2021
- British Pathé, "Air Rescue Practice Put To The Test" (1950). Accessed 27 July 2020