1959 in Canada

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Events from the year 1959 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

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

Federal government

• Governor general – Vincent Massey (until September 15) then Georges Vanier (viceregal consort – Alice Massey then Pauline Vanier)
• Prime minister – John Diefenbaker

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – John J. Bowlen (until December 16) then John Percy Page (from December 19)
• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Frank Mackenzie Ross
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – John Stewart McDiarmid
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Joseph Leonard O'Brien
• Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland – Campbell Leonard Macpherson
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Edward Chester Plow
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – John Keiller MacKay
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Frederick Walter Hyndman
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Onésime Gagnon
• Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – Frank Lindsay Bastedo

Premiers

• Premier of Alberta – Ernest Manning
• Premier of British Columbia – W.A.C. Bennett
• Premier of Manitoba – Dufferin Roblin
• 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 (until September 16) then Walter Shaw
• Premier of Quebec – Maurice Duplessis (until September 7) then Paul Sauvé (from September 11)
• Premier of Saskatchewan – Tommy Douglas

Territorial governments

Commissioners

• Commissioner of Yukon – Frederick Howard Collins
• Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Robert Gordon Robertson

Events

• February 20: Avro Arrow project is terminated
• April 1: The St. Lawrence Seaway opens
• June 11: Ontario general election, 1959: Leslie Frost's PCs win a fifth consecutive majority
• June 18: Alberta general election, 1959: Ernest Manning's Social Credit Party wins a seventh consecutive majority
• June 20: The Escuminac Disaster results in 35 fishermen drowned or missing and 22 fishing boats sunk.
• September 7: Maurice Duplessis, Premier of Quebec, dies in office
• September 11: Paul Sauvé becomes premier of Quebec
• September 15: Georges Vanier is sworn in as Governor General replacing Vincent Massey. He is the first French Canadian Governor General.
• September 16: Walter Shaw becomes premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Alex Matheson
• October 12: Isabella Memorial (Montreal) unveiled
• November 18: Canadian content rules are introduced for television.
• December 2: York University is founded

Full date unknown

• National Energy Board of Canada is created
• Steven Truscott falsely convicted of the murder of Lynne Harper. He would be exonerated in 2007.

Arts and literature

New books

• Mordecai Richler: The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
• Hugh MacLennan: The Watch That Ends the Night
• Farley Mowat: Grey Seas Under
• Max Aitken: Friends
• Gordon R. Dickson: Dorsai!

Awards

• See 1959 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

Sport

• November 1 – Jacques Plante becomes the first ice hockey goalie to wear a protective face mask.

Births

January to March

• January 1 – Sharon Bayes, field hockey player
• January 3 – Dwight Duncan, politician and Minister
• January 8 – Bill Sawchuk, swimmer
• January 11 – Rob Ramage, ice hockey player
• May 25 – Rick Wamsley, ice hockey player

April to June

• April 5 – Stephen Feraday, javelin thrower
• April 6 – Jim Rondeau, politician

Stephen Harper

• April 13 – Genevieve Brunet, road racing cyclist
• April 15 – Kevin Lowe, ice hockey player
• April 22 – Ryan Stiles, actor, comedian, director and voice actor
• April 30 – Paul Gross, actor, producer, director, singer and writer
• April 30 – Stephen Harper, politician and 22nd Prime Minister of Canada
• May 14 – Rick Vaive, ice hockey player
• May 26 – Brian Peaker, rower and Olympic silver medalist
• June 2 – Charlie Huddy, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach
• June 4 – Rex Barnes, politician

Chris Hadfield

• June 9 - Louis Hamelin, writer
• June 12 – Scott Thompson, comedian
• June 28 – Brad Fraser, playwright, screenwriter and cultural commentator

July to December

• August 29 – Chris Hadfield, astronaut, first Canadian to walk in space
• September 29 – Robert Thibault, politician
• October 14 – Dominic Agostino, politician (d.2004)
• October 20 – Janice McCaffrey, racewalker
• November 5 – Bryan Adams, rock singer-songwriter and photographer
• November 17 – Guy André, politician
• November 22 – Geoff Regan, politician
• December 2 – David Alward, 32nd Premier of New Brunswick

Full date unknown

• Michael Slobodian, murderer responsible for the Centennial Secondary School shooting (d.1975)

Deaths

Thomas Laird Kennedy

• January 26 – Barbara Hanley, first woman to be elected a mayor in Canada (b.1882)
• February 11 – Harry James Barber, politician (b.1875)
• February 13 – Thomas Laird Kennedy, politician and 15th Premier of Ontario (b.1878)
• March 3 – Philémon Cousineau, politician (b.1874)
• March 17 – Sidney Earle Smith, academic and 7th President of the University of Toronto (b.1897)

Maurice Duplessis campaigning in the 1952 election

• April 8 – George Croil, first Chief of the Air Staff of the Royal Canadian Air Force (b.1893)
• June 3 – Filip Konowal, soldier, Victoria Cross recipient in 1917 (b.1888)
• June 9 - Lynne Harper, murder victim (b.1946)
• September 7 – Maurice Duplessis, politician and 16th Premier of Quebec (b.1890)
• October 25 – Samuel Lawrence, politician and trade unionist (b.1879)

Full date unknown

• Edwin Hansford, politician (b.1895)

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