1928 in Canada

Events from the year 1928 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – George V<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Federal government

• Governor General – Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon
• Prime Minister – William Lyon Mackenzie King
• Chief Justice – Francis Alexander Anglin (Ontario)
• Parliament – 16th

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – William Egbert
• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Robert Randolph Bruce
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Theodore Arthur Burrows
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – William Frederick Todd (until December 28) then Hugh Havelock McLean
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – James Cranswick Tory
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – William Donald Ross
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Frank Richard Heartz
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Narcisse Pérodeau (until December 31) then Lomer Gouin
• Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – Henry William Newlands

Premiers

• Premier of Alberta – John Edward Brownlee
• Premier of British Columbia – John Duncan MacLean (until August 21) then Simon Fraser Tolmie
• Premier of Manitoba – John Bracken
• Premier of New Brunswick – John Baxter
• Premier of Nova Scotia – Edgar Nelson Rhodes
• Premier of Ontario – George Howard Ferguson
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – Albert Charles Saunders
• Premier of Quebec – Louis-Alexandre Taschereau
• Premier of Saskatchewan – James Garfield Gardiner

Territorial governments

Commissioners

• Gold Commissioner of Yukon – George A. Jeckell (until April 1) then George Ian MacLean
• Commissioner of Northwest Territories – William Wallace Cory

Events

• April 2 – Camillien Houde elected mayor of Montreal
• April 24 – The Supreme Court of Canada rules that women are not persons who can hold office according to the British North America Act, 1867—reversed a year later by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Britain
• May 7 – The St. Roch is launched. It would become the first ship to sail the Northwest Passage from west to east and to circumnavigate North America.
• May 31 – The Legislative Council of Nova Scotia is abolished
• July 4 – Jean Lussier goes over Niagara Falls in a rubber ball.
• August 20 – John Duncan MacLean resigns as premier of British Columbia
• August 21 – Simon Fraser Tolmie becomes premier of British Columbia, replacing John Duncan MacLean
• August 25 – Canada's first major air disaster occurred when bad weather caused a BC Airways Ford Trimotor plane to crash in Puget Sound, Washington<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Science and technology

• Frank Morse Robb of Ontario obtains a patent for the first Electronic Organ, the Robb Wave Organ.

Sports

• The Winter Olympics take place in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The University of Toronto Grads won a gold medal in ice hockey.
• The Summer Olympics take place in Amsterdam. Percy Williams and Ethel Catherwood won gold medals for Canada.
• March 26 – The South Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League's Regina Pats win their second Memorial Cup by defeating the Ottawa City Junior Hockey League's Ottawa Gunners 2 game to 1. The deciding Game 3 was played Arenas Garden in Toronto
• December 1 – The Hamilton Tigers win their third Grey cup by shutting out the Regina Roughriders 30 to 0 in the 16th Grey Cup played at A.A.A Grounds in Hamilton

Births

January to March

• January 2
  • Avie Bennett, businessman and philanthropist (d. 2017)
  • Allen Sapp, painter (d. 2015)
• January 7 – Benny Woit, ice hockey player (d. 2016)
• January 20 – Peter Donat, actor (d. 2018)
• January 25 – Jérôme Choquette, lawyer and politician (d. 2017)
• February 8 – Gene Lees, biographer and lyricist (d. 2010)
• February 13 – Gerald Regan, politician, Minister and Premier of Nova Scotia (d. 2019)
• February 16 – Les Costello, ice hockey player and Catholic priest (d. 2002)
• February 26 – Donald Davis, actor (d. 1998)
• March 3 – Diane Foster, athlete (d. 1999)
• March 9 – Gerald Bull, engineer and artillery designer (d. 1990)
• March 10 – Robert Coates, politician and minister (d. 2016)
• March 12 – Thérèse Lavoie-Roux, politician and senator (d. 2009)
• March 13 – Douglas Rain, actor and narrator (d. 2018)
• March 17
  • André Chagnon, businessman and philanthropist (d. 2022)
  • William John McKeag, politician and Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba (d. 2007)
• March 20 – James K. Irving, businessman (d. 2024)
• March 31 – Gordie Howe, ice hockey player (d. 2016)

April to June

• April 10
  • Kenneth Earl Hurlburt, politician (d. 2016)
  • Fraser MacPherson, jazz musician (d. 1993)
• April 17 – Fabien Roy, politician
• April 28 – Zbigniew Basinski, physicist
• April 30 – Hugh Hood, novelist, short story writer, essayist and university professor (d. 2000)
• May 4 – Maynard Ferguson, jazz trumpet player and bandleader (d. 2006)
• May 7 – Bruno Gerussi, actor and television presenter (d. 1995)
• May 9 – Barbara Ann Scott, figure skater and Olympic gold medalist (d. 2012)
• May 23
  • Pauline Julien, singer, songwriter, actress and feminist activist (d. 1998)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Sidney Spivak, politician and Minister (d. 2002)
• June 1 – Larry Zeidel, Canadian-American ice hockey player and sportscaster (d. 2014)
• June 2 – George Wearring, basketball player (d. 2013)
• June 13 – Renée Morisset, pianist (d. 2009)
• June 25 – Michel Brault, cinematographer, cameraman, film director, screenwriter and producer (d. 2013)
• June 26 – Samuel Belzberg, businessman, philanthropist (d. 2018)

July to December

• July 3 – Raymond Setlakwe, entrepreneur, lawyer and politician (d. 2021)
• July 7 – Tom Chambers, politician (d. 2018)
• July 12 – Paul Ronty, ice hockey centre (d. 2020)
• July 17 – Robert Nixon, politician
• July 21 – Anne Harris, sculptor
• July 22 – Hugh Edighoffer, politician (d. 2019)
• July 23 – Irving Grundman, ice hockey executive and politician (d. 2021)
• July 26 – Peter Lougheed, lawyer and politician (d. 2012)
• July 28 – Ann Sloat, politician (d. 2017)
• July 31 – Gilles Carle, film director and screenwriter (d. 2009)
• August 7 – James Randi, stage magician and scientific skeptic (d. 2020 in the United States)
• September 10
  • Roch Bolduc, civil servant, politician
  • Jean Vanier, founder of L'Arche (d. 2019)
• September 20 – Jacqueline Desmarais, billionaire philanthropist (d. 2018)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• October 1 – Jim Pattison, businessman
• October 7 – Raymond Lévesque, singer-songwriter (d. 2021)
• October 9 – Clare Drake, ice hockey coach (d. 2018)
• October 27 – Gilles Vigneault, poet, publisher and singer-songwriter
• November 3 – Gary Lautens, humorist and newspaper columnist (d. 1992)
• November 16 – David Adams, ballet dancer (d. 2007)
• November 20 – Toni Onley, painter (d. 2004)
• November 28 – Floyd Crawford, ice hockey player (d. 2017)
• December 10 – Michael Snow, artist (d. 2023)
• December 12 – Lionel Blair, dancer and entertainer (d. 2021 in the United Kingdom)
• December 16 – Roy Bailey, politician (d. 2018)
• December 21 – Clayton Kenny, boxer (d. 2015)
• December 24 – Adam Exner, Roman Catholic archbishop (d. 2023)<ref>Archbishop Adam Exner, OMI, dies at age 94</ref>
• December 28 – Moe Koffman, flautist and saxophonist (d. 2001)
• December 29
  • Robert Hylton Brisco, politician (d. 2004)
  • Norman Cafik, politician (d. 2016)

Full date unknown

• Peter Bronfman, businessman (d. 1996)

Deaths

• April 6 – Godfroy Langlois, politician, journalist and lawyer (b. 1866)
• April 28 – George Gerald King, politician (b. 1836)

See also

• List of Canadian films

Historical documents

Supreme Court's negative decision on whether women can be appointed to Senate<ref>"No. 9; In the Supreme Court of Canada" (April 24, 1928), In the Privy Council; No. 121 of 1928; On Appeal from the Supreme Court of Canada[....], pgs. 38-9. Accessed 14 May 2020</ref>

Emily Murphy leads Famous Five in response to Supreme Court decision against women entering Senate<ref>Nellie L. McClung, The Stream Runs Fast; My Own Story (1945), pgs. 187-8. Accessed 14 May 2020</ref>

Influenza epidemic among Northwest Territories Indigenous people "spread[s] like wildfire" from Mackenzie delta to northern Alberta<ref>Associated Press, "Epidemic Flu Killing Indians" Spokane (Washington) Chronicle (July 26, 1928). Accessed 14 May 2020</ref>

MP Agnes Macphail calls for federal department of peace because people lack "confidence in war or in preparedness for war"<ref>Agnes Campbell Macphail, "Proposal for International Peace Department" (excerpt from Hansard). Accessed 13 May 2020</ref>

Guide to social hygiene combines public health and eugenics<ref>Canadian Social Hygiene Council, Tell Your Children the Truth; A Social Hygiene Booklet for Parents (1928). Accessed 10 April 2020</ref>

Manitoba MLA explains trials of unemployment for single men and new immigrants, especially after crop failure in her province<ref>Testimony of Edith Rogers (April 19, 1928), [House] Select Standing Committee on Industrial and International Relations [on] the question of Insurance against Unemployment, Sickness and Invalidity, pgs. 41-4. Accessed 21 October 2020</ref>

Statements and petition from Quebec call on government to give settling "sons of our large families" priority over immigrants<ref>"Productions" [House] Select Standing Committee on Agriculture and Colonization; Minutes of Proceedings and Evidence, pgs. 813-18. Accessed 21 October 2020</ref>

M.J. Coldwell would prioritize settling "those who through[...]damage to crops and mortgage companies had gone to the wall"<ref>"Traffic in Immigration Permits by Members of Federal House Alleged" The (Regina) Leader (November 24, 1927), read into record during testimony of M.J. Coldwell (May 15, 1928), [House] Select Standing Committee on Agriculture and Colonization, pg. 678. Accessed 21 October 2020</ref>

Anglican bishop of Saskatchewan calls immigration "the foreignization of Canada [with the] aggression of the Church of Rome"<ref>G.E. Lloyd, "The Building of the Nation; Natural Increase and Immigration" (unpaginated; July 26, 1928). Accessed 14 May 2020</ref>

Backing "Protestantism, Racial Purity, Gentile Economic Freedom" etc., KKK constitution adopted by Imperial Kloncilium in Regina<ref>"Constitution of the Invisible Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan" (March 1928). Accessed 14 May 2020</ref>

Film clip: Brief segment of film on Coast Salish people shows Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) master weaver Skwetsiya (Mrs. Harriet Johnnie) making hat<ref>Harlan Smith, "Film clip on Coast Salish weaving" (1928), Canadian Museum of History. Accessed 17 April 2022</ref>

"Transportation lines[...]have placed thousands [of] unspoiled and little frequented [...]fishing grounds within easy reach of [cities]"<ref>B.A. Bensley, "Preface," The Game Fishes of Canada (1928), pg. 8 University of British Columbia Library. Accessed 17 November 2024</ref>

Photographer Ansel Adams and other Sierra Club members' first experience of Canadian Rockies<ref>Ruth Teiser (interviewer), "The Sierra and Other Ranges" Conversations with Ansel Adams (1972, 1974, 1975), pg. 279, and "Helen M. LeConte; Reminiscences of LeConte Family Outings, the Sierra Club, and Ansel Adams" pgs. 22-3 (document pgs. 140-1), in Sierra Club Women (1976, 1977). Accessed 14 May 2020</ref>