1923 in Canada

Events from the year 1923 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

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

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Federal government

• Governor General – Julian Byng
• Prime Minister – William Lyon Mackenzie King
• Chief Justice – Louis Henry Davies (Prince Edward Island)
• Parliament – 14th

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – Robert Brett
• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Walter Cameron Nichol
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – James Albert Manning Aikins
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – William Pugsley (until February 28) then William Frederick Todd
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – MacCallum Grant
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Henry Cockshutt
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Murdock MacKinnon
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Charles Fitzpatrick (until October 31) then Louis-Philippe Brodeur
• Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – Henry William Newlands

Premiers

• Premier of Alberta – Herbert Greenfield
• Premier of British Columbia – John Oliver
• Premier of Manitoba – John Bracken
• Premier of New Brunswick – Walter Foster (until February 28) then Peter Veniot
• Premier of Nova Scotia – George Henry Murray (until January 24) then Ernest Howard Armstrong
• Premier of Ontario – Ernest Drury (until July 16) then George Howard Ferguson
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – John Howatt Bell (until September 5) then James D. Stewart
• Premier of Quebec – Louis-Alexandre Taschereau
• Premier of Saskatchewan – Charles Avery Dunning

Territorial governments

Commissioners

• Gold Commissioner of Yukon – George P. MacKenzie
• Commissioner of Northwest Territories – William Wallace Cory

Events

• January 1 – The Department of National Defence comes into being
• January 24 – Ernest Armstrong becomes premier of Nova Scotia, replacing George Henry Murray, who had governed for 27 years
• February 28 – Peter Veniot becomes premier of New Brunswick, replacing Walter Foster
• April 23 – Marijuana is prohibited soon after the House of Commons passes a bill on this date that includes making marijuana illegal
• March 2 – The Halibut Treaty signed with the United States is Canada's first international treaty not signed under the auspices of the United Kingdom
• June 25 – Ontario election: Howard Ferguson's Conservatives win a majority, defeating Ernest Charles Drury's United Farmers of Ontario
• July 1 – The Chinese Immigration Act, 1923 comes into effect, banning all Chinese from entering Canada except for businessmen, diplomats, foreign students, and "special circumstances"
• July 16 – Howard Ferguson becomes premier of Ontario, replacing Ernest Charles Drury
• July 26- Warren G Harding visits Vancouver the first sitting American president to visit Canada post confederation
• August 18 – The Home Bank of Canada fails
• September 5 – James D. Stewart becomes premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing John Howatt Bell
• October 8 – A stevedore's strike begins in Vancouver
• October 10 – Canadian National Railway is formed by merger of Canadian Government Railways, Canadian Northern Railway, Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, and Grand Trunk Railway
• October 25 – Frederick Banting and Charles Best win the Nobel Prize for Medicine for the discovery of insulin
• October 31 – Louis-Philippe Brodeur becomes Quebec's 13th Lieutenant Governor

Full date unknown

• The Duplex, a Canadian 4-cylinder automobile is built in Montreal.<ref name="Georgano">Template:Cite book</ref>
• Fleetwood-Knight, a Canadian automobile is built in Kingston, Ontario.<ref name="Durnford">Template:Cite book</ref>

Arts and literature

Music

• April 23 – The Toronto Symphony Orchestra gives its first concert.

New books

• Rilla of Ingleside Lucy Maud Montgomery (1921)

Sport

• March 14 – The world's first complete play-by-play radio broadcast of a professional ice hockey game is done by Pete Parker in Regina.
• March 22 – Foster Hewitt announces his first ice hockey game.
• March 22 and 26 – The Manitoba Junior Hockey League's University of Manitoba win their only Memorial Cup by defeating the Ontario Hockey Association's Kitchener Colts 14 to 6 in a two-game aggregate played at Arena Gardens in Toronto
• March 31 – The Ottawa Senators win their 10th Stanley Cup by defeating the Western Canada Hockey League's Edmonton Eskimos 2 games to 0. The deciding game was played at Vancouver's Denman Arena
• December 1 – Queen's University win their second Grey Cup by defeating the Regina Rugby Club 54–0 in the 11th Grey Cup played at Varsity Stadium in Toronto

Births

January to March

• January 1 – Roméo Sabourin, World War II spy (d. 1944)
• January 7 – Hugh Kenner, literary scholar, critic and professor (d. 2003)
• January 21 – Judith Merril, science fiction writer, editor and political activist (d. 1997)
• January 27 – Marcelle Corneille, administrator and educator (d. 2019)
• February 4 – Conrad Bain, actor (Maude, Diff'rent Strokes) (d. 2013)
• March 1 – Uno Helava, inventor
• March 2 – Ghitta Caiserman-Roth, painter (d. 2005)
• March 4 – Stanley Haidasz, politician (d. 2009)
• March 10 – Richard Doyle, journalist, editor and Senator (d. 2003)
• March 15 – Laurent Desjardins, politician (d. 2012)
• March 19 – Henry Morgentaler, physician and pro choice advocate (d. 2013)
• March 23 - James Barber, cookbook author and television chef (d. 2007)
• March 30 – Milton Acorn, poet, writer and playwright (d. 1986)

April to June

• April 7 – Aba Bayefsky, artist and teacher (d. 2001)
• April 25 – Melissa Hayden, ballerina (d. 2006)
• May 5 – John Black Aird, lawyer, politician and 23rd Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (d. 1995)
• May 9 – Reuben Baetz, politician (d. 1996)
• May 18 – Jean-Louis Roux, entertainer and playwright
• May 20 – Frank Morris, Canadian football player (d. 2009)
• June 3 – Phil Nimmons, jazz musician (d. 2024)
• June 5 – Roger Lebel, actor (d. 1994)
• June 6 – Bruce Campbell, Edmonton alderman (d. 2011)

July to September

• July 21 – Rudolph A. Marcus, chemist and 1992 Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate
• July 25 – Bill Fitsell, sports journalist and historian (d. 2020)
• July 31 – Victor Goldbloom, pediatrician, lecturer and politician (d. 2016)
• August 3 – Robert Campeau, financier and real estate developer
• August 6 – Paul Hellyer, politician and commentator
• September 1 – Kenneth Thomson, 2nd Baron Thomson of Fleet, businessman and art collector (d. 2006)
• September 2 – David Lam, businessman and 25th Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia (d. 2010)
• September 7 – Byron Seaman, businessman and part owner of the Calgary Flames (d. 2021)
• September 18 – Bertha Wilson, jurist and first female Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada (d. 2007)
• September 21 – Robert Uffen, research geophysicist, professor, and university administrator (d. 2009)

October to December

• October 7 – Jean-Paul Riopelle, painter and sculptor (d. 2002)
• October 10 - Kildare Dobbs, short story and travel writer (d. 2013)
• October 22 – Rodrigue Bourdages, politician (d. 1997)
• October 22 – Norman Levine, short-story writer, novelist and poet (d. 2005)
• October 23 – Réjane L. Colas, jurist
• November 1 – Gordon R. Dickson, science fiction author (d. 2001)
• November 2 – Harold Horwood, novelist and non-fiction writer (d. 2006)
• November 11 – Donald Tolmie, politician (d. 2009)
• November 22 – Arthur Hiller, film director
• December 27 – Bruno Bobak, artist (d. 2012)

Deaths

January to June

• February 20 – Thomas George Roddick, surgeon, medical administrator and politician (b. 1846)
• March 2 – Joseph Martin, lawyer, politician and 13th Premier of British Columbia (b. 1852)
• April 25 – Louis-Olivier Taillon, Premier of Quebec (b. 1840)
• June 7 – John Best, politician (b. 1861)

July to December

• July 17 – John Strathearn Hendrie, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (b. 1857)
• October 2 – John Wilson Bengough, political cartoonist (b. 1851)
• December 5 – William Mackenzie, railway contractor and entrepreneur (b. 1849)
• December 9 – John Herbert Turner, Premier of British Columbia (b. 1834)

See also

• List of Canadian films

Historical documents

"Surely our nation is not to be wiped out" - Cree storyteller Chief Thunderchild (Piyesiw-Awasis) seeks way on "a long and difficult journey"<ref>"Thunderchild's Conclusion" Voices of the Plains Cree (1973, 1995), pg. 50. Accessed 23 June 2021</ref>

Senate resolves to join House in accepting France's gift of 250 acres on Vimy Ridge for monument to "exploits of Canadian soldiers in the Great War"<ref>"February 28[, 1923]," Senate Journals, 14th Parliament, 2nd Session: Vol. 60, pg. 57 Accessed 30 April 2023</ref>

Former cabinet minister on Canada's interest in and best approach to problems in Europe<ref>George E. Foster, "The European Situation" The Empire Club of Canada Addresses, pgs. 45-66. Accessed 28 April 2020</ref>

PM King defends Chinese Immigration Act provisions to abolish head tax and admit merchants and students (Note: anti-Asian comments)<ref>House of Commons Debates, 14th Parliament, 2nd Session: Vol. 3 (April 30, 1923), pgs. 2312-16. See also Department of Immigration and Colonization registration certificate (August 24, 1923) for Rosey Chow. Accessed 28 April 2020</ref>

Fuel advisor says reduce homeowners' need for U.S. coal by promoting other fuels (peat, coke, lignite) and furnace efficiency<ref>"Minutes of Evidence" (April 11, 1923), House of Commons Select Standing Committee on Mines and Minerals; Canadian Fuel Supply; Proceedings and Evidence, pgs. 23-4. Accessed 19 October 2020</ref>

Film: several examples of electricity on Ontario farms for household use and farming<ref>"Hydro-Electric Power on the Farm" (1923), Library and Archives Canada. Accessed 7 July 2024</ref>

Saskatchewan premier wants solution to grain marketing issue that's free of politics and divisiveness<ref>"Report of Mass Meeting Addressed by Mr. Aaron Sapiro in[...]Saskatoon[,] August 7th, 1923" (truncated to a portion of Premier Dunning's remarks). Accessed 28 April 2020 http://library.usask.ca/90th/1920/1924.html (click on image to read it)</ref>

Saskatchewan employers seek cuts in pink collar workers' wages<ref>"Employers Ask Cut In Wage Of Women Workers; Representation Are Made To Minimum Wage Board" Regina Morning Leader (January 12, 1923), pg. 9. Accessed 28 April 2020</ref>

Minister of Health's Narcotic Drugs Act amendment makes "a new drug" (cannabis) illegal<ref>"Narcotic Drugs Act Amendment Bill" House of Commons Debates, 14th Parliament, 2nd Session: Vol. 3 (April 23, 1923), pg. 2124. Accessed 28 April 2020</ref>

Local Simcoe, Ont. manufacturer donates land for future county hospital<ref>Letter of William L. Innes (Christmas Eve, 1923), published in Simcoe Reformer (January 17, 1924), pg. 1. Accessed 28 April 2020 http://www.nornet.on.ca/~jcardiff/history/index.html (scroll down to Innes' Christmas gift)</ref>

Map: Vancouver and suburbs electric railway network<ref>British Columbia Electric Railway Company Limited, "Vancouver City and Suburban Lines" mapTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore (1923), City of Vancouver Archives. Accessed 20 September 2022</ref>

"The people of (B.C.) have not, as a whole, concerned themselves much with its past" - British Columbia Historical Association to change that<ref>(W.N. Sage,) "Introduction," First Annual Report and Proceedings; For the Year ended October 11th 1923, pg. 13 University of British Columbia Library. Accessed 7 August 2022</ref>

Profile of Beautiful Joe author Margaret Marshall Saunders' menagerie<ref>(Toronto Globe), "Dumb Folks' Friend Is Gifted Creator of 'Beautiful Joe'" The (Berwick, N.S.) Register (September 5, 1923). Accessed 28 April 2020</ref>

Photo: Two people in automobile head earthward after leaving ramp as few dozen people watch<ref>"World's Record Jump 73ft.2"[...]Edmonton, Alta, May 24th, 1923," "World's record jump" Library and Archives Canada. Accessed 28 May 2023</ref>