1923 in Canada
Events from the year 1923 in Canada.
Incumbents
Crown
- Monarch – George V
Federal government
- Governor general – Julian Byng
- Prime minister – William Lyon Mackenzie King
- Chief Justice – Louis Henry Davies
- 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 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 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 then Peter Veniot
- Premier of Nova Scotia – George Henry Murray then Ernest Howard Armstrong
- Premier of Ontario – Ernest Drury then George Howard Ferguson
- Premier of Prince Edward Island – John Howatt Bell 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 H. 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 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 Drury
- August 18 – The Home Bank of Canada fails
- September 5 – James D. Stewart becomes premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing J.H. 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
Arts and literature
Music
- April 23 – The Toronto Symphony Orchestra gives its first concert.
New books
- Rilla of Ingleside Lucy Maud Montgomery
Sport
- March 14 – 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 & 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 Arena Gardens in Toronto
- March 31 – 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 hero
- January 7 – Hugh Kenner, literary scholar, critic and professor
- January 21 – Judith Merril, science fiction writer, editor and political activist
- February 4 – Conrad Bain, actor
- March 1 – Uno Helava, inventor
- March 2 – Ghitta Caiserman-Roth, painter
- March 4 – Stanley Haidasz, politician
- March 10 – Richard Doyle, journalist, editor and Senator
- March 15 – Laurent Desjardins, politician
- March 19 – Henry Morgentaler, physician and pro choice advocate
- March 30 – Milton Acorn, poet, writer and playwright
April to June
- April 7 – Aba Bayefsky, artist and teacher
- April 16 – Samuel Nathan Cohen, critic
- April 25 – Melissa Hayden, ballerina
- May 5 – John Black Aird, lawyer, politician and 23rd Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
- May 9 – Reuben Baetz, politician
- May 18 – Jean-Louis Roux, entertainer and playwright
- May 20 – Frank Morris, Canadian football player
- June 6 – Bruce Campbell, Edmonton alderman
July to September
- July 21 – Rudolph A. Marcus, chemist and 1992 Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate
- July 31 – Victor Goldbloom, pediatrician, lecturer and politician
- August 3 – Robert Campeau, financier and real estate developer
- August 6 – Paul Hellyer, politician and commentator
- August 21 – Robert William Stewart, scientist
- September 1 – Kenneth Thomson, 2nd Baron Thomson of Fleet, businessman and art collector
- September 2 – David Lam, businessman and 25th Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia
- September 18 – Bertha Wilson, jurist and first female Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
- September 21 – Robert Uffen, research geophysicist, professor, and university administrator
October to December
- October 7 – Jean-Paul Riopelle, painter and sculptor
- October 22 – Rodrigue Bourdages, politician
- October 22 – Norman Levine, short-story writer, novelist and poet
- October 23 – Réjane L. Colas, jurist
- November 1 – Gordon R. Dickson, science fiction author
- November 2 – Harold Horwood, novelist and non-fiction writer
- November 11 – Donald Tolmie, politician
- November 22 – Arthur Hiller, film director
- December 27 – Bruno Bobak, artist
Full date unknown
- James Barber, cookbook author and television chef
- Kildare Dobbs, short story and travel writer
Deaths
January to June
- February 20 – Thomas George Roddick, surgeon, medical administrator and politician
- March 2 – Joseph Martin, lawyer, politician and 13th Premier of British Columbia
- April 25 – Louis-Olivier Taillon, politician and Premier of Quebec
- June 7 – John Best, politician
July to December
- July 17 – John Strathearn Hendrie, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
- October 2 – John Wilson Bengough, political cartoonist
- December 5 – William Mackenzie, railway contractor and entrepreneur
- December 9 – John Herbert Turner, politician and Premier of British Columbia
Historical Documents
PM King defends Chinese Immigration Act provisions to abolish head tax and admit merchants and students
Saskatchewan premier wants solution to grain marketing issue that's free of politics and divisiveness
Saskatchewan employers seek cuts in pink collar workers' wages
Minister of Health's Narcotic Drugs Act amendment makes "a new drug" illegal
Local Simcoe, Ont. manufacturer donates land for future county hospital
Profile of Beautiful Joe author Margaret Marshall Saunders' menagerie