1951 in Canada

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – George VI

  Federal government

• Governor general – Earl Alexander of Tunis
• Prime minister – Louis Saint Laurent
• Chief Justice – Thibaudeau Rinfret
• Parliament – 21st

  Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – John J. Bowlen
• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Clarence Wallace
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Roland Fairbairn McWilliams
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – David Laurence MacLaren
• Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland – Leonard Outerbridge
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – John Alexander Douglas McCurdy
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Ray Lawson
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Thomas William Lemuel Prowse
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Gaspard Fauteux
• Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – John Michael Uhrich then William John Patterson

  Premiers

• Premier of Alberta – Ernest Manning
• Premier of British Columbia – Byron Johnson
• Premier of Manitoba – Douglas Campbell
• Premier of New Brunswick – John McNair
• Premier of Newfoundland – Joey Smallwood
• Premier of Nova Scotia – Angus Macdonald
• Premier of Ontario – Leslie Frost
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – J. Walter Jones
• Premier of Quebec – Maurice Duplessis
• Premier of Saskatchewan – Tommy Douglas

  Territorial governments

Commissioners

• Commissioner of Yukon – Andrew Harold Gibson then Frederick Fraser
• Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Hugh Andrew Young

  Events

• April 22–25 – Korean War: In the Battle of Kapyong, the Canadians hold off the Chinese.
• June 1 – The Massey Report into Canadian culture is released
• July 10 – A formal peace agreement between Canada and Germany is signed
• September 30 - Charlotte Whitton becomes mayor of Ottawa and Canada's first woman mayor of a major city.
• October 27:
• * The cobalt bomb cancer therapy is first tested in London, Ontario
• * The Duke of Edinburgh, and The Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, attend an Edmonton Eskimos home game. In the western semi-final, Edmonton beat Winnipeg 4–1
• November 22 – 1951 Ontario general election: Leslie Frost's PCs win a third consecutive majority
• December 12 – The St. Lawrence Seaway Authority is established.

  Full date unknown

• Canada's immigration rate rises. Population is 14,009,429.
• The Indian Act of Canada is revised to limit coverage of Aboriginal people, excluding Aboriginal women who married non-Aboriginal men.
• Louis St. Laurent moves into 24 Sussex Drive, the new official residence of the Prime Minister
• Labatt Blue is introduced
• The Wartime Prices and Trade Board is abolished.
• Thérèse Casgrain, the first woman to lead a provincial political party in Canada, becomes leader of the Quebec CCF.

  Arts and literature

• November 12 – The National Ballet of Canada gives its first performance in Eaton Auditorium, Toronto.

  New books

• Morley Callaghan – The Loved and the Lost
• Harold Innis – The Bias of Communication

  Awards

• See 1951 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Stephen Leacock Award: Eric Nicol, The Roving I

  Sport

• April 21 - The Toronto Maple Leafs win their ninth Stanley Cup by defeating the Montreal Canadiens 4 games to 1. The deciding Game 5 was played at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto
• May 8 - The Ontario Hockey Association's Barrie Flyers win their first Memorial Cup by defeating the Manitoba Junior Hockey League's Winnipeg Monarchs 4 game to 0. All games were played at Shea's Amphitheatre in Winnipeg
• November 24 - The Ottawa Rough Riders win their fourth Grey Cup by defeating the Saskatchewan Roughriders 21 to 14 in the 39th Grey Cup played at Varsity Stadium in Toronto

  Births

January to March

• January 3 – Claude Bachand, politician
• January 17 – Carol Marguerite Anderson, choreographer
• January 21 – Yvon Dumont, politician
• January 25 - Bob McDonald, science journalist
• February 16 – Greg Selinger, politician and 21st Premier of Manitoba
• February 22 – Elaine Tanner, swimmer
• March 12 – Susan Musgrave, poet and children's writer
• March 16 – Kate Nelligan, actress
• March 21 – Lesley Choyce, novelist, poet and children's writer
• March 25 – Ethel Blondin-Andrew, politician
• March 28 – Karen Kain, ballet dancer
• March 31 – Lawrence O'Brien, politician

  April to June

• April 5 – Guy Vanderhaeghe, author
• April 15 – Paul Snider, murder
• April 18 – Pierre Pettigrew, politician
• May 2 – Andrew Barron, ice speed skater
• May 3 – Dianne Whalen, politician, MHA for Conception Bay East – Bell Island
• May 7 – Janina Fialkowska, pianist
• May 9 – Christopher Dewdney, poet, author and professor
• May 11 – Ed Stelmach, farmer, politician and 13th Premier of Alberta
• May 20 – Christie Blatchford, newspaper columnist, journalist and broadcaster
• June 2 – Larry Robinson, ice hockey player and coach
• June 7 – Terry O'Reilly, ice hockey player and coach
• June 19 – Bill Blaikie, politician

  July to September

• July 4 – Beverly Boys, diver
• July 5 – Penny Werthner, track and field athlete
• July 20 – Paulette Bourgeois, children's writer
• July 26 – Rick Martin, ice hockey player
• July 27 – Shawn Murphy, politician
• August 3 – Marcel Dionne, ice hockey player
• August 10 – Judy Wasylycia-Leis, politician
• August 17 – Robert Joy, actor
• September 14 – Elizabeth Carruthers, diver
• September 19 – Daniel Lanois, record producer, guitarist and singer-songwriter
• September 20 – Guy Lafleur, ice hockey player
• September 28 – Rick Gibson, artist

  October to December

• October 9 – Joe Tascona, lawyer and politician
• October 11 – Jim Carr, politician
• October 16 – Brenda Eisler, long jumper
• October 26 – Willie P. Bennett, folk music singer-songwriter
• October 27 – Roger Fortin, boxer
• October 29 – Camille Huard, boxer
• October 31 – Doug Bennett, singer, musician and music video director
• November 10 – Marlene Jennings, politician
• November 13 – Robert Hilles, poet and novelist
• December 6 – Tomson Highway, playwright, novelist and children's author
• December 7 - Richard Darbois, actor
• December 22 – Charles de Lint, fantasy author and Celtic folk musician

  Full date unknown

• Robert Priest, poet and children's author

  Deaths

January to June

• January 1 – Frank Scott Hogg, astrophysicist
• January 3 – Richard Langton Baker, politician
• January 16 – Seymour Farmer, politician
• February 7 – Edna Diefenbaker, first wife of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker
• February 27 – Leland Payson Bancroft, politician
• April 14 – Al Christie, film director, producer and screenwriter

  July to December

• August 26 – Bill Barilko, ice hockey player
• September 1 – Nellie McClung, feminist, politician and social activist
• September 14 – James Langstaff Bowman, politician and Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada
• September 20 – William Henry Wright, prospector and newspaper owner
• October 8 – Charles William Jefferys, artist and historian

  Full date unknown

• Harry Cassidy, academic, social reformer and civil servant