1962 in Canada

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Elizabeth II

  Federal government

• Governor general – Georges Vanier
• Prime minister – John Diefenbaker
• Chief Justice – Patrick Kerwin
• Parliament – 24th then 25th

  Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – John Percy Page
• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – George Pearkes
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Errick Willis
• 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 – Paul Comtois
• 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 – Louis Robichaud
• Premier of Newfoundland – Joey Smallwood
• Premier of Nova Scotia – Robert Stanfield
• Premier of Ontario – John Robarts
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – Walter Shaw
• Premier of Quebec – Jean Lesage
• Premier of Saskatchewan – Woodrow Lloyd

  Territorial governments

Commissioners

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

  Events

• March 21 – The birth-defect-causing drug thalidomide is banned
• May 2 – The Canadian dollar is pegged to the U.S. currency
• June 15 – Canada is the third power to reach space with the launch of scientific satellite
• June 18 – In the 1962 Federal election John Diefenbaker's Progressive Conservative Party of Canada is reduced to a minority government
• July 1 – First medicare plan is launched in Saskatchewan to great protest by doctors
• July 30 – Trans-Canada Highway opens
• August 6 – A Premiers Conference is held in Victoria, British Columbia
• September 1 – Place Ville Marie opens in Montreal
• September 29 – Alouette 1, Canada's first satellite is launched.
• October 25 – The Bedford Institute of Oceanography opens in Nova Scotia
• October 25-November 12 – The Cuban Missile Crisis occurs. Diefenbaker refuses to put Canadian forces on alert, angering the U.S. government.
• December 11 – The last three hangings in Canada take place.
• The Globe and Mail adds the Report on Business section

  Arts and literature

New books

• Max Aitken – The Decline and Fall of Lloyd George
• W. O. Mitchell – The Kite
• Marshall McLuhan – The Gutenberg Galaxy
• George Woodcock – Anarchism
• Farley Mowat – The Black Joke
• Thomas B. Costain – The Last Plantagenets

  Awards

• See 1962 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Stephen Leacock Award: W. O. Mitchell, Jake and the Kid

  Television

• Mister Rogers' Neighborhood premieres on CBC

  Theatre

• The first Shaw Festival opens

  Sport

• April 22 - Toronto Maple Leafs won their Tenth Stanley Cup by defeating the Chicago Black Hawks.
• May 7 - Ontario Hockey Association's Hamilton Red Wings won their only Memorial Cup by defeating the Central Alberta Hockey League's Edmonton Oil Kings 4 games to 1. The deciding Game 5 was played at Barton Street Arena in Hamilton, Ontario
• December 1-December 2 – The Winnipeg Blue Bombers win the Grey Cup in the famous fog bowl.

  Births

Unknown date

• Perry Bellegarde, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations

  January to June

• January 17 – Jim Carrey, comedian and actor
• January 22 – Kevin Lamoureux, politician
• February 4 – Michael Riley, actor
• February 23 – John Hatch, basketball player
• February 27 – Susie Moloney, novelist
• March 27 – Jann Arden, singer-songwriter
• April 1 – John Wallace, rower and Olympic gold medallist
• May 31 – Corey Hart, musician
• June 12 – Jordan Peterson, author, clinical psychologist and professor of psychology
• June 23
• * Chris Collins, politician
• * Patrick Kelly, ice speed skater

  July to December

• July 7 – Ross Rutledge, field hockey player
• July 12 – Camilla Scott, actress and television host
• July 14 – Diane Ratnik, volleyball player
• July 21 – Lee Aaron, rock and jazz singer
• August 23 – Martin Cauchon, politician and Minister
• August 27 – Adam Oates, ice hockey and lacrosse player
• August 31 – Wanda Guenette, volleyball player
• September 15 – Brad Willock, volleyball player
• September 18 – John Mann, rock musician and actor
• September 22 – Normand D'Amour, actor
• September 24 – Nia Vardalos, actress, screenwriter and producer
• September 28 – Grant Fuhr, ice hockey player
• October 16 – Dan McTeague, politician
• October 30 – Rex Harrington, ballet dancer
• November 8 – Cliff Cullen, politician
• November 12 – Mark Hunter, ice hockey player, coach, and manager
• December 28 – Michelle Cameron, synchronized swimmer

  Deaths

• January 12 – James Garfield Gardiner, politician, Minister and Premier of Saskatchewan
• January 24 – James Charles Brady, politician
• March 3 – Cairine Wilson, Canada's first female Senator
• August 20 – Joseph-Arsène Bonnier, politician
• August 26 – Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Arctic explorer and ethnologist
• October 23 – John Thomas Haig, politician
• November 13 – Télesphore-Damien Bouchard, politician
• November 21 – Frank Amyot, sprint canoer and Olympic gold medalist
• December 8 – Allison Dysart, politician, lawyer, judge and 21st Premier of New Brunswick
• December 22 – Solon Earl Low, politician