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1956
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Canada

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Decades:

Part of a series on the
History of Canada
Benjamin West's The Death of General Wolfe
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v t e

Incumbents

Crown

Monarch – Elizabeth II^[1]

Federal government

Governor General – Vincent Massey^[2]
Prime Minister – Louis St. Laurent
Chief Justice – Patrick Kerwin (Ontario)
Parliament – 22nd

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

Premiers

Premier of Alberta – Ernest Manning
Premier of British Columbia – W.A.C. Bennett
Premier of Manitoba – Douglas Campbell
Premier of New Brunswick – Hugh John Flemming
Premier of Newfoundland – Joey Smallwood
Premier of Nova Scotia – Henry Hicks (until November 20) then Robert Stanfield
Premier of Ontario – Leslie Frost
Premier of Prince Edward Island – Alex Matheson
Premier of Quebec – Maurice Duplessis
Premier of Saskatchewan – Tommy Douglas

Territorial governments

Commissioners

Events

February 10 – Wilbert Coffin is hanged
May 1 – The Trades and Labour Congress of Canada merges with the Canadian Congress of Labour to form the Canadian Labour Congress.
May 8 – The controversial bill to create the TransCanada pipeline is introduced in the House of Commons.
May 15 – A CF-100 crashes into a Grey Nuns convent outside of Ottawa killing fifteen.
June 20 – Saskatchewan election: Tommy Douglas's Co-operative Commonwealth Federation wins a fourth consecutive majority
September 30 – Winnipeg connects to TransCanada Telephone System's microwave radio relay via MTS, bringing same day programming from CBC Television.
November 1 – The second Springhill Mining Disaster occurs killing 39.
November 4 – Lester B. Pearson proposes a successful resolution to the Suez Crisis, this will win him a Nobel Peace Prize.
November 20 – Robert Stanfield becomes premier of Nova Scotia, replacing Henry Hicks
December 9 – Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810 (9), a Canadair Northstar, crashes on Slesse Mountain near Chilliwack during heavy weather. The plane carried five members of the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers and fans on their way home from an all-star game in Vancouver. Bodies were not found until the following late summer due to severe terrain and high altitude and unknown location of the crash. This was one of the worst civilian air disasters in the world at the time.
December 14 – John Diefenbaker is elected leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
René Lévesque begins hosting Point de Mire

Sport

March 15 - Whipper Billy Watson (William John Potts) becomes the first Canadian to hold the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship by defeating Lou Thesz in Toronto
April 10 - The Montreal Canadiens win their 8th Stanley Cup championship by defeating the Detroit Red Wings 4 games to 1. The deciding Game 5 was played at the Montreal Forum
May 6 - The Ontario Hockey Association's Toronto Marlboros won their third (and second consecutive) Memorial Cup by defeating the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League's Regina Pats 4 games to 0 (with 1 tie). All games at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto
November 24 - The Edmonton Eskimos win their third (consecutive) Grey Cup by defeating the Montreal Alouettes by the score of 50 to 27 in the 44th Grey Cup played at Varsity Stadium in Toronto

Arts and literature

New books

Milton Acorn – In Love and Anger
Pierre Berton – The Mysterious North
Max Aitken – Men and Power
Leonard Cohen – Let Us Compare Mythologies
Harold Innis – Essays in Canadian Economic History
Farley Mowat – Lost in the Barrens

Awards

See 1956 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
Stephen Leacock Award: Eric Nicol, Shall We Join The Ladies'

Music

Walter Susskind replaces Sir Ernest MacMillan as the director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
Pianist Glenn Gould tours the Soviet Union

Births

January to March

January 6 – Peter Stoffer, politician
January 7 – Mike Liut, ice hockey player and coach
January 9 – Gregory Dewar, politician
January 28 – David Faurschou, politician
February 28 – Guy Maddin, screenwriter and film director
February 29 – Steve Ashton, politician
February 29 – Bob Speller, politician (d. 2021)

April to June

April 4 – Evelyn Hart, ballet dancer
April 6 - Normand Corbeil, composer (Double Jeopardy, Extreme Ops, The Statement, V) (d. 2013)
April 10 – Thomas Graham, volleyball player
May 7 – Jean Lapierre, television broadcaster, politician and Minister (d. 2016)
May 9 – Wendy Crewson, actress
May 15 – Ian Clyde, boxer
May 19 – James Gosling, software developer, father of the Java programming language
May 29 – Claude Drouin, politician
June 10 – Hugh McMillan, musician
June 11 – Simon Plouffe, mathematician and academic
June 11 – Arthur Porter, physician and academic (d. 2015)
June 15 – David Iftody, politician (d. 2001)
June 15 – Dan Thompson, swimmer
June 18 – Oliver Schroer, fiddler, composer and music producer (d. 2008)
June 22 – Blake Debassige, artist

July to September

July 8 – Terry Puhl, baseball player
July 10 - Robert Ing, forensic scientist and author
July 15 – Barry Melrose, ice hockey player, coach and commentator
July 17 – Bryan Trottier, ice hockey player
July 20 - Jim Prentice, politician, Premier of Alberta 2014–2015 (d. 2016)
August 5 - Jerry Ciccoritti, director
August 7 – Paul Williams, long-distance runner
August 12 – Bruce Greenwood, actor

October to December

October 5 – Brad Farrow, judoka
October 7 – Brian Sutter, ice hockey player and coach
October 17 – Sheela Basrur, medical doctor and Chief Medical Officer of Health in Ontario (d.2008)
October 23 – Geoffrey Kelly, musician
October 24 – Chris Clarke, boxer
December 10 – Marie Bountrogianni, politician and Minister
December 31 – Paul Zed, lawyer, professor and politician

Deaths

January to June

January 6 – Albert James Bradshaw, politician (b. 1882)
January 12 – Sam Langford, boxer (b. 1886)
February 14 – Aylesworth Perry, 6th Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (b. 1860)
March 10 – Vere Ponsonby, 9th Earl of Bessborough, businessman, politician and Governor General of Canada (b. 1880)
March 30 – Joseph W. Noseworthy, politician (b. 1888)
March 30 – Thomas Dufferin Pattullo, politician and 22nd Premier of British Columbia (b. 1873)

July to December

August 4 – Joseph Georges Bouchard, politician (b. 1888)
September 11 – Billy Bishop, First World War flying ace (b. 1894)
September 15 – Charles Dow Richards, judge, politician and 18th Premier of New Brunswick (b. 1879)
September 18 – Adélard Godbout, politician and 15th Premier of Quebec (b. 1892)
October 7 – Maud Allan, actor, dancer and choreographer (b. 1873)
November 18 – Clarence Chant, astronomer and physicist (b. 1865)
December 3 – Matthew Halton, radio and television journalist (b. 1904)
December 7 – Huntley Gordon, actor (b. 1887)

References

^ "Queen Elizabeth II | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
^ Lentz, Harris M. (4 February 2014). Heads of States and Governments Since 1945. Routledge. p. 142. ISBN 978-1-134-26490-2.

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v t e History of Canada
Year list (Timeline)	18000 BCE–1500 CE 1534–1763 1763–1867 1867–1914 1914–1945 1945–1960 1960–1981 1982–present
Topics	Canadians - (Persons of significance) Constitutional Crown and Indigenous peoples Cultural Economic Etymology Events of significance Former colonies and territories Heritage Minutes Historic Sites Immigration Chinese immigration Military Conflicts Operations Peacekeeping Victories Monarchical Population history Sports Territorial evolution Women
Provinces and territories	Alberta British Columbia Manitoba Ontario New Brunswick Newfoundland and Labrador Northwest Territories Nova Scotia Nunavut Quebec Prince Edward Island Saskatchewan Yukon (Name etymologies)
Cities	Brampton Charlottetown Edmonton Fredericton Halifax Hamilton Lethbridge Markham Moncton Montreal Northwest Territories capital cities Ottawa Quebec City Saint John Regina Richmond Hill Saskatoon Toronto Vancouver Winnipeg (Name etymologies)
Research	Bibliography Historiography Historians Surveys
Category Canada portal

v t e List of years in Canada
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Post-Confederation 1867–present	1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
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