1917 in Canada
Events from the year 1917 in Canada.
Incumbents
Crown
Federal government
- Governor General – Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire
- Prime Minister – Robert Borden
- Chief Justice – Charles Fitzpatrick
- Parliament – 12th
Provincial governments
Lieutenant governors
- Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – Robert Brett
- Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Francis Stillman Barnard
- Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – James Albert Manning Aikins
- Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Josiah Wood then Gilbert Ganong then William Pugsley
- Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – MacCallum Grant
- Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – John Strathearn Hendrie
- Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Augustine Colin Macdonald
- Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Pierre-Évariste Leblanc
- Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – Richard Stuart Lake
Premiers
- Premier of Alberta – Arthur Sifton then Charles Stewart
- Premier of British Columbia – Harlan Brewster
- Premier of Manitoba – Tobias Norris
- Premier of New Brunswick – George Johnson Clarke then James A. Murray then Walter Foster
- Premier of Nova Scotia – George Henry Murray
- Premier of Ontario – William Hearst
- Premier of Prince Edward Island – John Mathieson then Aubin Arsenault
- Premier of Quebec – Lomer Gouin
- Premier of Saskatchewan – William Melville Martin
Territorial governments
Commissioners
- Commissioner of Yukon – George Norris Williams
- Gold Commissioner of Yukon – George P. MacKenzie
- Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Frederick D. White
Elections
Provincial- June 7 – Alberta election: Arthur Sifton's Liberals win a fourth consecutive majority. Louise McKinney and Roberta MacAdams are elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, the first two women elected to a legislature in the British Empire.
- June 26 – Saskatchewan election: William Martin's Liberals win a fourth consecutive majority.
- December 17: Robert Borden's Conservatives win a second consecutive majority in the Federal election
Events
January to June
- February 1 – James Alexander Murray becomes premier of New Brunswick, replacing George Johnson Clarke
- April 4 – Walter Foster becomes premier of New Brunswick, replacing Murray
- April 9 – April 14 – Battle of Vimy Ridge.
- April 17 – Leon Trotsky, en route from New York to Russia, is detained in Halifax. He will spend the next month in Amherst Internment Camp before being released.
- June 21 – Aubin Arsenault becomes premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing John Mathieson
July to December
- July 1: Canada celebrates its 50th Dominion Day.
- August: The government introduces conscription triggering the Conscription Crisis of 1917
- September 20: The Income War Tax Act receives royal assent, establishing a "temporary" tax, which remains in force to this day.
- September 20: The Wartime Elections Act gives female relatives of servicemen the vote.
- October 26 – November 10: Second Battle of Passchendaele.
- October 30: Charles Stewart (1868–1946) becomes premier of Alberta, replacing Arthur Sifton
- November 1 to 30: Swanson Bay, British Columbia, records of precipitation for the month, which remains the highest officially recorded for one calendar month in North America.
- December 6: Halifax Explosion kills 1,900 people and injures 9,000. The largest ever man-made explosion pre-Hiroshima atomic bomb.
Arts and literature
- Tom Thomson paints The Jack Pine, one of Canada's most widely recognized and reproduced artworks.
Sport
- March 26 – The Pacific Coast Hockey Association's Seattle Metropolitans become the first American team to win the Stanley Cup by defeating the National Hockey Association's Montreal Canadiens 3 games to 1. The Metropolitans won their only Cup in front of their home crowd at Seattle Ice Arena
- November 26 – The National Hockey League is established in Montreal, with 4 teams from the National Hockey Association The owners would form a new team in Toronto due to a dispute Toronto Blueshirts owner Eddie Livingstone, the Toronto Hockey Club
- December 19 – Montreal Wanderers defeat the Toronto Arenas in the first NHL game.
Births
January to June
- January 6 – Sydney Banks, broadcaster and producer
- January 11 – John Robarts, lawyer, politician and 17th Premier of Ontario
- April 11 – Danny Gallivan, radio and television broadcaster and sportscaster
- April 25 – George R. Gardiner, businessman, philanthropist and co-founder of the Gardiner Museum
- May 12 – Frank Clair, Canadian Football League coach
- May 19 – Robert Gordon Robertson, civil servant and 7th Commissioner of the Northwest Territories
- May 21 – Raymond Burr, actor
- May 22 – Lude Check, ice hockey player
- May 24 – Ross Thatcher, politician and 9th Premier of Saskatchewan
- June 17 – Dufferin Roblin, businessman, politician and 14th Premier of Manitoba
- June 18 – Arthur Tremblay, politician and Senator
- June 29 – Archie Green, folklorist and musicologist
July to December
- July 17 – John Hayes, harness racing driver, trainer and owner
- September 12 – Pierre Sévigny, soldier, author, politician and academic
- September 15 – Alf Pike, ice hockey player and coach
- September 26 – Réal Caouette, politician
- November 2 – Ann Rutherford, actress.
- November 11 – Abram Hoffer, orthomolecular psychiatrist
- November 28 – Jacob Froese, politician
- December 6 – Irv Robbins, Canadian-American entrepreneur
Full date unknown
- Kent Rowley, labour activist and union organizer
- Jack Singer, businessman and philanthropist
Deaths
January to June
- January 8 – Ward Bowlby, lawyer and politician, reeve of Berlin, Ontario
- January 14 – Alexander Cameron, physician and politician
- February 17 – Ralph Smith, coal miner, labour leader and politician
- February 26 – George Johnson Clarke, lawyer, journalist, politician and 14th Premier of New Brunswick
- April 21 – George Thomas Baird, politician, Senator for Victoria, New Brunswick
- June 13 – Louis-Philippe Hébert, sculptor
July to December
- July 5 – Percival Molson, athlete and soldier
- July 8 – Tom Thomson, artist
- July 15 – Lemuel John Tweedie, politician and 9th premier of New Brunswick
- August 6 – Richard McBride, politician and Premier of British Columbia
- August 29 – Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey, 9th governor general of Canada
- October 31 – Gilbert Ganong, businessman, politician and Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick
- November 10 – Thomas Simpson Sproule, politician and Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada
- October 30 – Talbot Papineau, lawyer and soldier
- December 10 – Mackenzie Bowell, politician and 5th prime minister of Canada