1921 in Canada

Events from the year 1921 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

Monarch – George V

Federal government

Governor General – Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire then Julian Byng
Prime Minister – Arthur Meighen then William Lyon Mackenzie King
Chief Justice – Louis Henry Davies
Parliament – 13th

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

Premiers

Territorial governments

Commissioners

Events

March 26 – The Bluenose is launched
May 28 and 29 – Founding of the Communist Party of Canada at a clandestine meeting held in a barn in Guelph, Ontario
June 9 – 1921 Saskatchewan general election: William M. Martin's Liberals win a fifth consecutive majority
June 15 – Prohibition comes to an end in British Columbia
July 18 – 1921 Alberta general election: The United Farmers of Alberta win a majority, defeating Premier Charles Stewart's Liberals. Henry Wise Wood, who had remained president of the UFA despite opposing its branching into electoral politics, declines the premiership. The UFA caucus hastily selects Herbert Greenfield to become premier.
July 27 – Frederick Banting and Charles Best discover insulin
August 13 – Herbert Greenfield becomes premier of Alberta, replacing Charles Stewart
November 21 – Canada is granted its armorial bearings by Royal Proclamation. Canada's official colours declared to be red and white
December 6 – Federal election: William Lyon Mackenzie King's Liberals win a minority, defeating Arthur Meighen's Conservatives. Agnes Macphail becomes the first woman elected to Parliament, representing the rural Ontario riding of Grey South East. That election was the first in which all Canadian women had the right to vote and to stand as candidates. Macphail was re-elected to the House of Commons four times and served for more than eighteen years. Later, she would be one of the first two women elected to the Ontario legislature.
December 29 – Mackenzie King becomes prime minister, replacing Arthur Meighen.

Full date unknown

The school board in Victoria, British Columbia, creates a segregated school for the Chinese population. After a boycott of the new school, the plan is scrapped.
A study of Saskatchewan school students discovers that 56% of them are infected with tuberculosis
Mary Ellen Smith in British Columbia becomes the first woman cabinet minister in Canada.
The Cenotaph, Montreal, is unveiled
The War Memorial of Montreal West is unveiled

Arts and literature

February 15 – The Capitol Theatre opened in Winnipeg.
March 12 – The Capitol Theatre, a lush 2,500 seat movie palace, opened on Vancouver's Granville Street.

Sports

March 24–26 – The Manitoba Junior Hockey League's Winnipeg Falcons win their only Memorial Cup by defeating the Ontario Hockey Association's Stratford Midgets 11 to 9 in a 2-game aggregate played Arena Gardens in Toronto
April 4 – The Ottawa Senators beat the Vancouver Millionaires 2–1 to win the Stanley Cup
December 3 – In the first East-West Grey Cup the Toronto Argonauts win their second Grey Cup championship by defeating the Edmonton Eskimos 23 to 0 in the 9th Grey Cup played at Toronto's Varsity Stadium

Births

January to March

January 6 – Hazen Argue, politician
January 9 – Lister Sinclair, broadcaster, playwright and polymath
January 20 – Jacques Ferron, physician and author, founder of the Parti Rhinocéros
February 8 – Barney Danson, politician and soldier
February 11 – Johnny Fripp, skier and football player
February 14 – Hazel McCallion, politician and 5th Mayor of Mississauga
February 17 – Muriel Coben, baseball and curling player
February 21 – George Manuel, Aboriginal leader
February 25 – Pierre Laporte, Quebec politician and Minister, kidnapped and murdered by Front de libération du Québec
March 10 – Cec Linder, actor
March 27 – Calvin Gotlieb, professor and computer scientist

April to June

April 1 – Ken Reardon, ice hockey player
April 4 – Charles Dubin, lawyer and former Chief Justice of Ontario
April 30 – Don Jamieson, politician, diplomat and broadcaster
May 5 – Jim Conacher, ice hockey player
May 12 – Farley Mowat, conservationist and author
May 31 – Peter Fox, politician
June 8 – Alexis Smith, actress
June 25
* Yves Forest, politician
*Celia Franca, ballet dancer and founder and artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada

July to December

July 1 – Arthur Johnson, sprint canoeist
July 6 – Allan MacEachen, politician, Minister and senator, first Deputy Prime Minister of Canada
August 4 – Maurice Richard, ice hockey player
August 8 – John Herbert Chapman, scientist and space researcher
August 11 – Allan Waters, businessman and media mogul
August 25 – Monty Hall, game show host, producer, actor, singer and sportscaster
September 5 – Murray Henderson, hockey player
September 14 – A. Jean de Grandpré, lawyer and businessman
September 15 – Norma MacMillan, voice actress
September 16 – Ursula Franklin, metallurgist, research physicist, author and educator
September 29 – James Cross, British diplomat kidnapped by the Front de libération du Québec
November 25 – Fraser Elliott, lawyer, supporter of the arts and philanthropist
December 4 – Deanna Durbin, singer and actress
December 6 – George Beurling, most successful Canadian fighter pilot of World War II
December 7 – Eric Blackwood, aviator
December 10
* James Foort, inventor and artist
* Howard Fredeen, scientist and animal breeding researcher

Full date unknown

Fred Davis, broadcaster and moderator of ''Front Page Challenge''

Deaths

January 21 – Arthur Sifton, politician and 2nd Premier of Alberta
August 29 – Lionel Herbert Clarke, businessman and Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
October 19 – George Washington Kendall
November 1 – Zoé Lafontaine, wife of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, 7th Prime Minister of Canada
November 10 – Jennie Kidd Trout, physician, first woman in Canada legally to become a medical doctor and only woman in Canada licensed to practice medicine until 1880
November 27 – Douglas Colin Cameron, politician and Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba