1914 in Canada

Events from the year 1914 in Canada.

Events

January to June

• March 19 - The Royal Ontario Museum opens
• April 11 - Canadian Margaret C. MacDonald is appointed Matron-in-Chief of the Canadian Nursing service band and becomes the first woman in the British Empire to reach the rank of major.
• May 14 - First major discovery of oil in western Canada at Turner Valley
• May 29 - Ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland sinks in Gulf of St. Lawrence; 1,024 lives lost.
• June 19 - A coal mine explosion in Hillcrest, Alberta kills 189 of 235, the worst mining disaster in Canadian history
• June 29 - 1914 Ontario election: Sir James Whitney's Conservatives win a fourth consecutive majority

July to December

• August 4 - WWI: United Kingdom declares war on Germany, meaning Canada is automatically involved.
• August 14 - Canada's War Measures Act is passed suspending all civil rights in Canada during a crisis.
• September 9 - WWI: The creation of the Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade, the first fully mechanized unit in the British Army
• September 25 - James Whitney, Premier of Ontario, dies in office
• October 1 - Edward VII Monument (Montreal) unveiled
• October 2 - William Hearst becomes Premier of Ontario
• October 3 - WWI: 33 000 Canadian troops depart for Europe, the largest force to ever cross the Atlantic Ocean at the time.
• December 17 - George J. Clark becomes Premier of New Brunswick replacing the retiring James K. Flemming

Full date unknown

• All-time high levels of immigration are ended by the war
• Canada suspends the convertibility of the dollar into gold
• Edmonton adopts a new numbered street and avenue pattern
• Ontario passes a worker's compensation act that provides all workers with funding in case of disability
• The Komagata Maru, a Japanese steamship which sailed from Japan to British Columbia carrying 376 passengers, is turned back from Canada under authority of exclusion laws prohibiting Asian immigrants. Most of the passengers returned to India.

Births

January to March

• January 17 - Kurt Freund, physician and sexologist (d.1996)

• February 2 - Eric Kierans, economist and politician (d.2004)
• March 13 - W. O. Mitchell, writer (d.1998)

April to June

• April 2 - Edwin Alonzo Boyd, criminal and leader of the Boyd Gang (d.2002)
• April 11 - Norman McLaren, animator and film director (d.1987)
• April 11 - Robert Stanfield, politician and 24th Premier of Nova Scotia (d.2003)
• April 14 - Robert Bend, politician (d.1999)
• April 18 - David Smith, veterinarian
• May 3 - Ernest Smith, soldier and Victoria Cross recipient in 1944 (d.2005)
• May 9 - Hank Snow, country music artist (d.1999)
• May 15 - Angus MacLean, politician and 27th Premier of Prince Edward Island (d.2000)
• May 16 - Eric Coy, discus thrower and shot putter (d.1985)
• May 19 - Alex Shibicky, ice hockey player (d.2005)
• May 27 - Hugh Le Caine, physicist, composer and instrument builder (d.1977)
• June 16 - Lucien Rivard, criminal and prison escapee (d.2002)
• June 21 - William Vickrey, professor of economics and Nobel Laureate (d.1996)

July to December

• July 1 - Stephen Juba, politician and Mayor of Winnipeg (d.1993)
• July 6 - Viola Desmond, black civil rights advocate (d. 1965)
• July 7 - Harry Strom, politician and 9th Premier of Alberta (d.1984)
• July 10 - Joe Shuster, comic book artist, co-creator of Superman (& nephew of Frank Shuster) (d.1992)
• July 19 - John Kenneth Macalister, World War II hero (d.1944)
• July 24 - Ed Mirvish, businessman, philanthropist and theatrical impresario (d.2007)
• August 2 - Félix Leclerc, folk singer, poet, writer, actor and political activist (d.1988)
• August 14 - Francis Lawrence Jobin, politician and Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba (d.1995)
• September 12 - Janusz Żurakowski, fighter and test pilot, first test pilot of Avro Arrow (d.2004)
• December 10 - Frank Thurston, engineer
• December 25 - Charles-Noël Barbès, politician and lawyer (d.2008)
• December 26 - Crawford Gordon, businessman (d.1967)

Full date unknown

• Shlomo Hestrin, Canadian-born Israeli biochemist (d.1962)
• Kay Tremblay, actress (d.2005)

Deaths

George William Ross

• January 21 - Donald Alexander Smith, politician (b.1820)
• January 27 - Daniel Woodley Prowse, lawyer, politician, judge, historian and essayist (b.1834)
• March 1 - Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto, Governor General of Canada (b.1845)
• March 7 - George William Ross, educator, politician and 5th Premier of Ontario (b.1841)
• April 7 - Edith Maude Eaton, author (b.1865)

James Whitney

• May 2 - John Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll, Governor General of Canada (b.1845)
• July 9 - Henry Emmerson, lawyer, businessman, politician, philanthropist and 8th Premier of New Brunswick (b.1853)
• September 25 - James Whitney, politician and 6th Premier of Ontario (b.1843)