2023 In Canada

Events from the year 2023 in Canada.

Incumbents

The Crown

*Monarch – Charles III

Federal government

*Governor General – Mary Simon
*Prime Minister – Justin Trudeau
*Parliament – 44th

Provincial governments

Lieutenant Governors

*Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – Salma Lakhani
* Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Janet Austin
* Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Anita Neville
*Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Brenda Murphy
* Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador – Judy Foote
*Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Arthur LeBlanc
*Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Elizabeth Dowdeswell
*Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Antoinette Perry
*Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – J. Michel Doyon
*Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – Russell Mirasty

Premiers

* Premier of Alberta – Danielle Smith
*Premier of British Columbia – David Eby
* Premier of Manitoba – Heather Stefanson
*Premier of New Brunswick – Blaine Higgs
* Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador – Andrew Furey
*Premier of Nova Scotia – Tim Houston
*Premier of Ontario – Doug Ford
*Premier of Prince Edward Island – Dennis King
*Premier of Quebec – François Legault
* Premier of Saskatchewan – Scott Moe

Territorial governments

Commissioners

* Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Margaret Thom
* Commissioner of Nunavut – Eva Aariak
* Commissioner of Yukon – Angélique Bernard (until May 31); Adeline Webber

Premiers

*Premier of Northwest Territories – Caroline Cochrane
* Premier of Nunavut – P.J. Akeeagok
* Premier of Yukon – Sandy Silver (until January 14); then Ranj Pillai

Events

January

*January 1 – Canada enacts a law prohibiting foreigners, except for immigrants and permanent residents, from acquiring residential areas in the country for two years in response to a real-estate bubble.
*January 10 – CF Montréal Reserve sacks Sandro Grande as head coach, after backlash over comments Grande made on Twitter following the attempted assassination of Quebec premier Pauline Marois.
*January 18 – Defence Minister Anita Anand announces that the country is donating 200 Senator APCs to Ukraine to aid them during the war.
*January 21 – The government agreed to pay C$2.8 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit regarding compensation for the effects of residential schools to First Nations.
*January 26:
** Anand announces that Canada is sending four Leopard 2A4 tanks to Ukraine, the first Canadian tanks sent to the country. This move comes a day after Germany and the United States reversed their initial hesitations and announced a shipment of tanks to Ukraine as well.
** Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Amira Elghawaby as Canada's first special representative on combatting Islamophobia for a four-year term. Her appointment was not only criticized by the Quebec government and the Parti Québécois, but they also called for her to resign due to remarks she said about Quebecers in 2019.

February

* February 2 – In response to a detected Chinese balloon flying over Canadian and American airspace, Cong Peiwu, the Chinese ambassador to Canada, was summoned by officials, while the Canadian Armed Forces said in a statement that the incident posed no danger to Canadians. The balloon was shot down two days later off the coast of the U.S. state of South Carolina by a missile.
* February 8 – A man crashed a bus into a daycare in Laval, Quebec, killing two children and injuring six others. The man, identified to be 51-year-old Pierre Ny St-Amand, was arrested.
* February 11 – 2023 Yukon high-altitude object: Justin Trudeau orders the takedown of an unidentified object over Yukon, which is later shot down by a United States Air Force F-22 Raptor using a AIM-9X Sidewinder. The Canadian Armed Forces is deployed to collect and analyze the object.
*February 13 – At least twelve people are injured in an explosion at a construction site in Ottawa.
*February 18–March 5 – The 2023 Canada Winter Games are held in Prince Edward Island.
*February 27–March 5 – The 2023 World Junior Figure Skating Championships are held in Calgary, Alberta.
*February 28 – Canada bans social media platform TikTok from all government-issued devices, citing "an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security" from the Chinese-owned app.

March

*March 12: The Parti Québécois PQ held a leadership confidence vote. PQ party leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon broke a record for the PQ votes of confidence, with 98.51% support.
*March 13:
**The Juno Awards of 2023 are held in Edmonton, Alberta.
** Guillaume Cliche-Rivard from Québec solidaire is elected in the 2023 Saint-Henri—Sainte-Anne provincial by-election.
**A pickup truck hit eleven pedestrians in Amqui, Quebec, killing three and injuring eight. The driver was arrested after attempting to flee the scene.
*March 16 – A fire kills seven people in Old Montreal. The fire prompts a crackdown on illegal short-term housing rentals in Quebec.
*March 26 – Janine Gibson wins the 2023 Green Party of Manitoba leadership election.

April

*April 3 – The 2023 Prince Edward Island general election is held. The Progressive Conservative Party under Dennis King won a majority government.
*April 5–16 – The 2023 IIHF Women's World Championship is held in Brampton, Ontario.
*April 5 – 2023 Canada ice storm: Two people are killed and over a million people are without power after an ice storm strikes Ontario and Quebec.
*April 9 – The 2023 Canadian Ringette Championships are held in Regina, Saskatchewan. National champions are decided in U16, U19, and National Ringette League divisions.
*April 17 – Over $20 million worth of gold and other high-value items are stolen at the Toronto Pearson International Airport.
*April 19–May 3 – 2023 Canadian federal worker strike.
*April 29 – The Toronto Maple Leafs win a playoff series for the first time since 2004.

May

*May 6 – Coronation of Charles III as King of Canada and the other Commonwealth realms.
*May 8 – Canada expels Zhao Wei, a Chinese diplomat based in Toronto, from Canada, after Wei was accused of intimidating a Canadian opposition legislator critical of Beijing. The legislator Wei was accused of intimidating was reported to be Conservative MP Michael Chong. In response to Canada's expulsion of Wei, China listed Jennifer Lynn Lalonde, Canadian Consul in Shanghai, as ''persona non grata'', where she would be expelled by May 13.
*May 9 – Quebec's premier Francois Legault comes out opposed to a plan by Century Initiative lobby group which wants to increase immigration in Canada, saying that "it constitutes a threat to Quebec".
*May 29
**The 2023 Alberta general election is held, with Danielle Smith and the United Conservative Party retaining a reduced majority government.
** Paul Bernardo is transferred from Millhaven Institution, a maximum security prison in Ontario, to La Macaza Institution, a medium security prison in Quebec. The transfer caused controversy.

June

*June 11 – Nick Taylor becomes the first Canadian citizen to win the Canadian Open since 1954.
*June 15 – 17 people are killed and nine are injured in a vehicle collision on the Trans-Canada Highway near Carberry, Manitoba.
*June 18 – ''Titan'', a submersible carrying five people, goes missing in the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland. The submersible imploded, killing everyone in it.
*June 19 – Federal by-elections are held in:
** Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount
** Oxford
** Portage—Lisgar
** Winnipeg South Centre
*June 24 – Provincial by-elections in British Columbia are held in:
** Langford-Juan de Fuca
** Vancouver-Mount Pleasant
*June 26 – Olivia Chow wins the 2023 Toronto mayoral by-election, becoming the first visible minority person and the first woman to lead the city post-amalgamation.
*June 28 – A professor and two students are stabbed during a gender issues philosophy class at the University of Waterloo.

July

*July 2 – A ban on the testing of cosmetic products on animals is imposed by the government.
*July 5 – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrests Patrick Gordon Macdonald, the chief propagandist for neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, and charges him on three counts of terrorism.
* July 24 – 2023 Calgary Heritage federal by-election is held.
* July 27:
** 2023 Kanata—Carleton provincial by-election is held.
** 2023 Scarborough—Guildwood provincial by-election is held.

August

*August 23 – Saskatchewan follows New Brunswick's Policy 713 changes and implements a policy that requires parental consent when students under 16 years old wish to change their pronouns.

September

*September 2 – Canadian Indian residential school gravesites: During four weeks over the summer of 2023, the Pine Creek First Nation team sent to the site performed an excavation of some of the anomalies, but found no human remains.
* September 7–17 – 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.
*September 9 – At the Conservative Party of Canada 2023 policy convention, delegates voted 69%-31% to ban under 18 year olds from having gender-affirming care such as surgical interventions.
/ref>

Scheduled and unscheduled events

September

October

*October 3 – 2023 Manitoba general election.
*October 15 – 2023 Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador leadership election.

November

*November 14 – 2023 Northwest Territories general election.
*November 19 – The 110th Grey Cup will be held in Hamilton, Ontario.

December

* December 2 – 2023 Ontario Liberal Party leadership election.

Deaths

January

*January 1 – Bobby Rivard, ice hockey player (b. 1939)
*January 5
** Martin Fabi, Hungarian-born football player (b. 1942)
** Michael Snow, filmmaker and artist (b. 1928)
*January 8 – Harold Martens, rancher, farmer, and politician (b. 1941)
*January 9 – George S. Zimbel, American-Canadian documentary photographer (b. 1929)
*January 12
** Robbie Bachman, drummer (b. 1953)
**Mike Cardinal, member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta (b. 1941)
*January 13 – Peter W. Hutchins, lawyer (b. 1945)
*January 14 – David Onley, broadcaster, author, and the 28th lieutenant governor of Ontario (b. 1950)
*January 15 – Gino Odjick, ice hockey player (b. 1970)
*January 16
**Ann Thomas Callahan, nurse (b. 1935)
** Alan Glass, multidisciplinary artist and teacher (b. 1932)
*January 17
**Leon Dubinsky, actor, theatre director, and composer (b. 1950)
**Robert Simmonds, police officer and commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (b. 1926)
*January 18 – William Frank, politician (b. 1923)
*January 19 – Illya Woloshyn, actor (b. 1979)
*January 20 – Marvin Nash, Olympic sprinter (b. 1953)
*January 21
** David Howard, Olympic sailor (b. 1918)
**René Laurin, politician (b. 1940)
*January 25
**Noah Cowan, executive director of SFFILM and artistic director of TIFF Bell Lightbox (b. 1967)
** Pamela Anne Gordon, model (b. 1943)
*January 27
**Bob Chrystal, ice hockey player (b. 1930)
**David Rimmer, filmmaker (b. 1942)
** Floyd Sneed, drummer (b. 1942)
*January 28
** Eva Kushner, Czechoslovakian-born academic (b. 1929)
** Viola Léger, American-born actress and politician (b. 1930)
**Landon Pearson, politician and children's rights advocate (b. 1930)
*January 29
**Hazel McCallion, businesswoman, politician, and Mayor of Mississauga (b. 1921)
**George R. Robertson, actor (b. 1933)
*January 30 – Bobby Hull, ice hockey player (b. 1939)

February

*February 1 – Terence Dickinson, astrophotographer and amateur astronomer (b. 1943)
*February 2
**Fred, groundhog whose behaviour was used to predict weather on Groundhog Day
**Trevor Boys, race car driver (b. 1957)
** Lanny Poffo, American-Canadian professional wrestler, motivational speaker, poet, and actor (b. 1954)
*February 5
** Roslyn Swartzman, printmaker, painter, and sculptor (b. 1931)
**Kaye Vaughan, American-born football player (b. 1931)
*February 7 – Mendelson Joe, singer-songwriter, guitarist, painter, and political activist (b. 1944)
*February 10 – Ben Steinberg, composer, conductor, and music educator (b. 1930)
*February 12 – Billy Two Rivers, professional wrestler, actor, and chief of the Mohawks of Kahnawà:ke (b. 1935)
*February 13
** Guido Basso, jazz musician (b. 1937)
**Nadine Girault, politician (b. 1959)
*February 15 – Paul Jerrard, ice hockey player and coach (b. 1965)
*February 16 – Helen Fogwill Porter, writer, educator, and activist (b. 1930)
*February 17 – Don Blackburn, ice hockey player (b. 1938)
*February 18 – Peter Herrndorf, Dutch-born lawyer and media businessman (b. 1940)
*February 23 – Andrée Desautels, musician, musicologist, and music educator (b. 1923)
*February 25 – Gordon Pinsent, actor (b. 1930)

March

*March 1 – Wally Fawkes, British-Canadian jazz clarinettist and satirical cartoonist (b. 1924)
*March 6 – Ken Money, astronaut, scientist, and Olympic high jumper (b. 1935)
*March 7 – J. A. W. Gunn, political philosopher (b. 1937)
*March 8 – Richard A. N. Bonnycastle, businessman (b. 1934)
*March 10 – William R. C. Blundell, businessman (b. 1927)
*March 13
**Terry Grier, politician, lecturer, and university administrator (b. 1936)
**Glen Weir, football player (b. 1951)
*March 14 – Louisette Dussault, actress and writer (b. 1940)
*March 16
**Sharon Acker, actress and model (b. 1935)
** Claude Fournier, filmmaker (b. 1931)
**Helen Vari, Czechoslovakian-born philanthropist (b. 1931)
*March 17 – Pierre Michaud, lawyer and judge (b. 1936)
*March 20
** Dave Gardner, ice hockey player (b. 1952)
**Al Horning, politician (b. 1939)
*March 21 – Charles E. Bastien, animation director (b. 1962)
*March 24
** Bruce Sinclair, politician and Mayor of Etobicoke (b. 1928)
** Mel Semenko, football player (b. 1937)
** William D. Coleman, political scientist (b. 1950)
*March 26 – Paul Schmidt, homicide victim (b. 1986 or 1985)
*March 27 – Jocelyn Morlock, composer and music educator (b. 1969)

April

*April 1
**Ken Girard, ice hockey player (b. 1936)
** Red Robinson, disc jockey (b. 1937)
*April 2 – Greg Francis, Olympic basketball player and coach (b. 1974)
*April 8 – Matt Baldwin, curler (b. 1926)
*April 10 – Raymond Sawada, ice hockey player (b. 1985)
*April 11 – Alan Herbert, politician and activist (b. 1944)
*April 14 – Marilyn Ruth Take, figure skater (b. 1928)
*April 19 – Luc Portelance, police officer and civil servant (b. 1960)
*April 22 – Ron Cahute, musician (b. 1955)
*April 24 – Tarek Fatah, politician (b. 1934)
*April 28 – Tim Bachman, musician (b. 1951)

May

*May 1 – Gordon Lightfoot, musician (b. 1938)
*May 5
** Bruce McCall, author and illustrator (b. 1935)
**Brian McKenna, documentary film director (b. 1945)
*May 6 – Marc Lalonde, politician (b. 1929)
*May 7
**Byrna Barclay, writer and editor (b. 1940)
**Vic Stasiuk, ice hockey player and coach (b. 1929)
*May 8 – Robert L. Peters, graphic designer and educator (b. 1954)
*May 9 – Eric McCormack, Scottish-born author (b. 1938)
*May 10
**Mike Feldman, politician (b. 1927)
**Ian Hacking, philosopher (b. 1936)
*May 12 – Gerry Hart, ice hockey player (b. 1948)
*May 14 – Samantha Weinstein, actress (b. 1995)
*May 15
**Deborra Hope, journalist, anchor, and producer for CHAN-DT (b. 1955)
** Ron Northcott, curler (b. 1935)
*May 16
**Frédéric Bastien, author, historian, and journalist (b. 1969 or 1970)
** Dorothy Knowles, visual artist (b. 1927)
*May 18 – Albert Bregman, academic and psychologist (b. 1936)
*May 20 – Marv Edwards, ice hockey player (b. 1934)
*May 21 – C. Donald Bateman, electrical engineer and the inventor of the ground proximity warning system (b. 1932)
*May 22 – Daniel Brooks, theatre director, actor, and playwright (b. 1958)
*May 25 – Robert William Bradford, aviation artist (b. 1923)
*May 29 – Michel Côté, actor (b. 1950)
*May 30 – Lou Marcon, ice hockey player (b. 1935)

June

*June 2
** Willie Marshall, ice hockey player (b. 1931)
** Reno Salvail, artist, photographer, and author (b. 1947)
*June 8 – Louis LeBel, jurist (b. 1939)
*June 9 – Floyd Martin, ice hockey player (b. 1929)
*June 10 – Eric Kokish, bridge player, writer, and coach (b. 1947)
*June 11 – Rob Young, sound engineer (b. 1946 or 1947)
*June 15 – Patrick Guzman, Canadian-Filipino actor (b. 1967)
*June 18 – Sheldon Bergstrom, actor (b. 1971)
*June 22 – Marion Reid, politician and lieutenant governor of Prince Edward Island (b. 1929)
*June 23 – Omer Léger, American-born merchant and politician (b. 1931)
*June 24 – Dahrran Diedrick, Jamaican-born football player (b. 1979)
*June 26 – Tom Beynon, football player (b. 1941)
*June 27 – Daniel N. Paul, Miꞌkmaq elder, author, columnist, and human rights activist (b. 1938)
*June 28
**Sue Johanson, sex educator, public speaker, and registered nurse (b. 1930)
** William Marshall, lawyer, judge, and politician (b. 1935)
*June 29 – Stephen Owen, lawyer, administrator, and politician (b. 1948)
*June 30 – Kirk Howard, book publisher and founder and president of Dundurn Press (b. 1942)

July

*July 1 – Paul David Manson, Canadian Forces officer, fighter pilot, and businessman (b. 1934)
*July 4 – Denise Bombardier, journalist, essayist, novelist, and media personality (b. 1941)
*July 5 – Martin Stevens, pop singer (b. 1953)
*July 6 – Beverley Salmon, activist and politician (b. 1930)
*July 7 – Anne Klinck, British-born academic and writer (b. 1943)
*July 8 – Gordon Reid, businessman and the founder of Giant Tiger (b. 1933)
*July 9
** Michel Dupuy, French-born diplomat, journalist, academic, and politician (b. 1930)
**Mel Wakabayashi, Canadian-Japanese ice hockey player (b. 1943)
*July 12 – Daniel Goldberg, film producer and screenwriter (b. 1949)
*July 14 – Gerda Hnatyshyn, viceregal consort of Canada (b. 1935)
*July 15
**Billy MacMillan, ice hockey player and coach (b. 1943)
**Lew Morrison, ice hockey player (b. 1948)
*July 21
**Monte Kwinter, politician (b. 1931)
** Brian O'Neill, sports executive (b. 1929)
*July 23 – Howard Adelman, philosopher and university professor (b. 1938)
*July 25
** Pat Carney, politician (b. 1935)
**Joe Kowal, ice hockey player (b. 1956)
*July 27 – Pierre Collin, actor (b. 1938)
*July 29 – Danny Grossman, dancer and choreographer (b. 1942)

August

*August 3 – Bob Murdoch, ice hockey player and coach (b. 1946)
*August 4 – Arthur Mauro, lawyer and businessman (b. 1927)
*August 5 – Gilles Gilbert, ice hockey player (b. 1949)
*August 7 – Zenon Andrusyshyn, German-Canadian football player (b. 1947)
*August 9
**Robbie Robertson, musician (b. 1943)
**Hugh Segal, political strategist, author, commentator, academic, and senator (b. 1950)
*August 11 – Chris Axworthy, English-born politician and academic (b. 1947)
*August 13 – Rachel Laurin, organist, composer, and music educator (b. 1961)
*August 14
**James Bartleman, diplomat, author, lieutenant governor of Ontario, and chancellor of OCAD University (b. 1939)
** Bobby Baun, ice hockey player (b. 1936)
*August 17 – Rick Jeanneret, television and radio personality (b. 1942)
*August 20
** Isabel Crook, British-Canadian anthropologist, political prisoner, and professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University (b. 1915)
** Bobby Taylor, English-born football player (b. 1939)
*August 22 – Alexandra Paul, competitive ice dancer (b. 1991)
*August 24 – Keith Spicer, academic, public servant, journalist, and writer (b. 1934)
*August 26 – Yvon Pedneault, sports journalist and television and radio broadcaster (b. 1946)
*August 27 – Doug Kyle, long-distance runner (b. 1932)

September

*September 1 – Raymond Moriyama, architect (b. 1929)
*September 3 – Brad Maxwell, ice hockey player (b. 1957)
*September 5
**Adam Exner, bishop of the Catholic Church (b. 1928)
** Bruce Guthro, musician (b. 1961)
**Richard Laviolette, musician (b. 1982)
*September 7 – Peter C. Newman, Austrian-born journalist, editor, and author (b. 1929)
*September 8 – Monique Bégin, academic and politician (b. 1936)

See also

* 2023 Canadian electoral calendar
* 2023 in Canadian soccer
* 2023 in Canadian music
* 2023 in Canadian television

Notes

References

{{Year in North America, 2023

Canada
Canada
2020s in Canada
Years of the 21st century in Canada