1994

From the big scrapbook of time, here’s a look at Canada in 1994-

The Honda Civic is the second best-selling car in Canada this year.

January 1: The North American Free Trade Agreement comes into effect. With Canada, the United States and Mexico all signing the treaty, NAFTA is the largest common market in the world. 

February 12: King Harald V of Norway declares the Olympic Games in Lillehammer to be officially open. Skating champ Kurt Browning carries the flag for Canada.

February 27: Closing ceremonies for the XVII Olympic Winter Games take place today.  Our athletes come home with thirteen medals, including three gold.  

John Candy

March 4: Actor John Franklin Candy is dead of a heart attack at the age of 43 in Mexico while filming Wagons East! The Toronto-born comedian made nearly 50 movies including Canadian Bacon.  He will be honoured with a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame and Canada Post will remember him with a stamp issued in 2006.

 March 5: The last of the Alberta Liquor Control Board's 202 stores have been sold to private companies.

March 17: Those good 'ole $1.44 days are gone at the nation's 160 Woolco stores as the chain is sold to a brand new company, Wal-Mart Canada.

Roch Voisine was born in Saint-Basile, New Brunswick.

March 20: Rock Voisine is host for this year’s Juno Awards held at the O’Keefe Centre in Toronto. He takes home a Juno for best male vocalist. Celine Dion earns a Juno for best female vocalist. Neil Young wins a Juno for Harvest Moon, the best album, and the Rankin Family wins a Juno for their hit single of the year, Fare Thee Well Love.

March 23: Wayne Gretzky scores the 802^nd goal of his career, overtaking the record set by Gordie Howe.

April 5: Three men rob the Just Desserts restaurant in Toronto a little after 11 pm.  Armed with a shotgun, they demand patrons’ wallets. When one refuses to hand his over, 23-year old Georgina “Vivi” Leimonis is killed in the ensuing scuffle. The men will be arrested and tried. Two will serve time; a third will be acquitted and deported to his native Jamaica.

June – The federal government gives an Ontario farmer permission to grow four hectares of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

June 3: Queen Elizabeth unveils a granite war memorial in Green Park—across the street from Buckingham Palace--to pay tribute nearly a million Canadians who served in the First and Second World Wars.

Some 6,000 American, British and Canadian soldiers were killed on D-Day invasion of France.

June 6: Thousands of people are in Normandy, France to mark the 50th anniversary of D-Day when 160,000 Allied soldiers stormed the beaches to defeat the Nazis.

 

The Rangers win their first Stanley Cup in 54 years.

June 14: The New York Rangers beat the Vancouver Canucks to skate home with Lord Stanley’s Cup. It is an especially bitter defeat for the Canucks; this is their second time to the NHL's playoffs and their second time to lose. Fans will riot in Vancouver and police will watch video tapes in order to lay charges against those who participated.

July 21: Dorothy Chandler Collins is dead of complications due to asthma at the age of 67. Born in Windsor, Ontario, the singer and actor launched her career on Windsor and Detroit radio stations before making it big on TV's Your Hit Parade in the 1950's, singing the "Be happy, go Lucky" jingle for Lucky Strike cigarettes. She then graduated to crooning the week’s top music hits. Later she worked with Allen Funt at Candid Camera, helping to set up the practical jokes played on unsuspecting participants.

August 31: The last troops have left and Canadian Forces Base Lahr is decommissioned. In the 1950s the RCAF opened CFB Lahr in West Germany air to honour its commitment to our NATO neighbours in helping to fight the Cold War.

October 1: – Managements locks out the players of the National Hockey League. The whole first half of the season will be lost because the two sides can’t agree to get back on the ice until January 11 of next year.

October 5: Members of the Order of the Solar Temple die in a mass suicide and murder ritual. Based in Morin Heights, Quebec, police find 53 bodies after a timer trips a device to set the compound’s buildings on fire. Similar horror has taken place at the Solar Temple Lodge in Switzerland. Members of the cult believe that by dying, they go straight to heaven.

The Giller Prize is the richest literary prize in the country.

November 3: The first Giller Prize--$25,000—is awarded to M.G. Vassanji for his novel, “The Book of Secrets.” The literary award was established last year in memory of the late Doris Giller, former book editor for the Montreal Gazette and the Toronto Sun.

The 82nd Grey Cup match was honoured with a stamp from Canada Post in 2012.

 November 27: Vancouver plays host to the Canadian Football League's 82^nd Grey Cup game. Tom Cochrane puts on the half-time show for the 55,097 fans who pack BC Place. The BC Lions pull the fat out of the fire in the last quarter to beat the Baltimore Stallions 26 to 23. 

Lucien Bouchard was born in Saint-Cœur-de-Marie, Quebec.

December – The Honourable Lucien Bouchard, Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition in Parliament, is diagnosed with necrotizing fascilitis. The rare bacterial disease will cause him to lose a leg.

December 7: Grahame Greene is host for the 15^th Genie Awards held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Exotica gets the nod for best picture. Maury Chaykin wins a best actor Genie for his role as a reclusive former rock star in Whale Music and Sandra Oh gets a best actress Genie for her role as Jade Li in Double Happiness.

December 10: Track and field athlete Alex Wilson is dead at the age of 89. He brought home Olympic medals from Amsterdam in 1928 and again in the 1932 from the Los Angeles games.

The Ford Escort is the ninth best-selling car this year.

December 31:  The Top Ten selling automobiles this year are: The Chevrolet Cavalier, the Honda Civic, the Pontiac Grand Am, the Plymouth and Dodge Neon, the Pontiac Sunbird, the Ford Taurus, the Chrysler Intrepid, the Honda Accord, the Ford Escort and the Toyota Corolla.