1972

From the big scrapbook of time, here’s a look at Canada in 1972--

British Leyland introduces the Austin Marina to North Americans with a debut in Toronto. The two-door Deluxe Coupe lists for $2,395 when equipped with the four-speed manual transmission. A total of 4,597 Austins sell during the 1972 calendar year.

January 1: Winnipeg becomes the country’s third largest city today as it swallows up a dozen suburbs and neighbouring municipalities.

January 1: Taxpayers will be obliged to hand over to Ottawa a portion of capital gains for the first time.

Export "A" is a popular brand of cigarettes, made in Quebec City.

January 1: Cigarette advertising is banned from TV, radio, magazines, newspapers and movies.

January 6: Colonel Sam McLaughlin is dead in Oshawa, Ontario at the age of 100. He was a founder of the McLaughlin automobile company in 1908 and became a VP of General Motors when it snapped up McLaughlin in 1918, making it General Motors of Canada, Limited.

Canadian Pacific and Nordair are two carriers affected by the air traffic controllers' strike.

February 6: The nation’s 1,700 air traffic controllers are on strike. They can’t walk off the job because they offer an essential service but they create havoc with massive slowdowns. The workers have rejected a 15.5 percent pay hike over 28 months.

February 25:  Ontario Hydro’s $570 million nuclear power plant in Pickering is open. Premier Bill Davis and Ontario Hydro’s chairman George Gathercole cut the ribbon. When running at capacity, it will produce two million kilowatt hours of power.

February 28: Attended by 1,000 people, this year’s Juno Awards are held in Toronto. Anne Murray and Gordon Lightfoot win in the best female and male vocalist categories. A best group Juno goes to the Stampeders.

Gordie Howe was born in Floral, Saskatchewan. His jersey is retired from service.

March 12: Gordie Howe hangs up his skates for the last time. The hockey legend has hit the ice for 26 seasons. The Red Wings offer Mr. Hockey a job in the front office and he accepts.

The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is designed in the Beaux-Art style of architecture. It opened in 1913 and cost $2 million.

March 16: Lights! Camera! Action! Sittings of the Alberta legislature are now broadcast on radio and television.

March 17: Pop star Neil Young’s hit song Heart of Gold reaches the top of the music charts in the United States.

March 22: Elvis Stojko is born in Richmond Hill, Ontario. He will grow up to be a professional skater—the first person to land a quadruple jump--bring home two Olympic silver medals and win a rink full of world skating championships.

March 25: After 23 years of Liberal rule, voters in Newfoundland and Labrador turn to Frank Moores and his Conservatives to govern the province. The Grits, who have been in power since Newfoundland joined Confederation in 1949, are stunned as the Tories take 33 of the 42 seats in the House of Assembly.

April 1: American Motors Canada Limited poked a little fun at itself when it introduced the subcompact Gremlin two years ago, today. It's the first domestically built subcompact and will sell like hotcakes. Workers in Brampton, Ontario build 37,335 Gremlins in calendar year 1972. Most of the pint-sized AMC subcompacts are for export; Gremlins are sold domestically during the year.

April 11: Hydro-Quebec employees, teachers and hospital staff walk off their jobs in a province-wide strike. The 200,000 angry workers will be legislated back to work after two weeks on the picket lines. It is the largest single strike in national history.
 

April 15: No longer will one need to protest with bumper stickers that read, “Lake Erie Died For Your Sins.” Prime Minister Trudeau and US President Nixon sign the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The initiative calls for a massive cleanup of toxic substances, including a 50-percent reduction in the amount of phosphorus dumped into the system. Ottawa commits $250 million to the project and the US will spend $2 billion.

April 6:  A bomb explodes at the Cuban Trade Commission in Montreal killing one person.

April 20: Author Max Braithwaite wins the Leacock Humour Award for his hilarious novel, The Night We Stole the Mountie’s Car.

May 11: The Boston Bruins take home the Stanley Cup tonight, skating to victory over the New York Rangers. The final score is four games to two.

Martin Brodeur will spend his entire NHL career with the New Jersey Devils.

May 16: Martin Brodeur is born in Montreal. He will grow up to be one of the best hockey goaltenders of all times and the only NHL goaltender to win both a Stanley Cup and Olympic Gold.

May 17: The LeDain Commission reports that marijuana for personal use should be legalized.

May 23: Richard Day is dead at the age of 76. Born in Victoria, BC, the Hollywood art director won seven Oscars for his film work. Richard worked on more than 260 movies between 1923 and 1970.

May 29: Members of the National Assembly in Quebec City ban salmon fishing off the Gaspe coast to give stock a chance to replete itself.

May 31: The Order of Canada has created a new “Member” category to honour citizens who make outstanding contributions to community or regional life. The award will be given to 135 deserving people each year.

June 3: Some 2,000 fans attempt to crash a Rolling Stones concert in Vancouver. The mob injures 31 policemen.

June 16: The Churchill Falls Hydro-Electric generating facility is officially open. The world’s largest single producer of electricity cost $976 million and took 6,300 workers five years to build. The mammoth powerhouse cranks out 7 million horsepower of energy annually.

June 19: The 2,000 members of the Canadian Airline Pilots Association join an international 24-hour pilots’ strike to demand better security in airports and a halt to hijacking. 

June 22: The five-month long labour dispute is over as 2,200 CBC broadcast technicians return to work.

July 16: Charlie Chamberlain dies in Bathurst, New Brunswick at the age of 61. The popular singer was one of Don Messer's Islanders since the band began broadcasting on CFCY in Charlottetown in 1939.

July 17:  A bomb explodes at the Montreal Forum, blowing up an equipment truck that belongs to the Rolling Stones. The perpetrator is never arrested and the Stones rock on with their fans as planned.

July 22: Colin Ferguson is born in Montreal. He will grow up to become a stand-up comic with On The Spot, a Montreal improv group as well as a star of the silver screen. He will play the role of Sheriff Jack Carter on the sci-fi drama, Eureka. 

July 31: The CBC and CTV have a little competition on their hands as the CRTC grants a broadcasting license to the Global Television Network. The new kid on the block will serve southwestern Ontario at first. Global will spread across the country and finally be complete in 1997 when it begins broadcasting in Quebec City.

July 31: Acting on the LeDain Commission report, the Crown will no longer prosecute people arrested for simple possession of marijuana.

August 1: Tanya Reid is born in Dryden, Ontario. She will catch the acting bug and after training at the Gastown Actor’s Studio in Vancouver will score some fine acting roles. In 2005 she will play the role of news editor Kennedy Marsh on The Eleventh Hour, the top-rated CTV drama.

September: Meteor turns 25 as the 1973 models debut. A specially trimmed Silver Anniversary edition honours the occasion. Workers at Ford of Canada have built nearly  600,000 Meteors have been built since the mid-priced line bowed in April of 1948 as 1949 models.

September 11: Canada AM debuts on CTV. The 90-minute news show starts at 7am in most time zones and quickly becomes the nation's most watched morning program. The show will be expanded to a two-and-half hour format in 1983.

September 27: The sale of firecrackers is banned throughout the country.

September 28: In Moscow, Team Canada whips the Soviet Union in a knuckle-biting game, the last of the eight-game Summit Series. Paul Henderson scores the winning goal with 34 seconds left on the clock.

September 28: CityTV signs on the air in Toronto for the first time. Its unconventional programming, late night “blue movies” and hard hitting news will make it one of the most watched independent television stations in the country. CityTV will grow into a national network by 2012.

This commemorative one-dollar coin commemorates the 60th Grey Cup.

December 3: The Hamilton Tiger Cats stomp the Saskatchewan Roughriders 13 to 10 to win the Grey Cup.

October 11:  The first game in the World Hockey Association is played at the Ottawa Civic Centre as the Edmonton Oilers whip the Ottawa Nationals 7 to 4. The league will fold in 1979.

October 20: Harold Ballard, the much hated president of Maple Leaf Gardens and owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, is sentenced to three years in the Kingston Penitentiary for 47 counts of theft tax evasion and fraud. He will serve one year of his time and repay the $205,000 stolen from the public company.

November 2: The ballots have been counted. In one of the hottest federal elections ever contested, Robert Stanfield’s Tories have 109 seats and so do the Liberals. Prime Minister Trudeau will not call upon the New Democrats or the Socreds to form a minority government.

November 9: Anik A-1 is launched into outer space. It is the world’s only non-military communications satellite. Anik A-1 will knit the nation more tightly together. ATelephone calls, radio and television signals transmitted from Halifax to Vancouver now takes only seconds.

The Right Honourable Lester Pearson was the nation's fourteenth Prime Minister.

December 27: Former Prime Minister Lester Bowles Pearson is dead of cancer at the age of 75. The World War Two spy won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for his concept of peacekeeping. Buried in Wakefield, Quebec, Pearson will be most remembered for universal Medicare, the Canada Pension Plan, creating the student loan programme and introducing the maple leaf flag. In 1984, the airport in Toronto will be renamed in his honour.

Dodge Dart is holds down the ninth spot in sales this year.

December 31: The Top Ten selling automobile nameplates this year are Toyota; full-sized Chevrolet; Datsun; full-sized Ford; Plymouth Valiant; Volkswagen; Ford Torino; full-sized Pontiac; Dodge Dart and Chevrolet Chevelle.

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