1973

From the big scrapbook of time, here is a look at Canada in 1973-

The full-sized Chevrolet is the Number One best-selling car this year.

January 25: There are headaches aplenty for residents on the northern side of Vancouver Island. Destined to dock in Squamish, the oil tanker Irish Stardust runs aground, spilling its cargo into Alert Bay.

American soldiers, now Prisoners of War, are held captive by the North Vietnamese in a Hanoi prison.

January 27: Governor General Roland Michner is at the airport to bid farewell and good luck to a group of fifteen civilians and 130 soldiers as they leave Montreal for Saigon. The Canadians are part of the International Control and Supervision Team. Along with Hungarians, Indonesians and Poles, they will arrange prisoner exchanges and attempt to broker cease-fire arrangements between the Americans and the Viet Cong.

February 1: Louis Rasminsky steps down as Governor of the Bank of Canada. Gerald Bouey will step into his shoes and set national fiscal policy for the next fourteen years.

The CN tower will cost the Canadian National Railway $63 million.

February 5: Construction begins on the CN Tower. When it is completed two years from now, it will be the tallest freestanding structure in the world. The tower is sorely needed as a communications centre; it is difficult to receive broadcast signals in and around Metro Toronto.

February 13: Published last year, the Gendron Report is released to the public. The controversial document recommends that French be made the only official language in Quebec in order to guarantee Francophones a place in 20th Century North America.

Lester B. Pearson was the nation's 14th Prime Minister. A spy in World War Two, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957.

February 15: The Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific is inaugurated in Victoria, BC. The unique school will be one of ten United World Colleges on five continents that brings together as many as 200 students from 80 different countries to promote international harmony and understanding.

February 28: It is a boy for Carl and Bonnie Lindros of London, Ontario. Eric will grow up to be 190 centimetres tall. The “Big E” will put on his skates for the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Rangers.

March 12: Toronto Mayor David Crombie is at the Juno Awards and presents Stompin’ Tom Connors with a Juno for best country male vocalist. Anne Murray is honoured with a Juno for best female vocalist and Terry Jacks wins a Juno for best male vocalist.

Workers get $20 a week in strike pay during the long strike for better wages and living conditions.

March 15: Members of Local 5457 of the United Steelworkers of America reject the latest offer from The American Smelting and Refining Company—ASARCO—in Buchans, Newfoundland. The work stoppage is long and bitter and will not be resolved until a better contract is finally signed on October 3^rd.

March 22: St. Lawrence Seaway Authority strikes a deal with the Mohawks living in Kahnawake, Quebec. The First Nations people will be given $1.5 million and 321.7 hectares of land in compensation for the 526 hectares unilaterally expropriated in 1955.

Don Messer's Jubilee was broadcast on radio and then television from Charlottetown, PEI on CBC affiliate CFCY.

March 26: Folk music legend Donald Charles “Don” Messer is dead of a heart attack in Halifax at the age of 62. The star of Don Messer’s Jubilee was heard on the CBC from 1944 until it moved to CBC-TV in 1959. The programme was second only in popularity to “Hockey Night in Canada.”

March 28: Heritage Canada is founded. The non-profit organization is charged with the responsibility of identifying and preserving historical sites of national importance.

This satellite is one of the Anik family. Anik means 'brother' in Inuttitut, the language of the Inuit people.

April 2: The Anik A-2 satellite is launched. Once in orbit, it allows Arctic communities to receive live colour television broadcasts from southern Canada and phone service, too. Canada is the first country in the world to make use of satellites for domestic communication.

April 29: Flooding along the St. John River will cost residents of New Brunswick more than $25 million.

May 5: New Brunswick jockey, Ron Turcotte, rides Secretariat to win the Kentucky Derby in a record time of 1:59. The pair will go on to take the Triple Crown—the first time that has happened in a quarter century.

May 10: In a rematch of the 1971 playoffs, Montreal bests the Chicago Blackhawks after six games to take home the Stanley Cup.

May 18:  Prime Minister John George Diefenbaker’s family home in Prince Albert is donated to the University of Saskatchewan. Diefenbaker House will become a museum and be home to the Diefenbaker Archives.

The 1973 Oldsmobile Cutlass is takes Ninth Spot in automobile sales this year. GM publicity says the intermediate-sized car features 'Collonade Styling.'

May 29: The Canadian contingent of the International Control and Supervision Team will withdraw from Viet Nam because the committee is not impartial. 

June 5: Ottawa declares amnesty for some 50,000 illegal immigrants. They have until October 15 to apply for residency.

The star of Acadia graces the tri-colour flag of New France.

June 8: The New Brunswick Society of Acadians is established. It will enrich the lives of all Canadians and honour the heritage of some 34,000 Francophone New Brunswickers. 

June 28: Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, is in Niagara-on-the-Lake to participate in the inauguration of the Shaw Festival Theatre.

July 1:Long live the glass bottle!  Prince Edward Island bans the sale of beer in tin cans. Soft drinks sold in non-refillable plastic will be banned in 1974 and soft drink cans will be banned in 1984. The law will be repealed in 2008.

July 12: The Supreme Court of Canada rules that the Indian Act of 1876 is unconstitutional because it infringes on the human rights of Aboriginal Canadians.

July 18: Super model Christine Demeter is brutally murdered. Police find her battered body in the family home in Mississauga, Ontario. The police investigation quickly points to her husband, one of the wealthiest men in the world. The lurid details of the slaying will be revealed at a trial that will grip the entire nation. Christine’s sensational death will be the subject of numerous books and movies for years to come.

July 25: Louis St. Laurent dies in Quebec City. He is 91. St. Laurent served as the nation’s 12th Prime Minister from 1948 until the Liberals were defeated by Deifenbaker’s Tories in the general election of 1957. Under St. Laurent’s guidance, Canada joined NATO and his Minister of External Affairs, Mike Pearson, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1956 for Canada’s brilliant solution to the Suez Canal Crisis.  “Uncle Louis” will be interred in his hometown of Compton, Quebec.

August 10: A tornado is spotted in Upper Garry Lake, NWT--now Nunavut. It is the most northerly twister recorded in this country.  

August 30: Railway workers are on strike. Some 200 of them have occupied the Centre Block of the Parliament building to protest forced arbitration.

August 31: Scott Niedermayer is born in Edmonton. He will grow up to play hockey for the New Jersey Devils.

Kids in Edmonton, Alberta were the first students in the world to ever ride in a “school truck”.  Engineers at Ford of Canada invented it during World War One. For 65 years Ford buses have faithfully delivered millions of kids to school and home again. A total of 7,217 Ford school buses are built in 1973.

The Right Honourable Jules Leger and Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

October 5: Jules Leger is appointed to be the 21st Governor General of Canada. The career diplomat is currently Ambassador to Belgium. His brother is Cardinal Leger, the Archbishop of Montreal. 

OPEC member nations are marked in green.

October 17: The Organization of Petroleum Exporting States votes to cut production of oil by 5 percent and to hike the price by 70 percent to protest the American backing of Israel during the Yom Kippur War. This is good news for Alberta but not so good for other provinces. The OPEC hike will prompt the Trudeau government to set up Petro-Canada as a Crown corporation. 

The Right Honourable Wilfred Laurier was the nation's seventh Prime Minister.

November 1: Established in 1911, Waterloo Lutheran University gets a new name. Henceforth the institution of higher learning will be known as Sir Wilfred Laurier University. 

November 13: The battle may be won but the war is not over. A Montreal jury refuses to find abortion rights activist Dr. Henry Morgentaler guilty of performing an illegal abortion because the law is perceived to be unjust.

December 4: Alfred Carl Fuller is dead at the age of 88. Born and raised in Welsford, Kings County, Nova Scotia, the budding entrepreneur moved to the United States when he was 18. He founded the Fuller Brush Company, one of the most successful door-to-door businesses in the world. He will be buried in the Pleasant Valley Cemetery in Somerset, Nova Scotia. The millionaire’s home in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia will become a museum. 

December 7: The government sells a CANDU nuclear reactor to South Korea. It is the Atomic Energy Commission’s first international sale. It won the bid because the system is relatively inexpensive, using un-enriched uranium.

The Royal Canadian Air Farce will win many awards for their eight comedy albums.

December 9: Folks who tune their radio dials to the CBC are treated to the antics of a wacky new comedy troupe, The Royal Canadian Air Farce. Their weekly radio show is highly popular and will become a staple on CBC Television in years to come.  In 2008, the show will retire after 35 years of tickling our funny bones.

Volkswagen was the tenth best-selling nameplate this year.

December 31: Automakers close out the year with sales reports. The Top Ten sellers for the calendar year are Chevrolet (full size), Toyota, Datsun, Ford (full size), Plymouth Valiant, Ford Torino, Dodge Dart, Chevrolet Vega, Oldsmobile Cutlass and Volkswagen.

Visit my old car website at: The Oilspot Eh!

Copyright James C. Mays 2005
All rights reserved.