1965

From the big scrapbook of time, here’s a look at Canada in 1965-

The compact Valiant is built in Windsor, Ontario. It is one of the five brands in the ChryCo family.

January 1:  Cartwright, Newfoundland and Labrador takes a pounding as a record 182 centimetres of snow buries the town.

January 1: Trans-Canada Air Lines has a new name. The Crown corporation will henceforth be known as Air Canada. In the early 21^st Century it will be the 11^th largest air carrier in the world.

January 8: The Tilikum goes on display at the Maritime Museum in Victoria, British Columbia. The 10.9-metre red cedar dugout Nootka Indian canoe made a 65,000-kilometre voyage--leaving Victoria BC in 1902 and arriving in London, England on September 2, 1904. The trip, by way of Australia, lasted three years, three months and twelve days.

January 9: Four people are killed in Hope, BC when 46 million tonnes of rock and mud slide 2,000 metres down a mountainside, trapping travellers in their vehicles. Triggered by an earthquake, the Hope Slide is one of the worst avalanches in our history.

January 16: Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson and US President Lyndon B. Johnson sign Auto Pact, This historic trade agreement allows manufacturers to transship vehicles to each other’s countries without tariffs.

American Motors Canada Limited will be the only automaker to ship cars to the USA every month of this year.

January 28: Queen Elizabeth II signs a royal proclamation declaring that Canada will have a new flag. The flag debate has been bitter but the simple maple leaf design will become one of our most enduring national symbols.

The Red Ensign

February 15: The maple leaf flag is hoisted over the Parliament buildings for the first time. Tens of thousands of Red Ensigns are lowered for the last time all over the country at the same time and the new flag hoisted as the ceremony takes place in Ottawa.

February 17: Ships give wide berth as a 65-kilometre wide ice field moves down the coast of Newfoundland. It is the largest ever recorded.

March 1: Stewart Elliot is born in Toronto. He will grow up to be a thoroughbred jockey and in 2004 he will be the first in 25 years to win the Kentucky Derby in his first appearance.

March 1: Parks Canada announces $6 million for the creation and development of Kejimkujik National Park in southwestern Nova Scotia. The new park will cover 381 square kilometres and begin welcoming visitors in 1967.

The explosion left a six-metre deep crate.

March 1: A natural gas line explodes, levelling  a three-storey apartment building in the Montreal suburb of Lasalle. The death toll is 28 people, 39 injured and  200 people are homeless.

Bordeaux Prison is the largest penitentiary in Quebec.

March 2: Convicted heroin dealer and illegal weapons dealer Lucien Rivard climbs down a wall via water hose to escape from a Montreal prison. He will be on the lam for four months before being captured. While on the loose, he will write a letter to PM Pearson that says, “Life is short you know. I don’t intend to be in jail for the rest of my life.”

March 7: Pope John XXIII allows mass to be said in French or English instead of Latin.

MUN was established in 1925.

March 8: The government of Newfoundland and Labrador will grant free tuition to first year students attending Memorial University. No other institution of higher learning in this country has ever done such a thing.

March 11: The NHL announces six new teams, doubling hockey fun.

March 14: A crowd of 2,000 Canadians including four MPs and 25 clergy march to the US embassy in Ottawa as a show of solidarity with the American civil rights movement. Prime Minister Pearson addresses the crowd, praising them for their convictions.

March 29: The Canada Pension Plan is approved by Parliament. Quebeckers will have their own version of the retirement scheme, administered by Revenue Quebec.

The Right Honourable Lester B. Pearson is the nation's 14th Prime Minister.

April 2: The Prime Minister speaks at Temple University in Philadelphia. He tells his audience that the United States must stop bombing North Viet Nam. Mr. Pearson’s remarks not well received by US President Johnson.

The Transatlantic being salvaged.

April 10: The  7,800-tonne German freighter Transatlantic catches fire and sinks after colliding with the 5,700-tonne Dutch ship M.V. Hermes  in the St. Lawrence River, near Trois-Rivières, Quebec. Three sailors die in the marine disaster.

May 1: They take it to the wire but the Habs beat the Chicago Blackhawks in game seven to earn the Stanley Cup.

May 5: Lakehead College in Thunder Bay, Ontario becomes Lakehead University and confers its first baccalaureate degrees upon graduates.

May 10: Linda Evangelista is born in St. Catherines, Ontario. She will grace the covers of more than 600 magazines. Linda will grow up to be a 1.78-metre tall supermodel famous for her quip, “We don’t wake up for less than $10,000 a day.”

May 23: Ontario proclaims its provincial flag. It will retain the traditional Union Jack in the canton and the provincial coat of arms in the fly.

June 1: Built by Canadian Vickers in Montreal, the 95.4-metre long ice breaker and cable ship CCGS John Cabot is put into service by the Coast Guard on the Atlantic coast. It will be sold in 1994.

June 2: Catching up to the times, the Ontario government announces that alcoholic beverages may be sold on flights departing from airports within the province. Theatres, curling rinks and bowling alleys may also sell booze. Restaurants may offer libations but they must be accompanied by food.

Senators are appointed by the Governor General upon recommendation of the Prime Minister.

June 2: Senators must now retire at the age of 75 according to new legislation passed in the House of Commons.

Gloria Reuben will star in ER for six seasons. Her character will battle HIV in the hospital drama.

June 9: Gloria Reuben is born in Toronto. The youngest in a family of six kids, she will grow up to become a movie star famous for being in Timecop and  Nick of Time. In 1996 People magazine will name her one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world.

June 15: It is announced in Parliament that the CBC will begin broadcasting in colour on July 1, 1967—to coincide with Canada’s 100^th birthday.

June 28: The Trans-Canada Highway is now open in northwestern Ontario between Fort Frances and Atikokan.

June 30: The Dominion Bureau of Statistics reports that 38,327 Canadians have emigrated to the United States in the past twelve months.

Dominion Day: The Premier of Manitoba earns $14,500 a year. The Premier of Prince Edward Island earns $8,000 for doing the same job.

July 8: A bomb rips apart Canadian Pacific Airlines Flight 21 en route to Whitehorse from Vancouver. The DC-6 explodes over Dog Creek, British Columbia. All 52 on board are killed. The bombing remains a mystery to this day.

Federal and provincial flags in 2013.

July 19: The First Ministers conference opens in Ottawa. For the first time in history delegations representing the Northwest Territories and the Yukon are included.

July 22: The Ontario Court of Appeal in Toronto grants Canadian citizenship to an atheist immigrant couple. Ernest and Cornelia Bergsma of Holland were previously denied citizenship in this country because they do not believe in God.

July 27: Workers at the Heinz factory in Leamington, Ontario strike. Farmers worry what will happen to their tomatoes and cucumbers . Members of Local P-459 will sign a new deal in 24 days.

August 28: Shania Twain is born in Windsor, Ontario. She will grow up to become a pop and country singer with a string of hits and sales of more than 60 million albums.

September – A new programme debuts on CBC FM. Ideas, radio for the mind, will have more than 400,000 faithful listeners and still be popular in the 21^st Century.

September 9: A report recommends that Ottawa form an agency to oversee broadcasting. Creation of the Canadian Radio and Television Commission will be the result in 1968.

September 13: At a cost of $31 million, Toronto’s new City Hall is dedicated by Governor General Georges Vanier. Designed by Finnish architect Viljo Revell, his design called for two elegantly curved towers to flank the two-storey Council Chamber building.

September 15: Ontario Premier John Robarts is in Leamington along with company officials to open the $9 million upgraded Heinz production facility. The factory will close in 2014.

September 23: Inco, the nation’s largest mining company, announces it will spend $79 million to expand its operations in Sudbury.

October 5: Mario Lemieux is born in Montreal. He will grow up and strap on skates for the Pittsburgh Penguins and wind up owning the NHL franchise.

October 5: Patrick Roy is born in St-Foy, Quebec. He will tend goal for the Montreal Canadiens and the Colorado Avalanche. St. Patrick will be voted NHL’s greatest goalie in 2004.

October 6: Newfoundland Premier Joey Smallwood tells the press that there will be free tuition for university students.

1965 Renault 16 is a large and roomy fastback model.

November – SOMA begins production of selected Renault and Peugeot automobiles in Beloil, Quebec. Assembly will cease in 1973 when workers go on strike.

November 8: The Liberals, under Lester B. Pearson, will form a second minority government. Pearson names World War Two Japanese army code cipher clerk Judy LaMarsh to his cabinet.

November 9: Much of eastern North America is plunged into a blackout after an Ontario Hydro failure at the Niagara Falls generating station. Some 25 million people are without hydro for up to 12 hours. New York City is especially hard hit. The incident will be made into a Hollywood comedy, starring Doris Day, entitled, Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?

November 27: The Hamilton Tiger Cats whip the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 21 to 16 to win the Grey Cup. Held at the CNE Stadium in Toronto, the winds are so strong that the 53^rd fall football classic will be referred to as the Wind Bowl.

November 29:  Research satellite Allouette II is launched from California. It will study the ionosphere until it is terminated on August 1, 1975.

December 25: Folks have bought $1.1 million worth of UNICEF cards from kids who came door-to-door before Hallowe’en and Christmas. Ottawa matches our generosity with another $1 million.

December 31: We spent $4.5 billion on gasoline this year to fill up the 6.9 million vehicles that run the nation’s roads.