1925

From the big scrapbook of time, here’s a look at Canada in 1925--

The 1925 Chevrolet Superior Sedan is one of 24,775 units that will be built in Oshawa, Ontario by workers at General Motors of Canada, Limited.

January 8: The Niagara Peninsula Fruit Growers’ Association meets the feds in St. Catherines, Ontario tonight. The farmers demand the federal government impose an import tax of 20 percent on fruit and vegetables that come to market before Canadian products are ripe. This will stop Americans from dumping their produce here.

January 14:  Federal officials report that the European demand for caviar has virtually wiped out Canada’s entire sturgeon population. It is estimated the catch is off by as much as 98 percent in some areas.

January 25: Claude Ryan is born in Montreal. He will grow up to be editor of Le Devoir, the most important newspaper in Quebec. He will lead the referendum on sovereignty, beating Rene Levesque and then lose the provincial election. Ryan will be the Liberal Minister of Education under Robert Bourassa. Ryan will die of stomach cancer in 2004.

Groundhog’s Day:  People living in the UK who have wireless sets hear the first ever radio programme from Canada. The show is broadcast from the Canadian National Railways Centre in Moncton.

Supertest is based in London, Ontario. It will operate filling stations in Ontario and Quebec until it is sold to BP in 1971.

February 23:  Angry members of the Ontario Motor League flock to Queen’s Park to protest the new two-cent-a-gallon tax on gasoline. The Premier of Ontario lectures the drivers on their selfishness and points out that $5 million is already being spent to build roads. He astonishes the outraged drivers by telling them they will pay a three-cent tax and that it will raise another $3 million for Ontario’s treasury.

February 24: The Lake of the Woods Treaty assigns joint control and responsibility over the pristine nature area by Canada and the United States.

March 7: In Truro, Nova Scotia 12,000 coal miners refuse to go down into the mines. They will strike until August 6.

March 30: The Victoria Cougars beat the Montreal Canadiens three games to one for the Stanley Cup. It is the last time a non-NHL team will win the trophy.

April 13: No longer the priveledge of white male property owners, women aged 25 and older are given the right to vote in the Dominion of Newfoundland.

This Ford logo first appeared in 1912. The blue background will be added with the introduction of the Model A in 1927.

April 22: Ford of Canada employees begin assembling marine engines in Ford City (Windsor), Ontario.

Denmark lays claim to parts of our Arctic. The dispute over who owns Hans Ilsand will be resolved in 1974.

 April 23: In response to threats of Arctic sovereignty by the Americans and Danes, Ottawa establishes the Northern Advisory Board. The inter-departmental body will have the last word on what goes on in our back yard. 

May 25: The world’s greatest tourist attraction, Niagara Falls, is illuminated at night for the first time. The job is done by 24 high-powered electric lamps.

June 9: Methodists, Presbyterians and Congregationalists join together to stand strong as the United Church of Canada, a newly formed Protestant denomination that stretches across this land from Sydney to Victoria.

June 11: Coal workers on strike in New Waterford, Nova Scotia clash with police, after walking picket lines for 13 weeks. William Davis is killed by police and scores of miners and law enforcement officers injured. More than 5,000 will attend Davis' funeral, including his pregnant wife and their nine children. It is estimated the strike is costing the public as much as $6,000 a day. The United Mine Workers will win the right to represent the miners.

The 1925 Chrysler Four bears a heavy resemblance to the Maxwell it replaces. Pitched to businessmen who require the maximum amount of carrying space, the Coupe promiseds to give “the utmost comfort for long hours behind the wheel.”

June 17: The Chrysler Corporation of Canada, Limited is incorporated. The company is built on the legacies of the Maxwell and Chalmers automobiles. The new automaker will be based in Windsor, Ontario and workers will build 4,747 Chrysler automobiles and phase out the Maxwell brand by year’s end.

The winter temperature on Mt. Logan is -45C at 5,000 metres.

June 23: Mount Logan is scaled for the first time. Located in the Yukon Territory, and 6,000 metres tall, it is the highest peak in Canada and the second highest in all of North America.

Canada House is seen on the left of the fountain, with our flag, the Red Ensign flying overhead.

June 29: King George V and Queen Mary officially open Canada House in London’s Trafalgar Square. The Greek Revival building is home for our High Commission to Great Britain.

This medal was struck to commemorate a sovereign treaty between Canadian Aboriginals and Queen Victoria.

July 28: Three Indian chiefs from British Columbia arrive in London to speak to King George V regarding the unfair treatment of Indians in Canada. They want His Majesty to honour the treaties signed between their nations and his Grandmother, Queen Victoria.

August 1: Canadian National Railways operates CNR Radio, North America's first coast-to-coast radio broadcasting network, using its existing telegraph lines.

August 15: Oscar Emmanuel Peterson is born in Montreal. He will grow up to be one of the greatest jazz pianists this world has ever known. His career will span more than five decades and the nimble-fingered musician will be the first living Canadian to be honoured on a commemorative stamp by Canada Post upon turning 80 in 2005.

August 16:  Sir Adam Beck is dead of anemia at the age of 68. Born in Baden, Ontario. He was known as the Hydro Knight because he brought affordable hydro-electricity to the people of Canada.

September:  The Ontario Ministry of Education will expand its “train schools” from three to seven. Railroad cars are outfitted as schools with living quarters for teachers. The rolling schools serve children of fur trappers, lumbermen, prospectors and rail employees who live in remote parts of the province.

September:  The first commercial crop of flue-cured tobacco is harvested on farms near Leamington, Ontario. Virginia tobacco has replaced the burley variety as the leaf of choice. It is believed that commercial tobacco farming may make farmers rich.

In 2014, Memorial will be the largest university in Atlantic Canada.

September 15: Memorial University College opens in St. John’s, Newfoundland with 57 students. Named in honour of the soldiers lost in battle during the Great War, the junior college will be reorganized as Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1949--a full-fledged university.

 September 2: Rogers Batteryless radio goes on sale today. The 20th Century marvel was unveiled at the Canadian National Exhibition.

The Court of Honour and the front steps of the League of Nations building.

September 7: Canadian Senator Raoul Dandurand is elected President of the League of Nations as the Sixth Assembly opens in Geneva.

The Trans-Canada Highway will open in 1962. It will be the world's longest road, more than 7,000 kilometres long.

September 8:  Edward Flickinger, chief photographer for Ford of Canada climbs into a new  Ford Model T in Halifax, After backing the rear wheels into the Atlantic Ocean, he and Dr. Perry Doolittle will drive the Tin Lizzie to Vancouver. Dr. Doolittle wants a national road that reaches from one coast to the other.

September 11: Harry Somers is born in Toronto. He will grow up to become one of this nation’s foremost musical composers, remembered for his Songs of the Newfoundland Outports. With 500 songs recorded on three albums, it will be the most comprehensive history of Newfoundland music every compiled. He will later write an opera entitled Louis Riel. He will die in 1999.

September 22: Ford of Canada reports that 47 percent of all its products have been exported this year.

October 17: Edward Flickenger and Dr. Perry Doolittle arrive in Vancouver after driving 7 715 kilometres in 38 days across Canada in a new Ford Model T. It is the first complete cross-Canada trip in an automobile.

October 29: From Sydney to Victoria, the voters have spoken. The Prime Minister has lost his seat in North York but William Lyon Mackenzie King will attempt to outwit the Tories and govern by forming an alliance with the Progressives and independent MPs elected to the new House of Commons. The plan will fail, plunging the country into a constitutional crisis.

December 5:  In its 13th match, the Winnipeg Tammany Tigers are whipped by the Ottawa Senators 24 to 1 for possession of the Grey Cup.

December 5: Dave Broadfoot is born in North Vancouver, BC. He will serve in the Merchant Navy during World War Two before starring in The Royal Canadian Air Farce on CBC Radio and later CBC-TV. Loved by millions as he performs such unforgettable characters as Big Bobby Clobber, the professional hockey player and Sergeant Renfrew of the Mounted, he will retire from acting in 2005.

December 31: Records show that 360 Ford cars and trucks as well as six Fordson tractors have been imported into the Dominion of Newfoundland since 1911.

December 31: There are 952 cars, 102 commercial vehicles and 35 motorcycles registered in the Dominion of Newfoundland.  The nation boast 1,297 licensed drivers.

  70,816 Fords were produced in Windsor, Ontario during the year.