1909

From the big scrapbook of time, here’s a look at Canada in 1909-

January 11: The Anglican Church lobbies Ottawa to crack down on pornography by pressing for laws to make it illegal to sell “immoral literature.” 

January 12: Canada and the United States sign an accord to preserve Niagara Falls. The British Ambassador to the United States signs the Boundary Treaty to preserve shared waters on behalf of Canada since we will not have an ambassador of our own in Washington until 1947.

February 23:  Near Baddeck, Nova Scotia a dumbfounded crowd of onlookers watches in amazement as the Silver-Dart flying machine soars into the air over a frozen lake and sails along in the air for half a mile at 75 kilometres (40 miles per hour). It is the first flight in the British Empire. Douglas McCurdy is at the controls but the credit belongs to Alexander Graham Bell—inventor of the telephone—for being the brains behind the scheme.

March 22: Gabrielle Roy is born in St. Boniface, Manitoba. She will win worldwide acclaim for her 1947 novel, “The Tin Flute.” Though she will die in 1983 her work will live on. In 2004 a quote from her book, “The Hidden Mountain” will be printed on the back of the $20 bill issued by the Bank of Canada. 

A 1909 Tudhope is seen here.

April 11: The Bell Telephone Company of Canada, Limited buys its first automobile. It is a Tudhope, built in Orillia, Ontario. The Tudhope brand will disappear in 1918 but, by 1926, Ma Bell will own 429 motorized vehicles.

April 29: A pickle and vinegar factory opens in Leamington, Ontario on the site of Ward's Tobacco Limited. The new  company's name is H.J. Heinz.   Production of ketchup will start next year.

April 29: Exotic dancer Millie De Leon is arrested by Montréal police for “indecent exposure” while performing. It is the first such arrest in the city in a dozen years.

May 1: Toronto is a little drier than yesterday as city fathers strip may bars and pubs of their liquor licenses. Now there are only 41 establishments in all of Hogtown where one may wet one’s whistle.

May 7: The Edmonton, Yukon and Pacific Railway amalgamates with the Canadian Northern Railway. The new CNoR will now be able to secure government monies in order to extend track from Stony Plains south to the coalfields in the Brazeau River Valley.

May 12: The H. J. Heinz Company of Canada Limited sets up shop on Erie Street in a converted tobacco factory in Leamington, Ontario. There are seven people in the office and 60 on the factory floor. A skilled labourer earns 15 cents an hour, works an honest ten-hour day and takes home an $18 paycheque. 

May 9: Don Messer is born on a farm near Tweedside, York County, New Brunswick. He will learn to play the fiddle when he is five, become a bandleader and host of his own radio show on CFBO in Saint John. Don Messer and the Islanders will be criss-cross the country 30 times, many of them in a capacious 1948 Hudson Hornet. He will be the host of Don Messer’s Jubilee on CBC Radio from 1944 and then on CBC-TV from 1957 to 1969. Don will die of a heart attack in Halifax in 1973.

June 1: The Ministry of External Affairs comes into existence. Its first task will be to sort out free trade with our American neighbours. 

June 3: William Lyon Mackenzie King is sworn in as the country’s first Minister of Labour. 

June 7: Sir William Francis Butler is dead at his residence, Bansha Castle in Ireland. The army commander authored The Great Lone Land, published in 1872, a highly colourful account of his 6,000-kilometre trek across this country’s western wilderness by foot, horseback and dogsled. Butler recommended the establishment of law and order before immigrants arrived. His recommendations prompted the formation of the Northwest Mounted Police.

June 22: The superstructure for the Lethbridge Viaduct is complete. Created for Canadian Pacific Railway, the engineering marvel stands 95.7 metres (314 ft) tall and spans 1.62 kilometres (5,327 feet) in length.

Dominion Day: Captain Joseph-Elzear Bernier unveils a plaque on Melville Island in the Arctic, declaring Canada’s sovereignty over the north. Bernier’s ship, the CGS Arctic, is frozen in ice but the vessel is festooned with Union Jacks to honour the nation’s birthday. 

July 3: Forest fires rip through the Porcupine District of northern Ontario. A third of the people who live in the town of Cobalt—2,000 in total—are homeless as a result of the fires.

July 11: Simon Newcomb is dead today at the age of 85 in Washington, D.C. He was born in Wallace, Nova Scotia in 1835. The astronomer and mathematician is best known for his astronomical tables - ephemerides, or tables of computed places of celestial bodies over a period of time, and for his tables of astronomical constants.

August 13: Martial law is declared in Fort William (Thunder Bay) as His Worship reads the Riot Act publicly after striking CPR dock workers square off against the CPR police. Shot are fired and ten are wounded in the ensuing battle. 

Ten Tudhope motor buggies were lost in the blaze. A 1909 Tudhope electric delivery wagon is seen here.

August 22: At two o’clock a fire starts in the paint room at the Tudhope-McIntyre factory in Orillia, Ontario. Flames reduce the plant to cinders but the owners will rebuild and commence manufacturing automobiles in January of next year.

August 31: Everything is set for tomorrow’s official opening of the Canadian Pacific Railway’s Spiral Tunnels in British Columbia’s Kicking Horse Pass. It has taken 1,000 workers three years and $1.5 million to blast the twin passageways under Mt. Ogden and Cathedral Mountain. 

September – Ford of Canada opens a wholly owned subsidiary in Australia. Since people buy cars in warm months and September heralds spring down under, the factories in Windsor, Ontario will be humming year round as workers churn out Model Ts. 

September 1: A report released by the Winnipeg City Health Inspector reveals horrific living conditions in the overcrowded capital. There is an acute housing shortage—as many as 12 people are living in a single room. 

Vinegar and pickles are the first products to made at Heinz' Leamington, Ontario factory. Ketchup production will begin next year.

September 9: Heinz Canada employs 75 people in its Leamington, Ontario plant. Everyone works ten hours a day. Women earn $1 to $1.25 a day but men earn anywhere from 15c to 32c an hour.

September 17: The McLaughlin Motor Car Company of Oshawa, Ontario is recapitalized at $1.2 million. The factory will produce 423 automobiles by year’s end. 

October -- The Winnipeg branch of the Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited is established. It is bold move by Ford—there are only 34 motor cars in the entire province. Serving the eight dealers in Alberta and the 32 dealers in Manitoba, the Winnipeg branch will sell 308 Fords during its first year of operation: 123 in Manitoba, 131 in Saskatchewan and 54 in Alberta.

October 19: It's a bright idea! The Calgary Power Company Limited is formed. The entity will provide hydro for citizens of Cowtown.

October 19: Robert Beatty is born in Hamilton, Ontario. He will grow up to become a star of radio, the silver screen and television, mostly in the UK. He will have roles in such classics as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Jesus of Nazareth, Superman III and Superman IV. He will die in 1992.

November 28: A flash flood kills nearly 30 workers of a track repair crew on board a Great Northern train. Those who died were mostly Japanese. 

December 4: The University of Toronto beats the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club 26 to 6 to win the Grey Cup. There is a slight problem, however. Governor General Lord Grey announced the trophy but forgot to have it made. The silver cup will be presented to the winning team as soon as it is cast. 

December 4: The Montreal Canadiens are founded as part of the original six member clubs of the National Hockey Association. The Habs will go on to become one of the most successful teams in hockey history, winning more Stanley Cups than any other. 

December 25: One of the most popular Christmas presents under the tree this year—for girls anyway--is a new book entitled Anne of Green Gables. Written by Lucy Maude Montgomery, the winsome tale will immortalize the loveable little orphan girl and put tiny Prince Edward Island on the world map. 

December 31: More than 10,000 Quebeckers have bid ‘adieu’ to la belle province this year to seek work elsewhere. Most have moved to the New England States in hopes of making a better life for themselves in the textile mills there.

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.