1995

From the big scrapbook of time, here’s a look at Canada in 1995-

Honda Civic is the second best-selling car this year.

January 1: Radio-Canada launches its Reseau-d’Information, the all-news network, RDI for short.

January 7: The opening of Parliament is seen by Canadians on live television for the first time ever as CPAC takes to the airwaves.

January 11: The hockey lockout is over. Half a season is lost but the teams will lace up their skates and make the best of what’s left of the season.

January 18: Already in trouble for its actions in Somalia Affair, a shocking home movie showing the brutish hazing rituals of the Canadian Airborne Regiment surfaces and is made public. Reaction from the military establishment is swift in response and the regiment  is ordered disbanded a week later.

January 23: His DNA has set him free. Guy Paul Morin, age 36, has served 11 years in prison for the murder of nine-year old Christine Jessop—a murder he did not commit.

February 14: Richard Weber of Chelsea, Quebec and Russian MD Mikhail Mlakhov leave Ward Hunt Island, NWT on skis. They plan to ski to the North Pole and back by themselves.

February 21: The neighbours are visiting. President William Clinton of the United States is in Ottawa and addresses Parliament.

March 7: The Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. will buy Texasgulf, Inc. The Crown corporation will pay is US$810 million for the North Carolina conglomerate.

March 5: The Canadian Airborne Regiment is permanently disgraced as a result of “The Somalia Affair." The elite tactical force is officially disbanded at a laying-up of the colours ceremony held on the Canadian Forces Base at Petawawa, Ontario. The 660 paratroopers are dismissed for the last time.

The CCGS Sir Wilfred Grenfell was built in Marystown, NL in 1987.

March 9: The Turbot War heats up as fish stocks in the Atlantic Ocean dwindle. The Canadian Coast Guard Ship, Sir Wilfred Grenfell, seizes the Spanish trawler, the Estai, for illegal fishing on the edges the Grand Banks. The Spanish are caught red-handed: the size of the net’s mesh is far smaller than allowed by international treaty.

March 15: Former Nova Scotia Premier Gerald Regan is charged with 16 counts of child abuse. He will go to trial for eight counts and be acquitted of the charges.

Tragically Hip will have will earned 14 Junos by 2013.

March 26: The entire cast of This Hour Has 22 Minutes plays host to this year’s Juno Awards held in Hamilton, Ontario. Entertainer of the Year Juno goes to The Tragically Hip. A Best Female Artist Juno is won by Jann Arden who also wins the Single of the Year Juno for Could I be Your Girl. A Best Male Artist Juno is won by Neil Young. And Celine Dion wins a Best Album Juno for The Colour of My Love.

March 31: In a surprise move, Prime Minister Chretien appoints former Progressive Conservative MP Perrin Beatty to be head of the CBC.

April 9: Maple Leaf Garden has a new owner as grocery magnate Steve Stavro buys the national treasure from the estate of Harold Ballard.

April 16: The Turbot War is officially over as Canada and the European Union reach an agreement on North Atlantic fishing rights.

April 26: It is estimated that as may as a million households have illegal satellite TV from the US. Now, satellite TV is legal here at home. Express Vu is owned by Bell Canada and Star Choice ccomes from Shaw.

April 29: Pass the mustard, please! Folks in Kitchener, Ontario can be proud of making the world's longest sausage. It measures 48 kilometres in length.

May 10: An Ontario judge rules that lesbian couples have the right to adopt children.

May 10: Teachers in Windsor, Ontario have laid down their picket signs and returned to their classrooms today only because they have been legislated back to work.

May 17: - Hockey legend Hector 'Toe' Blake is dead in Montreal at the age of 82. The Victoria Mines, Nova Scotia native played left wing for the Montreal Canadiens. Winning the Hart Trophy in 1939, he led the Habs to two Stanley Cups as a player and eight more as a coach.

May 18: The sensational trial of serial killer Paul Bernardo begins in Toronto. His wife, Karla Homulka, will testify against him in exchange for a lesser sentence.

Toyota's Canada will mark its 25th anniversary in 2011 and the 5-millionth car will roll out the factory doors in 2012.

May 24: Toyota’s South Plant in Cambridge, Ontario gets the nod from J.D. Power & Associates—the quality experts—as the best auto factory in North America.

May 31: The RCMP offer $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those involved in the explosion of Air India flight 182.

June 6: It still tastes Canadian, eh. Labbatt’s Brewery is sold to a Belgian beverage company. The company has been wetting whistles since 1847.

June 9: More than 5,000 people are evacuated from their homes in Medicine Hat, Alberta as flood waters of the swollen South Saskatchewan River overflow their banks.

June 13: Members of Parliament pass a controversial gun control bill that bans hand guns and requires that all legal firearms be registered.

June 15: The G-7 Summit is hosted by Canada. The setting this time around as world leaders gather is that sparkling jewel on the Atlantic, Halifax.

June 15: Richard Weber of Chelsea, Quebec and Russian MD Mikhail Mlakhov reach Ward Hunt Island, NWT on skis. They have returned from an astonishing 108-day trek the North Pole.

August – The 1,000^th Tim Horton’s store opens. This doughnut treatery is in Ancaster, Ontario.

August 1: Ottawa sportscaster Brian Smith is shot and killed in the CJOH parking lot by a an escaped mental patient who claimed voices told him to go to the TV station and kill someone. Smitty will die the next day.

August 8: Wendy’s, the fast food chain, merges with the parent corporation of Tim Horton's, the king of coffee and doughnuts. The two companies will part ways in 2006.

August 1: Sydney, Nova Scotia disappears as it is merged into the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, a.k.a. the CBRM. The new entity is made up of the City of Sydney; the Towns of Dominion, Glace Bay, New Waterford, North Sydney, Sydney Mines, Louisbourg and the Municipality of the County of Cape Breton.

In 2012 the Toronto Transit Commission will boast 70 kilometres of track and an average of 1,054,200 passengers will ride The Rocket every day.

August 11: In operation since 1954, the first fatal accident occurs in the Toronto Transit Commision’s subway. Three are dead as a result.

September 6: The federal government announces it will sell off most of its interest in Petro-Canada. The Crown corporation was established in 1975 to create a Canadian presence in the oil and gas industry.

September 11: Hurricane Luis, the 12^th and most deadly storm of the season, hits Newfoundland, causing more than $2 million in damages and killing two people on the Avalon Peninsula.

October 24: The Cree of James Bay vote to remain with Canada should Quebec separate from the rest of the country.

October 30: Quebeckers vote in a highly emotional referendum as to whether or not they will be an independent nation or remain in Canada. The vote is tight; 50.58 percent in favour of staying to 49.42 percent in favour of going it alone.

October 31: Members of the House of Assembly in St. John’s vote to scrap the old denominational school system in favour of an up-to-date, modern public school system for Newfoundland and Labrador.

November – The first Chapters open in Burnaby, British Columbia and Burlington, Ontario. Consumers love the huge airy stores, the comfy couches and the snack bars. Soon there will be 77 of the super bookstores from coast to coast.

November 4: Radarsat is launched. The spy satellite will keep a protective eye over Canada.

24 Sussex Drive, in Ottawa is the official home of the Prime Minister.

November 5: An intruder breaks into 24 Sussex Drive at 2.10 am and attempts to assassinate Prime Minister Chretien. Arrested by the RCMP, Andre Dallaire tells Mounties he hears voices who tell him he is a secret agent acting for Quebec independence. The voices have instructed him to avenge the recent referendum defeat by killing the PM. He will be convicted of attempted murder but never stand trial because his is paranoid schizophrenic.

November 5: Convicted of the torture slayings of teenage girls, Paul Bernardo is declared a dangerous offender and will never be eligible for parole.

November 20: Allegations bubble that former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney had his hand in the cookie jar in regards to a contract with European Airbus corporation. An angry Mulroney files for $50 million in a defamation suit against the federal government.

November 28: A Crown corporation since 1918, Canadian National Railways, a.k.a. the CNR and CN Rail, is privatized as stocks hit the market. CN operates throughout Canada and the United States. It is one of the largest rail systems in the world.

December 6: Shunned  by many western Canadians, the $2 bill is about to disappear. It will be replaced next year by a new $2 coin that the Royal Canadian Mint begins striking today. Users will nickname the bi-metallic coin as the ‘Toonie,’ and the bear on the obverse side will be named ‘Churchill.’

Iqualit, Nunavut.

December 11:  Voters select Iqualit—once known as Frobisher Bay—to be the capital of the new territory of Nunavut that will come into being in 1999.

Say "Hello!" to Neon.

December 31: The top ten selling automobiles are the Chevrolet Cavalier, the Honda Civic, the Pontiac Sunfire, the Ford Escort, the Ford Taurus, the Chrysler Intrepid, the Toyota Corolla, the Pontiac Grand AM, the Honda Accord and the Dodge Neon.