1971

From the big scrapbook of time, here’s a look at Canada in 1971--

 Imported from France by Chrysler Canada, the 1971 Simca sold 1,464 units during the calendar year. Canada-wide, 578,479 new cars will be sold this year.

January 5: Douglas G. Shearer is dead at the age of 71. The seven-time Oscar winner was born and raised in Montreal. He loved sound and spent 40 years in Hollywood developing sophisticated sound systems for the movie industry.

January 18:  Seamus O’Regan is born in St. John’s, Newfoundland. He will become a cub reporter for the CBC at the age of ten and co-host of CTV’s popular morning show, Canada AM, for a decade before becoming a reporter for the CTV National News.

Patrice buckles up with Stanley, a  VIP passenger.

January 27: Patrice Brisebois is born in Montreal. Noted for a smooth slapshot, he will grow up to play hockey as a defenceman for the Montreal Canadiens and the Colorado Avalanche.

February 1: The General Council of the United Church of Canada rules that abortion is morally justifiable under “certain medical social and economical circumstances.”

February 22:  The Juno Awards are held at St. Lawrence Hall in Toronto. Anne Murray and Gordon Lightfoot win Junos in hte best female and male vocalist categories. The Guess Who is group of the year.

March 2: Canadian National Railway wants to drop the Super Continental passenger service between Toronto and Vancouver but the Canadian Transport Commission orders the CNR to keep that train on the tracks despite the fact that it runs deep in red ink. The spectacular run across western Canada will be deleted in 1981, then revived from 1985 to 1990 before being scuttled a second time.

March 4: The country’s most eligible bachelor, Pierre Elliot Trudeau weds Margaret Sinclair in Vancouver. The 51-year old Prime Minister first met his bride on a Tahitian holiday in 1968.

March 13: FLQ Terrorist Paul Rose is convicted of the murder of provincial cabinet minister, Pierre LaPorte. The 27-year old Rose is sentenced to life imprisonment. He will be paroled in 1982 and die of a heart attack in 2013.

March 22: Bluenose politicians need to look sharp as radio and TV now broadcast the proceedings in Nova Scotia’s House of Assembly.

March 29: The Cold War thaws as Prime Minister Trudeau appoints Ralph E. Collins to be the first Canadian Ambassador to the People's Republic of China.

Hydro-Quebec's Gentilly nuclear power plant will look like this in 2009.

April 5: The first CANDU reactor goes on line in Gentilly, Quebec. Developed by Atomic Energy of Canada, Limited, the nuclear reactor uses un-enriched uranium as its power source.

April 5: Frances Phipps becomes the first woman—and the first Canadian woman--to reach the North Pole. She and her husband Welland “Weldy” Phipps have been living in Resolute, Nunavut since 1958 and operating Atlas Aviation—the most northerly charter service in the world.

April 9: It’s a boy for Gilles and Joanne Villeneuve. Son Jacques is born in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. Though his father is killed when he is eleven, Jacques will follow his dad’s lead, live life in the fast line to win the Formula One and Champcars championships. He will be considered by many to be the best race driver in the world.

April 14: Inmates at the maximum security prison in Kingston, Ontario riot. Over the next four days they will hold six guards hostage. Two prisoners will be killed and 11 others injured. Built in 1835, the Kingston Pen will be closed in 2014.

April 24: Labour lawyer and party theorist David Lewis is elected leader of the New Democratic Party. He will lead the party for four years, teach at Carleton University and die of cancer in 1981.

May 1: The times they are a-changing as the Dominion Bureau of Statistics changes its name to the fresher—and more bilingual--Statistics Canada.

Canada Post issued this commorative stamp to mark British Columbia's 100th year as a partner in Confederation.

May 3: Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip and Princess Anne arrive in British Columbia to kick off the festivities that mark the province’s centennial year. The royals will stay for a week.

May 4: An enormous sinkhole appears from nowhere in St-Jean-Vianney, Quebec and swallows up 40 homes in the village. The disaster claims 31 lives. Scientists will determine the cause to be a combination of torrential rains combined with a rare subsoil that turns to mush when saturated. The nearby town of Lemieux, Ontario shares the same subsoil and will be abandoned in 1991, saving lives when the Main Street disappears in 1993.

May 12: Canada and the United States are engaged in bilateral talks to improve the quality of water in the Great Lakes. Pollution is destroying the entire eco-system.

May 20: FLQ terrorist Francis Simard is sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the murder of provincial labour minister, Pierre LaPorte. He will be paroled in 1982 and write about the October Crisis. His book Pour en finir avec octobre will be made into a movie, Octobre, in 1994.

May 18: The Canadiens skate to the Stanley Cup after whipping the Chicago Blackhawks, four games to two.

May 22: Ontario Place opens in Toronto’s Harbourfront. The $23 million facility quickly becomes a fun destination, boasting rides, shows, fireworks and the world’s first IMAX theatre.

May 22: Tragedy strikes at sea during the wee hours of the morning when a flash fire breaks out on the below decks forward in the crew area of the 90-metre liner, Meteor. The Norwegian cruise ship is only 100 kilometres from Vancouver. The fire spreads so quickly that 32 of 91 crewmembers suffocate or are burnt to death in a matter of minutes. None of the 67 passengers on board is injured.

May 31: Monika Schnarre is born in Toronto. She will grow up to be 1.87 metres tall and win the Supermodel of the World Contest when she is 14. Her career will include TV and movies as well as a biography, Monika: Between Me and You. In 2007 she will become an ambassador representing Habitat for Humanity.

June 3: The highly controversial Spadina Expressway in Toronto is cancelled by Ontario Premier Davis, who says, “"If we are building a transportation system to serve the automobile, the Spadina Expressway would be a good place to start. But if we are building a transportation system to serve people, the Spadina Expressway is a good place to stop." Construction began in 1964.

June 8: The Canadian Medical Association issues a statement to the press that abortion should be decriminalized, that the procedure should be a private matter between a woman and her physician. Abortion has been legal since 1968 as long as a medical team determines the procedure needs to be performed. The Supreme Court will strike down abortion laws in 1998 because the justices rule they are unconstitutional.

June 11: The country takes its first green step. Prime Minister Trudeau appoints Jack Davis to the cabinet as the first federal Minister of the Environment.

First Ministers sign the Victoria Charter today.

June 14: The Victoria Charter to amend the British North America Act is signed by all the First Ministers. It will ultimately be rejected by Quebec. It won't be until 1982 that our Constitution comes  home to Canada.

June 21: The Ontario Development Corporation lends $961.645 to Toronto publishers McClelland & Stewart so it won’t be bought out by a foreign company. Founded in 1906 the publisher’s stable of writers include such icons as Margaret Atwood, Pierre Berton, Leonard Cohen, Peter Gzowski, Margaret Laurence, Farley Mowat, Michael Ondaatje and Mordecai Richler.

June 24: The federal government announces it will pay out $1.5 million to people who have been made ill by mercury contamination.

July:  Alberta and Ontario lower the age of majority from 21 to 18 years of age.

July 30: Michael Thomas Green is born in Pembrooke, Ontario. The budding comic will irritate his family with his shocking humour but Americans will love his antics. He will star in the Tom Green Show and become a mega superstar when the show moves to MTV. He will star in such movies as Road Trip and Freddy Got Fingered.

July 1: Happy birthday, Canada! Prime Minister Trudeau announces that $2.5 million is earmarked for a Museom of Antrhropology to be built on the campus of the University of British Columbia. It will showcase Aboriginal life and history.

The Bluenose II is 46 metres long and weighs 246 tonnes.

July 29: The Oland family of brewing fame sells the Province of Nova Scotia the schooner Bluenose II for one dollar. Launched in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia on July 24, 1964, it is an exact replica of the famed Bluenose that appears on the obverse side of the dime. The schooner is one of the greatest goodwill ambassadors that Nova Scotia and Canada could have.

July 22: The Toronto Board of Education abolishes use of the strap by teachers as a form of student discipline in schools.

Banff Centre.

August 15: The Banff Festival of the Arts opens for the first time. By 2005 it will be one of the top 100 most popularly attended cultural festivals in the world.

August 16: Hurricane Beth batters Nova Scotia, dumping 25 centimetres of rain on Halifax and polluting Dartmouth’s water supply. The tropical twister washes out bridges, destroys highways and ruins crops. Fortunately no lives are lost but damage reaches $3 million.

October 4: Exploration shows there are large petroleum deposits under Sable Island. Part of Nova Scotia, the island sandbar lies 180 kilometres from the mainland is notorious for more than 300 shipwrecks on its shores. The three-trillion litre gas discovery will allow to Nova Scotia to be a “have” province in the early 21^st Century.

As practical as it is pretty, the 1971 Dodge Dart is the seventh best selling nameplate this year.

October 8: In a rare show of support, the Opposition leaders declare their support for the Liberal government policy of multiculturalism within a bilingual framework.

November 1: There’s a new paper on the stands as the Toronto Sun appears for the first time. The tabloid will be noted for its racy slant on the news, the “Sunshine Girl” and “Sunshine Boy” pinups and have a weekday circulation of 200,000 in 2008.

November 2: Gerhard Herzberg wins the Nobel Prize for chemistry. Born in Germany, the scientist fled the Nazis in 1935 and immigrated to Canada. He will die in 1999 at the age of 94.

November 12: Air Canada stewardess, Mary Dohey, has a sawed-off shotgun held to her head for more than six hours as a highjacker, armed with two bundles of dynamite threatens to blow up the Calgary to Toronto-bound DC-8. She will not only talk the hooded man out of the deed, she will be awarded the Cross of Valour for her bravery. The St. Bride Newfoundland native will be the only living Canadian to ever receive that honour.

November 28: The Calgary Stampeders trounce the Toronto Argonauts 14 to 11 to win the Grey Cup. Vancouver hosts. It's the first time that a match is played on artificial turf.

Hydro-Quebec was created as a Crown corporation in 1944.

December 6: Electricity flows from Churchill Falls to Hydro-Quebec for the first time. The massive hydroelectric dam is the largest in the world. Located in Labrador, the complex cost $946 million to build and took seven years. It generates more than 5 million kilowatts of power—enough to serve three cities the size of Montreal.

Christmas Day: It is a boy for Pierre and Margaret Trudeau. Son Justin is born in Ottawa. He will grow up to be a teacher but many speculate that he will be Prime Minister one day. He will be elected leader of the Liberal Party in 2013.

An Air Canada DC-8.

Boxing Day: An Air Canada jet, on a regular flight from Thunder Bay to Toronto is hijacked to Cuba. The American hijacker will not be caught until 2001.

Seen here is the 1971 Pontiac Laurentian. The brand will be retired in 2010.

December 31: The Top Ten selling cars this calendar year are the full-sized Chevrolet, Toyota, the full-sized Ford, Datsun, Volkswagen, the full-sized Pontiac, the Plymouth Valiant, the Chevrolet Chevelle , the  Dodge Dart and Ford Torino.

 The 1971 Datsun 1200 lists for $1,295, p.o.e. Halifax, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. On the domestic market since 1965, Datsun is the fourth best selling car in the country, registering 45,100 sales during the calendar year.

Copyright to James C. Mays 2009

All Rights Reserved

1972

From the big scrapbook of time, here’s a look at Canada in 1972--

British Leyland introduces the Austin Marina to North Americans with a debut in Toronto. The two-door Deluxe Coupe lists for $2,395 when equipped with the four-speed manual transmission. A total of 4,597 Austins sell during the 1972 calendar year.

January 1: Winnipeg becomes the country’s third largest city today as it swallows up a dozen suburbs and neighbouring municipalities.

January 1: Taxpayers will be obliged to hand over to Ottawa a portion of capital gains for the first time.

Export "A" is a popular brand of cigarettes, made in Quebec City.

January 1: Cigarette advertising is banned from TV, radio, magazines, newspapers and movies.

January 6: Colonel Sam McLaughlin is dead in Oshawa, Ontario at the age of 100. He was a founder of the McLaughlin automobile company in 1908 and became a VP of General Motors when it snapped up McLaughlin in 1918, making it General Motors of Canada, Limited.

Canadian Pacific and Nordair are two carriers affected by the air traffic controllers' strike.

February 6: The nation’s 1,700 air traffic controllers are on strike. They can’t walk off the job because they offer an essential service but they create havoc with massive slowdowns. The workers have rejected a 15.5 percent pay hike over 28 months.

February 25:  Ontario Hydro’s $570 million nuclear power plant in Pickering is open. Premier Bill Davis and Ontario Hydro’s chairman George Gathercole cut the ribbon. When running at capacity, it will produce two million kilowatt hours of power.

February 28: Attended by 1,000 people, this year’s Juno Awards are held in Toronto. Anne Murray and Gordon Lightfoot win in the best female and male vocalist categories. A best group Juno goes to the Stampeders.

Gordie Howe was born in Floral, Saskatchewan. His jersey is retired from service.

March 12: Gordie Howe hangs up his skates for the last time. The hockey legend has hit the ice for 26 seasons. The Red Wings offer Mr. Hockey a job in the front office and he accepts.

The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is designed in the Beaux-Art style of architecture. It opened in 1913 and cost $2 million.

March 16: Lights! Camera! Action! Sittings of the Alberta legislature are now broadcast on radio and television.

March 17: Pop star Neil Young’s hit song Heart of Gold reaches the top of the music charts in the United States.

March 22: Elvis Stojko is born in Richmond Hill, Ontario. He will grow up to be a professional skater—the first person to land a quadruple jump--bring home two Olympic silver medals and win a rink full of world skating championships.

March 25: After 23 years of Liberal rule, voters in Newfoundland and Labrador turn to Frank Moores and his Conservatives to govern the province. The Grits, who have been in power since Newfoundland joined Confederation in 1949, are stunned as the Tories take 33 of the 42 seats in the House of Assembly.

April 1: American Motors Canada Limited poked a little fun at itself when it introduced the subcompact Gremlin two years ago, today. It's the first domestically built subcompact and will sell like hotcakes. Workers in Brampton, Ontario build 37,335 Gremlins in calendar year 1972. Most of the pint-sized AMC subcompacts are for export; Gremlins are sold domestically during the year.

April 11: Hydro-Quebec employees, teachers and hospital staff walk off their jobs in a province-wide strike. The 200,000 angry workers will be legislated back to work after two weeks on the picket lines. It is the largest single strike in national history.
 

April 15: No longer will one need to protest with bumper stickers that read, “Lake Erie Died For Your Sins.” Prime Minister Trudeau and US President Nixon sign the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The initiative calls for a massive cleanup of toxic substances, including a 50-percent reduction in the amount of phosphorus dumped into the system. Ottawa commits $250 million to the project and the US will spend $2 billion.

April 6:  A bomb explodes at the Cuban Trade Commission in Montreal killing one person.

April 20: Author Max Braithwaite wins the Leacock Humour Award for his hilarious novel, The Night We Stole the Mountie’s Car.

May 11: The Boston Bruins take home the Stanley Cup tonight, skating to victory over the New York Rangers. The final score is four games to two.

Martin Brodeur will spend his entire NHL career with the New Jersey Devils.

May 16: Martin Brodeur is born in Montreal. He will grow up to be one of the best hockey goaltenders of all times and the only NHL goaltender to win both a Stanley Cup and Olympic Gold.

May 17: The LeDain Commission reports that marijuana for personal use should be legalized.

May 23: Richard Day is dead at the age of 76. Born in Victoria, BC, the Hollywood art director won seven Oscars for his film work. Richard worked on more than 260 movies between 1923 and 1970.

May 29: Members of the National Assembly in Quebec City ban salmon fishing off the Gaspe coast to give stock a chance to replete itself.

May 31: The Order of Canada has created a new “Member” category to honour citizens who make outstanding contributions to community or regional life. The award will be given to 135 deserving people each year.

June 3: Some 2,000 fans attempt to crash a Rolling Stones concert in Vancouver. The mob injures 31 policemen.

June 16: The Churchill Falls Hydro-Electric generating facility is officially open. The world’s largest single producer of electricity cost $976 million and took 6,300 workers five years to build. The mammoth powerhouse cranks out 7 million horsepower of energy annually.

June 19: The 2,000 members of the Canadian Airline Pilots Association join an international 24-hour pilots’ strike to demand better security in airports and a halt to hijacking. 

June 22: The five-month long labour dispute is over as 2,200 CBC broadcast technicians return to work.

July 16: Charlie Chamberlain dies in Bathurst, New Brunswick at the age of 61. The popular singer was one of Don Messer's Islanders since the band began broadcasting on CFCY in Charlottetown in 1939.

July 17:  A bomb explodes at the Montreal Forum, blowing up an equipment truck that belongs to the Rolling Stones. The perpetrator is never arrested and the Stones rock on with their fans as planned.

July 22: Colin Ferguson is born in Montreal. He will grow up to become a stand-up comic with On The Spot, a Montreal improv group as well as a star of the silver screen. He will play the role of Sheriff Jack Carter on the sci-fi drama, Eureka. 

July 31: The CBC and CTV have a little competition on their hands as the CRTC grants a broadcasting license to the Global Television Network. The new kid on the block will serve southwestern Ontario at first. Global will spread across the country and finally be complete in 1997 when it begins broadcasting in Quebec City.

July 31: Acting on the LeDain Commission report, the Crown will no longer prosecute people arrested for simple possession of marijuana.

August 1: Tanya Reid is born in Dryden, Ontario. She will catch the acting bug and after training at the Gastown Actor’s Studio in Vancouver will score some fine acting roles. In 2005 she will play the role of news editor Kennedy Marsh on The Eleventh Hour, the top-rated CTV drama.

September: Meteor turns 25 as the 1973 models debut. A specially trimmed Silver Anniversary edition honours the occasion. Workers at Ford of Canada have built nearly  600,000 Meteors have been built since the mid-priced line bowed in April of 1948 as 1949 models.

September 11: Canada AM debuts on CTV. The 90-minute news show starts at 7am in most time zones and quickly becomes the nation's most watched morning program. The show will be expanded to a two-and-half hour format in 1983.

September 27: The sale of firecrackers is banned throughout the country.

September 28: In Moscow, Team Canada whips the Soviet Union in a knuckle-biting game, the last of the eight-game Summit Series. Paul Henderson scores the winning goal with 34 seconds left on the clock.

September 28: CityTV signs on the air in Toronto for the first time. Its unconventional programming, late night “blue movies” and hard hitting news will make it one of the most watched independent television stations in the country. CityTV will grow into a national network by 2012.

This commemorative one-dollar coin commemorates the 60th Grey Cup.

December 3: The Hamilton Tiger Cats stomp the Saskatchewan Roughriders 13 to 10 to win the Grey Cup.

October 11:  The first game in the World Hockey Association is played at the Ottawa Civic Centre as the Edmonton Oilers whip the Ottawa Nationals 7 to 4. The league will fold in 1979.

October 20: Harold Ballard, the much hated president of Maple Leaf Gardens and owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, is sentenced to three years in the Kingston Penitentiary for 47 counts of theft tax evasion and fraud. He will serve one year of his time and repay the $205,000 stolen from the public company.

November 2: The ballots have been counted. In one of the hottest federal elections ever contested, Robert Stanfield’s Tories have 109 seats and so do the Liberals. Prime Minister Trudeau will not call upon the New Democrats or the Socreds to form a minority government.

November 9: Anik A-1 is launched into outer space. It is the world’s only non-military communications satellite. Anik A-1 will knit the nation more tightly together. ATelephone calls, radio and television signals transmitted from Halifax to Vancouver now takes only seconds.

The Right Honourable Lester Pearson was the nation's fourteenth Prime Minister.

December 27: Former Prime Minister Lester Bowles Pearson is dead of cancer at the age of 75. The World War Two spy won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for his concept of peacekeeping. Buried in Wakefield, Quebec, Pearson will be most remembered for universal Medicare, the Canada Pension Plan, creating the student loan programme and introducing the maple leaf flag. In 1984, the airport in Toronto will be renamed in his honour.

Dodge Dart is holds down the ninth spot in sales this year.

December 31: The Top Ten selling automobile nameplates this year are Toyota; full-sized Chevrolet; Datsun; full-sized Ford; Plymouth Valiant; Volkswagen; Ford Torino; full-sized Pontiac; Dodge Dart and Chevrolet Chevelle.

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