1935

 From the big scrapbook of time, here’s a look at Canada in 1935- 

 With more than a million workers on the dole, those who do have jobs are grateful to work. Ford of Canada sells 6,955 new trucks and six buses in 1935.

A new hobby springs up as listeners write to radio stations in order to collect QSL cards--proof that they received the stations' signals.

January 1: Radio is the hot new medium. Private stations are springing up left, right and centre. Prince Edward Island now boasts three, including CHGS in Summerside. New Brunswick also has three, counting CFNB in Fredericton. Nova Scotia has five broadcast houses including CJLS in Yarmouth. Quebec now boasts 11 stations including VE9EK in Montmagny and Ontario has 24 including CKRC in Windsor. Manitoba has three broadcasters including CKX in Brandon, Saskatchewan has seven including CHAB in Moose Jaw and Alberta has seven, counting CJOC in Lethbridge. British Columbia has an even dozen private broadcasters including CFPR in Trail.  The Northwest Territories has CJCU in Aklavik. The Dominion of Newfoundland has five stations including VOAC in St. John’s.

1935 Hudson Special Eight Touring Brougham HT

February 7: The Hudson Motor Company of Canada, Limited reports that it has ten dealers in the Picture Province. Herring Chokers can buy Hudsons in Woodstock, Fredericton, Moncton, Bathurst, Newcastle, Edmunston, Grand Falls, Perth, St. Andrews and Saint John.

Reindeer is also known as caribou.

February 21: It took five years for them to finally get here but the federal government accepts delivery of 2,300 reindeer. Lapp herders guided them across Siberia. It is doubtful that they will help Santa but Ottawa intends for locals to develop an industry around the animals. The reindeer will live on the eastern side of the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories.

March 2: Albert Samuel Waxman is born in Toronto. When he grows up he will become an actor appearing more than 1,000 productions on stage, radio, TV and movies. He is best remembered for starring in the CBC sitcom King of Kensington that aired from 1975 to 1980. He will also be known for his portrayal of Lieutenant Bert Samuels on the CBS drama Cagney & Lacey. He will die in 2001.

March 11: The Bank of Canada is open for business under Governor Graham Towers. The central bank is a private institution but it will be the sole institution to print currency.  It issues a new bank notes including a $500 bill. Sepia in colour, the bill is printed in French or English. It depicts Sir John A. MacDonald on the front and a young woman said to be the “fertility allegory” on the backside.

MASH will start in 1972 and air for 11 seasons.

March 19: actor, producer, director Burt Metcalfe is born in Saskatchewan. He will be best known for directing the movie Father of the Bride and for producing the popular TV series, MASH.

March 27: Lord Tweedsmuir is named Governor General of Canada. He is the author of many novels including 39 Steps, a spy thriller that will be made into a movie by director Alfred Hitchcock. Upon learning of his appointment Tweedsmuir tells reporters, “I am extremely proud to have been chosen as His Majesty’s representative in Canada, and not less proud to be given a chance of serving Canada.”

March 28: The Canadian Radio Broadcast Commission will no longer air commercials on Sunday. It is in contravention of the Lord’s Day Act--laws that forbid any kind of commerce on Sundays.

April 2: Sharon Acker is born in Toronto. She will grow up to become an actor working in television and Hollywood. She will rack up a long string of credits to her name but will be best remembered for her appearance in the 1967 thriller, Point Blank.

This is the first all-Canadian playoff since 1926.

April 9: The Montreal Maroons need only three games (best of five) to whip the Toronto Maple Leafs into submission and win the Stanley Cup.

April 23: Vancouver police do battle with 2,000 hungry and unemployed men who have barricaded themselves inside of the Hudson Bay store. The men want food and jobs. One out of every ten Canadians is out of work.

 May 2: Beer parlours open in Saskatchewan. The rules are strict. Patrons must sit at tables and not move around. No food can be served and the surroundings are required to be drab. 

May 7: His Majesty’s Royal Canadian Post Office issues a statement condemning the latest craze sweeping the country: chain letters. The letters say that the receiver must send copies of the letter to ten friends or something awful will happen.

May 6:  The Bank of Canada issues a $25 bill to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V. The bills are in French only or English only and are royal purple in colour with Windsor Castle depicted on the back.

May 12: Mary Margeurite Leneen Kavenagh is born in Ottawa. She will grow up and move to Australia, marry the Prime Minister’s son, Francis Forde, and be appointed Governor of Queensland in 1992.

May 17:  Wilbert Keon is born in Sheenboro. Quebec. When he grows up he will become a heart surgeon, successfully performing the first artificial heart transplant in a patient in Ottawa. He will be appointed to the Senate on the advice of PM Mulroney in 1990.

German Shepherds are skilled at finding lost people and sniffing out drugs.

May 25: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have gone to the dogs. Literally. Black Lux and his father, Dale, join the force as the first official four-legged Mounties. The highly trained German shepherds are deputized to fight crime. By 1999, the Horsemen will have 108 dogs in the force.

May 31: The David Dunlap Observatory at the University of Toronto is ready to take on the mysteries of the starry night sky. The 188-centimetre reflector telescope is the largest in Canada and the second largest in the world. The Royal Astrological Society of Canada will purchase the observatory in 2010. 

June 12: The On-to-Ottawa Trek is over. More than 2,000 homeless and unemployed men have been bumming rides on Canadian National Railways freight cars from Vancouver to Ottawa. They are demanding an audience with Prime Minister Bennett. The PM will not meet with them, claiming they are Communists. RCMP officers round up the men when they get to Regina, Saskatchewan today and forcibly confines them in a makeshift camp set up on the Exhibition Grounds.

June 14: The city council in St. Catherines, Ontario passes a law requiring horses to wear rubber horseshoes. The new ordinance is intended to cut down on irksome noise.

July 1: The nation turns 68 but there is no jubilation on this Dominion Day. Jobs are scarce; hundreds of thousands are out of work. A riot at the internment camp in Regina breaks out tonight. The RCMP and 500 CPR police attempt to quell the On-to-Ottawa trekkers. The death toll is one officer killed and dozens are injured on both sides of the fracas.

Grain elevators in Alberta.

July 5: The Canadian Wheat Board comes into existence by royal decree. The Crown Corporation will guarantee a minimum price for grain and market it for farmers, too.

July 21: Washington apologizes to Canada for sinking the rum running schooner, I’m Alone. The US pays $25,000 in compensation for the 1929 incident that took place in international waters, 321 kilometres off the coast of Louisiana.  

The Classical Revival style Province House has been home to Prince Edward Island's legislature since 1847.

July 23: Election history is made tonight as voters in PEI send 30 Liberals to Charlottetown. Premier-elect Walter Lea is thrilled about the overwhelming victory but he faces a peculiar dilemma: there is not a single member to sit in Opposition. This has never happened before anywhere in the British Empire.

October 23: The Grits soundly trounce the Tories in the federal election. William Lyon Mackenzie King will be sworn in as Prime Minister for the third time in his political career. The Liberals take 165 seats in the House and the Conservatives are reduced to only 41.

October 25: Jack Bannon a.k.a. Three Fingered Abe is sentenced to 15 years in prison for kidnapping millionaire brewer John Labatt.

November: Ford opens its new assembly plant in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby. The facility boasts an air-conditioned lunchroom for employees.

The 1936 Reo Flying Cloud. Reo stands for Ransom E. Olds, the man who created the vehicle and the Oldsmobile, as well.

November 25: The new 1936 cars are unveiled to the nation at the prestigious Salon de l’Auto in Montreal. Presenting this season are Auburn, Graham, Hudson, Hupmobile, Nash, Packard, Reo, Studebaker and Willys along with the Big Three. Sadly, the Great Depression will take its toll; Reo won’t return next year.

December 5: Police are called to break up a demonstration at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto. Inside the hotel, a reception is being held by the German Consul General and Nazi government officials who are attempting to promote Canadian interest in the Olympic Games. The protesters object to the politics of the Third Reich and do not want Canada to participate in the next summer’s event, to be held in Berlin. Fearing for the German officials’ safety, the police escort them to Montreal, their next stop.

December 7: The Grey Cup goes to Winnipeg as the Blue Bombers break the east's grip on the championship playoff. The Hamilton Tiger Cats lose the game 12 to 18.

December 3: A five-room house on Queen Street in the CPR section of Regina equipped, with a hot water heater, city sewage and water connections, sells for $1,800.

December 9: An underground explosion in Coalhurst, Alberta claims the lives of 16 coal miners.

A Christopher Pratt watercolour.

December 9: Christopher Pratt is born in St. John’s, Newfoundland. He will grow up to become one of the nation’s most famous artists, famous for his meticulous serigraphs, watercolours and paintings. He will also design Newfoundland and Labrador’s new provincial flag.

December 31: General Motors of Canada closes out the year with production of 33,721 Chevs, 5,794 Pontiacs, 6,356 Oldsmobiles, 3,272 McLaughlin-Buicks, 204 LaSalles and 81 Cadillacs. In addition there are 10,293 Chevrolet and Maple Leaf trucks as well as 847 GMCs.

1940

From the big scrapbook of time, here’s a look at Canada in 1940-

 Tourist cabins are far and few between but Nash features seats that lay flat and make into twin travel beds. Lucky travellers can stop whenever, wherever they like, when they own a 1940 Nash.

January 25: The Prime Minister surprises the country by calling a snap election only hours after the House of Commons reconvenes after Christmas holidays. Mackenzie King wants a clear mandate to lead the country through the war. It is a bold gamble on the part of the Grits; no one likes to vote in the dead of winter. 

John Buchan is a well-known novelist. His book, 39 Steps, was made into a movie by Alfred Hitchcock in 1935.

February 6: Lord Tweedsmuir, the Governor General, suffered a stroke while shaving this morning. He fell and injured his head badly. Dr. Wilder Penfield, the famous brain surgeon, will operate on His Excellency twice but the prognosis will not be good. 

Lord Tweedsmuir founded the Governor General's Prize for literature.

February 11: The Governor General is dead at the age of 64. It is the first time that our head of state has died in office. The Prime Minister will eulogize Lord Tweedsmuir in a national radio address, “In the passing of His Excellency, the people of Canada have lost one of the greatest and most revered of their Governors General, and a friend who, from the day of his arrival in this country, dedicated his life to their service."

March 4: Premier Hepburn bans the viewing of Canada at War in theatres throughout Ontario, claiming that the March of Time production is “political propaganda of the most blatant kind.”  

March 6: Ken Danby is born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. He will growup to be an artist best known for his 1972 painting of a masked goaltender, At the Crease.

March 7: The Agricultural Supply Board begins its work of making sure there is enough food at home and for our soldiers fighting on the battlefront. The agency will be disbanded when victory comes—but no one can imagine the war will last six long years. 

March 8: Nora Golding is born in Sarnia, Ontario. She will grow up, change her name to Susan Clark and become an actress appearing in movies like The Apple Dumpling Gang, Airport, Porky’s and The Butterbox Babies. She will also star in the TV sitcom Webster, in the role of Katherine Papadopolis.

The Conservative Party wants a national government--made up of members from each political party.

March 26: The Grits sweep the election, winning 179 seats. That gives the Liberals a second consecutive majority government. Even the Leader of the Queen’s Loyal Opposition loses his seat in the House.

March 22: David Michael Keon is born in Noranda, Quebec. He will grow up to be one of the greatest centres in the NHL, skating for the Toronto Maple Leafs for 15 seasons. He will retire from the sport in 1982. 

April 2: Donald George Jackson is born in Oshawa, Ontario. He will grow up to be a figure skater, winning the Canadian Junior Men's title in 1955 at age 14. He will hold the senior crown from 1959 to 1962, bring home a bronze medal at the 1960 Olympics and earn silver at the World Championships that year. At the 1962 World Championships he will win gold by executing the first triple lutz ever jumped in a competition.

April 3: The Earl of Athlone is appointed to be our new Governor General. He will have a devil of time getting here from Britain; his ship will be forced to zigzag across the Atlantic Ocean, as its captain outwits German U-Boats. The new Governor General will finally arrive in Halifax in June.

The Honourable C.D. Howe chats with a worker in an aircraft factory.

April 9: Clarence Decatur Howe is appointed Minister of Munitions and Supply for the duration of the war. The economic wizard will create 28 Crown corporations that supply everything from bullets to tanks and ships for the war effort. 

April 13: The Stanley Cup goes home with the New York Rangers who have beat the Maple Leafs, four games to two.

Franklin D. Roosevelt built 'The Little White House' in 1932.

April 24: Prime Minister Mackenzie King is the personal guest of US President and Mrs. Roosevelt at their winter home in Warm Springs, Georgia. It is private time for all. No press conferences will be held so that the American Neutrality Act is not broken. 

Senator Therese Casgrain has fought hard for women to be allowed to vote in Quebec. She will be honoured with a stamp in 1985.

April 25: All nine provinces now permit women to vote, as Quebec grants the privilege to women residing in la belle province.

May 1: Hitler’s troops don’t seem to be going anywhere. Pundits call it the “Phony War.” Nonetheless, Canada is prepared for the worst as stocks of goods reach a three-year high.

May 22: Jacques Michel André Sarrazin is born in Quebec City. He will grow up to be a movie star, using the name Michael Sarrazin. Movies will include The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, Double Negative, The Reincarnation of Peter Proud and Joshua Then and Now.

May 29: There is no debate as to whether or not there will be war--the question is when. Parliament authorizes a budget of $700 million for the armed forces and announces the creation of two new Canadian divisions.

Ford of Canada and General Motors of Canada will cooperate to built Canadian Military Pattern (CMP) trucks.

June 4: More than 300,000 Allied troops are evacuated from Dunkirk, Belgium and escape death at the hands of German soldiers. The Allies lose virtually all of their 80,000  wheeled vehicles to the Germans. It will be up to Canadian auto industry to fill in the breach. Ford and GM will co-operate to build nearly half a million trucks before victory is won in 1945.

June 5: Ottawa declares all Nazi, fascist and Communist organizations to be illegal. Leaders of these seditious groups are rounded up and sent to prison. 

The Honourable Member of Parliament for Kingston will have a Canadian Coast Guard Ship named in his memory in 1969.

June 10:  The war continues to take its toll as the MP for Kingston and Minister of National Defence, Norman McLeod Rogers, is killed in a plane crash near the Ontario village of Newtonville, while en route to a speaking engagement in Toronto. The 45-year old Rhodes Scholar was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia. His memory will be honoured when the people of Kingston, Ontario name an airport and a street for him. 

Red indicates areas where the Axis Powers have their bases.

June 10: Italy declares war on France, Britain and their allies. By default, Canada is at war with Italy.

June 11: Princess Juliana of the Netherlands arrives in Halifax with her two daughters. The heir to the Dutch throne will choose Ottawa as her home and stay in the Dominion until the war ends. 

June 18: The National Resources Mobilization Act passes Parliament today. It calls for the conscription of men for home front duty. Many of the new soldiers will opt to volunteer for duty overseas. 

June 19: As the Nazis bomb Britain relentlessly the British government begins to evacuate children to Canada. Some 3,000 kids will arrive in Canada, Australia and New Zealand under the government scheme; another 10,000 “Bundles from Britain” will be evacuated privately. Executives at Ford of Canada will take more than 200 children of Ford employees in the UK and welcome them into their homes until they can go home in April 1944. Sadly, German bombs will kill 7,736 British children during the war.

Hitler and his officials use the same railway car where the Germans surrendered to the French in 1918.

June 24: Germany dictates the terms of surrender with France. Britain stands alone in the face of Nazi tyranny with only her colonies behind her.  No one knows where that leaves St. Pierre and Miquelon, a tiny overseas territory of France, located off the coast of Newfoundland.  

Princess Margaret gets her arm tied into a sling by Princess Elizabeth as part of Girl Guides'  training.

July 3: King George VI announces that Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret will not be evacuated to another country for safety but will stay in Britain and help with the war effort on the home front. 

July 4: Ottawa decrees the Jehovah’s Witnesses to be an illegal organization, because the religion does not allow its members to swear allegiance to any nation and forbids them to go to war. 

July 22: George Alexander Trebek is born in Sudbury, Ontario. When he grows up he will graduate from the University of Ottawa with a degree in Philosophy. The budding broadcaster will cut his teeth at the CBC before moving to the US where he will become the host of a TV quiz show called Jeopardy in 1984.

July 26:The Lord's Day Act declares Sunday to be a day of rest. People may not work and merchants must be closed. Mr. Mirsky lives in Ottawa.

 

Spitfire fighter planes defend Britain.

August 1: The Battle of Britain begins as the Luftwaffe pounds the island nation with bombs night and day. Eighty Canadian pilots take part in Britain’s defense, flying for the Royal Air Force. 

August 5: Montreal’s Mayor, Camillien Houde, is arrested for sedition at 11 o’clock this evening as His Worship leaves City Hall. The police have a warrant issued by the Federal Minister of Justice. Houde is charged with opposing conscription and refusing to turn over offices in City Hall to the federal government to be used for the recruitment of soldiers. 

Millions of Canadians wandered the country, looking for work in the Dirty 'Thirties. The Unemployment Insurance plan will prevent people from being  homeless and starving in the future.

August 7: The Unemployment Insurance Act passes Parliament. This is not a welfare programme. Workers will pay into the scheme and should they lose their jobs, they can draw against the amount accumulated until they find another. 

An Imperial Oil station in Edmunston, New Brunswick.

August 8: Ottawa bans the construction of new gas stations for the duration of the war.

Prime Minister Mackenzie King and President Roosevelt chat in Ogdensburg, New York.

August 18: Canada and the United States sign a joint defense agreement today. It includes an easing of restrictions on delivery of weapons to Canada. It also details common road and coastal defense strategies. 

August 23: All German and Italian immigrants who have not taken out citizenship papers and those who have received them after September 1, 1922 are declared to be enemy aliens who must report to the police. Certificates of Exemption may apply in individual cases if the Registrar-General is satisfied that these immigrants are indeed loyal to the Crown. 

September: The CBC adopts its new logo. It features radio transmission waves and a map of the Dominion. It will serve well until it is replaced in 1958. 

September: The 1941 automobiles are on display at the National Automobile Show held on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition at the Automotive Building in Toronto. The new cars must vie for space with war machines on the 60,000-square metre floor as GM and Ford dedicate half of their display area to the vehicles they are building for the Dominion and Empire governments.

September 1: The first of many thousands of German prisoners of war arrive in a prison ship that docks in Quebec City. They will be interred in secret POW camps throughout the country. 

September 2: Britain grants two 99-year military base leases in Newfoundland to the United States in exchange for ships and other war materiel.

The Heinz factory in Leamington, Ontario is the largest food processing plant in the British Empire.

September 12: Members of Parliament meet with officials of Heinz Canada. Because an army travels on its stomach, the trusted food giant will provide rations for Canadian and Empire troops.

Grenfell is honoured with this stamp, issued in 1940.

October 9: Sir Wilfred Grenfell is dead at the age of 74. The great medical humanitarian spent 40 years ministering to the needs of folks along the Newfoundland and Labrador coasts.

October 10: Berton Churchill is dead in New York City at the age of 63. The Toronto native appeared in more than 125 Hollywood movies and was instrumental in founding the Screen Actors Guild in 1933. He is best remembered for his role in the 1939 movie Stagecoach.

November 20: The Canadian Red Cross has granted an emergency gift of $2,500 to the Red Cross of Greece. It will also donate another $2,500 worth of surgical and medical supplies.

December 14: Federal cabinet minister C.D. Howe is on his way to the UK when U-boat 96 torpedoes the 10,926-tonne M.V. Western Prince. The ship's cargo is base metals and food. Fifteen are dead and the 154 survivors are rescued by the Baron Kinnaird, a tramp steamer whose captain disobeyed orders and returned to the site of the sinking vessel.

November 22: Specials this week at The Farmer’s Trading Store in Calgary include two-pound packages of Sodone Granulated Soap for 20 cents. Quaker Corn Flakes sells for 7 cents a package while a 32-ounce jar of Miracle Whip costs 47 cents. 

November 30: Interrupted by a disputed ruling over the admissibility Winnipeg Blue Bombers to play, this is the only year that the Grey Cup will be played twice. In the first of two games this year, the Toronto Balmy Beach Raiders and the Ottawa Rough Riders face off in Toronto.

December 7: The two football teams go at it again, this time in the nation’s capital. Ottawa wins the Grey Cup in an 8 to 2 victory. 

December 29: Thomas Alexander Russell is dead of heart failure . He was the guiding light behind CCM and the luxurious Russell automobile that was built until 1916. At the time of his death he was president of Massey-Harris Limited.