1963

From the big scrapbook of time, here’s a look at Canada in 1963-

January 1: The minimum hourly wage for a factory worker is 95 cents in Charlottetown, 70 cents in Montreal, 75 cents in Winnipeg and $1 in Toronto and Vancouver. In some provinces women are paid less then men, even though they perform the same tasks.

January 14: Planned Parenthood holds its very first meeting in Toronto. Birth control is a grey area in the law; no one knows if the organization is even legal. 

Hercules Missiles can travel at 1,600 kilometres an hour, reach an altitude of 21 kilometres and hit targets within a 40-kilometre range.

February 4: Prime Minister Diefenbaker refuses to permit Americans to place nuclear missiles on Canadian soil. Douglas Harkness, the Minister of Defence, resigns in protest.

February 5: The Tory government collapses over the nuclear missile issue. Parliament is dissolved and a general election is called. 

March 1: Simon Fraser University is founded in Vancouver. 

February 11: Rambler Canada begins exporting right-hand drive passenger cars to Commonwealth countries, including the UK. 

The Eversweet brand of oleomargarine first appeared in stores in 1925.

March 1: Members of the Provincial Parliament in Toronto will consider permitting the sale of coloured margarine. Ontario law requires that margarine be white in order to distinguish it from butter. Little packets of yellow colouring can be added by the homemaker. This is a hot-button issue with housewives and MPPs are demanding a free vote on the issue. 

March 15: The Dominion Bureau of Statistics reports that 868 families in Ontario purchase a new washing machine every week. A new Inglis, with five wash-and-rinse cycles sells for only $269 plus the trade-in of your old wringer washer.

March 18: Grey is the “hot” colour in men’s wear this season. The narrow 41.2-millimetre (1 5/8-inch) brim hat is the fashion leader but teens are wearing an even more daring narrow-brimmed chapeau.

March 21: Woolco offers customers nylon tires for $11.95 each. Shock absorbers sell for $12.45 a pair, mufflers are only $9.98 and seat belts cost $6.96 each. Prices include installation.

March 26: It’s a boy for Real and Zelande Voisine. Joseph Armand Roch Voisine is born in Edmunston, New Brunswick. He will grow up to become an international hot ticket singer with mega hits like Helene and I’ll Be There.

March 28: Willys Canada Limited announces it will begin to manufacture the new Jeep Gladiator trucks and the groundbreaking four-wheel drive Wagoneer station wagons in Windsor, Ontario. Willys has been building Jeeps at its Central Avenue plant in Windsor since 1959.

Tommy Douglas is the father of Medicare. He will be recognized as the most important political figure of the 20th Century.

March 29: More than 15,000 concerned citizens jam Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto to hear charismatic New Democratic Party leader Tommy Douglas speak. It is the largest political rally ever held.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Lester Bowles Pearson will be our 14th Prime Minister.

April 8: The voters have spoken and the Liberals will form a minority government—propped up with the help of Tommy Douglas and the New Democrats.

April 18; The Toronto Maple Leafs take home Lord Stanley’s Cup after beating the Detroit Red Wings four games to one. 

April 18: Eric McCormack is born in Toronto. He will grow up to become an actor best known for his TV role as Will Truman on the hit comedy series Will & Grace.

April 20: The IV Pan American Games open in San Paulo, Brazil. Our athletes will make us proud, coming home with 63 medals—the most we’ve ever won.

April 20: The Front de liberation du Quebec demands independence from Canada.  FLQ members set off bombs in Quebec today—the first of 200 acts of civil disobedience it will unleash on the public in hopes of achieving its goals. 

Prime Minister Pearson and US President John Kennedy.

April 22: Lester Bowles Pearson is sworn in as the nation’s 14^th Prime Minister. The World War Two spy, code named ‘Mike,’ is a Nobel Peace Prize winner. He will be PM until he steps down in 1968. 

April. 27: Cali Timmins is born in Montreal. She will grow up to become a soap opera star with roles on Ryan’s Hope and Another World. 

April 28: Skating legend Lloyd Edgar Eisler is born in Seaforth, Ontario. He will grow up to partner with Isabelle Brasseur and win the bronze medal at the 1992 and 1994 Olympics and be the 1993 World Champion.

May 1: Hydro-Quebec writes cheques for $600 million to purchase the last eleven privately-owned power companies in the province. The Crown corporation now has a complete monopoly in the hydro-electricity market.

May 4: The Hay River floods in the Northwest Territories. Nearly 2,000 people in the communities of Hay River and Fort Simpson are evacuated by air.

May 10: Prime Minister Pearson is in Hyannisport, Massachusetts for talks with US President Kennedy.  He will come home with agreements that give Canada nuclear warheads and Franklin Roosevelt’s summer home on Campobello Island--off the coast of New Brunswick--will become an international park.

May 11: CN-CP Telecommunications inaugurates its new microwave network that connects Montreal with Vancouver instantly. The company will be renamed Unitel in 1988.

May 17: Royal Canadian Army engineer Sergeant-Major Walter Leja is seriously injured in Westmount, Quebec when a bomb he is attempting to diffuse goes off. The Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ) has planted 16 explosive devices to draw attention to demands for an independent Quebec.

May 18: The Government of Quebec offers a $50,000 reward for information leading to convictions for yesterday’s terrorist acts. The City of Montreal announces a 200-man anti-terrorist unit is being added to the police force.

May 25: Mike Myers is born in Scarborough, Ontario. He will grow up to be a stand-up comic and a movie star best known for his Austin Powers films.

The CCCG Sir Humphrey Gilbert served on the Atlantic coast from 1959 to 1986. Renamed Polar Prince, she will be privately owned and work in the Arctic in 2013.

June 3: Canada declares a 19.3-kilometre-wide economic jurisdiction over the coastline. It will take effect next May.

June 11: The Canadian Medical Association identifies obesity as one of the nation’s largest health issues.

Craven "A" has been popular with smokers since World War Two.

June 11: The Canadian Medical Association releases studies that show smoking to be a direct cause of cancer. The CMA wants Ottawa to require warning labels be placed on cigarette packages.

June 19: The New Brunswick Legislature passes a bill to establish the Universite de Moncton. With campuses in Moncton, Edmunston and Shippagan, the school will become the largest Francophone institution of higher learning outside of Quebec.

June – Mortgage rates drop to 6.25 percent from 6.5 percent. The chartered banks loan $1.3 billion to home buyers, four times more money than they did in 1962.

June 11: Sandra Schmirler is born in Biggar, Saskatchewan. She will grow up to become a triple World Champion curler and bring home Olympic gold in 1998. She will diagnosed with esophageal cancer and die in 2003. More than 15,000 will attend her funeral and the service will be broadcast live on television.

July 12: The three-metre tall bronze statue of Queen Victoria in Montreal’s Victoria Square is blown up. It is believed to be the work of separatistes who resent English domination over a Francophone society.

June 24: Barbara Underhill is born in Oshawa, Ontario. She will grow up to be a five-time national skating champion and bring home the gold—with partner Paul Martini--at the 1984 World Figure Skating Championship.

Dominion Day: The University of Victoria is established in British Columbia's capital city. Previously the school was Victoria College and was associated with McGill University from 1903 to 1915.

Dominion Day: The Neptune Theatre opens in Halifax. Atlantic Canada’s glittering showcase for the performing arts gets off to a good start with a performance of George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara.

July 26: Bluenose II—the schooner on the back of the dime—is launched in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia. A replica of the original Bluenose that sank off the coast of Haiti in 1947, this one cost $208,600 to build. The 246-tonne vessel will become one of Canada’s most loved goodwill ambassadors.  
 

Fluoride

September 4: It may be controversial, but Toronto begins fluoridating its water system in a bid to prevent tooth decay in children.

September 21: Place-des-Arts, Montreal’s premier concert hall, glitters as 3,000 of the nation’s artistic elite attending the opening night gala.

October 17: Norm MacDonald is born in Quebec City. He will grow up to become a comedian, star on Saturday Night Live, make numerous movies and be the voice of Frank the Beaver in Bell Canada’s highly popular commercials in the 2005.

November 2: A CBC-Maclean’s poll reveals that 21 percent of Quebeckers do not know there is an organized movement in the province that demands independence from Canada.

November 19: Gordie How breaks Maurice “Rocket” Richard’s record to become the NHL’s greatest scorer.

November 23: We mourn with our American neighbours when President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

November 25: Holly Cole is born in Halifax.  The girl with the versatile voice will grow up to become a superstar in the world of jazz.

November 29: A Trans-Canada Airline Flight 831 crashes after takeoff from Dorval (Trudeau) International Airport in Montreal. The DC8's impact makes a  crater nearly two metres  deep by 46 metres wide in a muddy field. A total of 118 die in the disaster. A memorial garden will be dedicated to the memory of those whose lives were lost in St-Therese-de-Blainville, Quebec.

The fibreglass-bodied Studebaker Avanti will be discontinued by S-P.

December 9: Officials of  the faltering Studebaker-Packard Corporation announce the closing of the South Bend, Indiana factories. All future Studebakers will be built by Studebaker-Packard Canada Limited in Hamilton, Ontario.

December 31: The auto industry is in good shape. Sales top $2 billion for the first time, as 655,000 vehicles have been sold domestically. General Motors holds almost half the market with 300,288 units. Ford is second with 170,840 units sold. Chrysler sales are nearly double last year's tally with 93,625 units. Rambler moves up by another 8,000 units.  International-Harvester improves its production by 1,000 units. Only Studebaker is down--and only slightly-- from 7,902 units from 7,948 cars sold last year.

The specially trimmed Volvo Canadian is unique--it is called the Amazon or the B-18 in other markets.

This is Volvo’s maiden year to build cars in Canada. The first one off the assembly line in the newly opened Dartmouth, Nova Scotia plant is completed by Sweden's Prince Bertil who tightens the last bolt with a  gold-plated screwdriver. A total of 1,099 Volvos leave the assembly plant during the year.

1987

-From the big scrapbook of time, here’s a look at Canada in 1987--

The all-new Volvo 740 series gets underway in December in the new assembly plant in Halifax. This is the Swedish automaker’s third factory in Nova Scotia since it opened up shop in 1963.

January 1:  The settlement of Frobisher Bay in the Northwest Territories changes its name to Iqualuit. The new name reflects the city’s Inuit heritage and means ‘where the fish gather.” 

The Stone Angel will be made into an Oscar-winning movie in 2007.

 January 5: Margaret Laurence is dead at the age of 60. The award-winning novelist suffered from lung cancer and committed suicide when she learned the disease was terminal. She will be best remembered for her immortal books The Stone Angel and The Diviners.

 

January 26: Norman McLaren is dead in Montreal at the age of 72. The animator and filmmaker joined the National Film Board of Canada in 1941. He won 147 awards, including a 1952 Oscar--more than any other filmmaker in the history of cinema. 

February – Fresh coffee always tastes good. The 300^th Tim Horton’s opens in Calgary.

Brian Orser and Brian Boitano.

March 12:  Brian Orser wins the world figure skating title, beating out Brian Boitano of the US. The Ontario native, a.k.a. Mr. Triple Axel, is the first Canadian to win the title since 1963. He will bring home silver in the 1984 and 1988 Winter Olympics. 

Claude Jutra

March 11: A body washes up on the shores of the St. Lawrence River near the village of Cap Sante. The remains will be identified as those of celebrated filmmaker Claude Jutra who disappeared last year. It is believed he committed suicide.

March 16: The Toronto Globe & Mail reports sales of condoms are skyrocketing as a result of people’s fears of contracting AIDS. 

March 17: Tory MPs in the House of Commons vote in favour of free trade with the United States. The motion is firmly opposed by the Grits and the New Democrats.

March 27: Talks break down as Ottawa, the provinces and aboriginal leaders fail to agree on important issues. There will be no constitutional amendment for native self-government for now. 

This drawing shows the structure of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus.

 April 3: The insurance industry announces that any Canadian buying large amounts of life insurance must now take a blood test to prove they are HIV-negative. 

April 9: The Supreme Court rules that the right to strike is not guaranteed by the constitution.

Prime Mnister Mulroney places his signature on the Meech Lake Accord.

 April 30: After 19 hours of non-stop deliberations, the First Ministers sign the Meech Lake Accord. The document recognizes Quebec as a distinct society. A beaming Prime Minister Mulroney says, “Today we welcome Quebec back into the Canadian constitutional family.”  Former PM Trudeau shares his displeasure with the press.

May 3: Sweden mops the floor with Canada for a 9 to 0 victory and the World Hockey Championship. It’s the first time in 25 years that the Nordic nation has beat Canada.

May 22:  Super athlete Rick Hansen completes his 40,000-kilometre Man in Motion, round-the-world tour. He has been on the road—in his wheelchair--for 26 months raising more than $10 million for spinal chord research. 

 May 27:  Alice Munro wins her third Governor-General’s Award for literature. This time the novelist wins for her astonishingly gripping book, The Progress of Love.

 

May 29: The Reform Party of Canada is formed in Vancouver. Preston Manning is elected party leader. Reform will win 60 seats in the House of Commons in 1997--enough to give the party status as Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. The political party will disappear in 2000, becoming part of the Alliance Party.

The 1987  Championship ring.

May 31:  It takes seven games but the Edmonton Oilers skate to the Stanley Cup on the backs of the Philadelphia Flyers.

June 10: Statistics show that a million Canadian women are abused each year. Most are between the ages of 21 and 34. Many are pregnant. More than 20,000 are turned away from shelters for lack of space. In 2012 domestic violence will cost taxpayers $7.4 billion a year.

June 23: The National Assembly in Quebec City is the first government to ratify the Meech Lake Accord.

The Alouettes played home games in the Olympic Stadium.

June 24: The Montreal AIouettes are bankrupt. This is not good news as the Canadian Football League season is just about to kick off. The club has lost $17 million in past four years.

June 30: Say “good-bye” to the dollar bill. In its place is a gold-coloured, bronze-plated one-dollar coin. Queen Elizabeth II appears on the front but because of the loon on the backside, it is quickly dubbed the “loonie.”

Parliament abolished captial punishment on July 14th, 1976. A total of 710 criminals had met their end with the hangman's noose since 1759.

June 30: After eight days of heated debate, MPs in the House of Commons defeat a bill that would reinstate the death penalty.

Hyundai's Stellar is built on a Ford Cortina chassis. The CXL version is sold only in Canada.

July --  GM and Ford file a joint lawsuit against Hyundai Auto Canada, Inc., accusing the Korean automaker of dumping its cars in Canada.

The Premier, built by American Motors in Bramalea, Ontario will now be branded as Eagle since Chrysler has purchased AMC.

July 1:  Renault sells American Motors to Chrysler. The new super factory in Bramalea, Ontario will now built cars under the Eagle brand name.

Quebec City's skyline at night.

July 3: Quebec City becomes the first city in North America to be declared a UNESCO heritage site. Explorer Jacques Cartier built the first fort here in 1535.

July 13: Folks in Shelburne County Nova Scotia are surprised when 174 south Asian boat people land on the province’s fog bound coast after 17 days at sea. In the best of Maritime hospitality, residents feed their surprise guests peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, hot dogs and Kool-Aid. Federal authorities will detain the refugees until sponsors can be found for them.

July 31: At 3.25 pm an F4 force tornado rips through Edmonton, killing 27 people and injuring more than 300 more. Damage is estimated at $558 million. It is the second worst tornado in national history and will come to be known as Black Friday.

August 7:  Vicki Keith of Kingston, Ontario swims across Lake Ontario in 56 hours and 13 minutes. Her biggest problem was all the water pollution.

August 7:  It’s a boy for Troy and Trina Crosby of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. Sidney will teach himself to skate at the age of three and be the first draft choice for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2005.

Chrysler Canada's state-of-the-art super plant in Bramalea, Ontario.

September 17:  The CAW signs an historic three-year contract with Chrysler Canada that—for the first time ever--includes a cost of living allowance adjustment for retirees.

The Volvo 740 station wagon.

October --  Volvo closes its 12-year old plant in Halifax. It takes longer than expected to move machinery to the new building and assembly of the new 740 models will not begin again until December. The automaker will build 8,190 cars this year, down from 9,625 units built last year.

October 20: The stock market crashes around the world. The Dow Jones alone loses $507 billion. The Toronto Stock Exchange loses 11 percent and the Montreal Stock Exchange loses 9.5 percent of its value.

Ben Johnson in the lead.

August 30:  Ben Johnson is the fastest man in the world, winning the 100-metre dash in Rome in 9.83 seconds. He believes he can win gold for Canada at the Olympics in Seoul next year.

September 4:  Scientists in Alberta tell the press they have found dinosaur eggs with fetuses. They now know that dinosaurs lived in colonies and mothered their offspring.

Lorne Green was the principal newsreader for the CBC. This photo is from 1942.

September 11:  Lorne Green is dead of pneumonia at the age of 72. The star of the long-running American TV drama Bonanza was born in Ottawa. For many years he was the principal newsreader for the CBC. His deep tones earned him the nickname ‘the voice of doom’ during World War Two.

The Pontiff wears a white leather chausuble, a gift from the Dene people.

September 20:  Pope John Paul II arrives in Fort Simpson, NWT to meet and worship with the people. His Holiness urges the government of Canada to give Aboriginal People self-government.

Canada Post honoured Ethel Catherwood's Olympic achievement with a stamp in 1966.

September 26: Ethel Catherwood is dead at the age of 79. The field and track athlete was part of the Matchless Six who represented Canada at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. The press called her 'Saskatoon Lily' and the name stuck. It was the first time women were allowed to compete and Ethel won gold by jumping 1.59 metres.

October 4:  In Washington, D.C., representatives of Canada and the United States agree on the terms of the new free-trade agreement.

The Honourable Francis Joseph "Frank" McKenna is the 27th Premier of New Brunswick.

October 13:  Voters in the Picture Province make a clean sweep, turfing out all of Richard Hatfield’s Tories. Every one of the 58 seats in the provincial legislature goes to the Grits. Premier-elect Frank McKenna says he will appoint some of his Liberal members to act as the Queen’s Loyal Opposition.

November 1:  Rene Levesque is dead of a heart attack in Montreal at the age of 65.  He dreamt of an independent Quebec and founded the Parti Quebecois to make Quebec a sovereign nation.

Glass Tiger is one of the hottest rock, pop and New Wave groups around.

November 2: the Juno Award Show is hosted by Howie Mandel for the second year in a row. The celebration of the best of Canadian music is held at the O’Keefe Centre in Toronto. Luba and Bryan Adams win Best Male and Female Vocalists for the third year in a row. Album of the Year Juno goes to Kim Mitchell for Shakin’ Like a Human Being and Glass Tiger earns the Single of the Year Juno for their hit, Someday.

The first map of the Great Lakes was published in 1688 as  part of New France.

November 11:  Canada and the United States sign an accord to clean up the Great Lakes. This supercedes the 1978 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and will now cover leaking dumps and fertilizer runoff from farmers’ fields.

The Queen of Canadian Cuisine reigned over our kitchens for more than 40 years.

November 24: Legendary chef Madame Jehane Benoit is dead in Sutton, Quebec at the age of 83. The Order of Canada recipient wrote more than 30 cookbooks and starred in her own TV cooking shows on Radio-Canada and the CBC.

November 27:  Cowboy Junkies record their classic album The Trinity Session—at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto.

YTV is a network geared to kids.

November 30: Now we have more Canadian TV channels to watch as YTV, The Weather Network, Vision TV and CBC Newsworld take to the airwaves.

November 29:  Vancouver hosts the Grey Cup. Edmonton squeaks by the Toronto Argonauts to win in front of a crowd of 59,478 fans. The final score is 38 to 36. It's the Eskimos' first Grey Cup since 1982.

 

December 11:  The text is 2,500 pages long and Prime Minister Mulroney tables the proposed free-trade agreement in the House of Commons. If the bill passes, it will give Canadian businesses and industries access to American markets.