1945 in Canada

Events from the year 1945 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – George VI

Federal government

• Governor General – Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone
• Prime Minister – William Lyon Mackenzie King
• Chief Justice – Thibaudeau Rinfret (Quebec)
• Parliament – 19th (until 16 April) then 20th (from 6 September)

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – John C. Bowen
• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – William Culham Woodward
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Roland Fairbairn McWilliams
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – William George Clark (until November 1) then David Laurence MacLaren
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Henry Ernest Kendall
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Albert Edward Matthews
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Bradford William LePage (until May 18) then Joseph Alphonsus Bernard
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Eugène Fiset
• Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – Archibald P. McNab (until February 27) then Thomas Miller (February 27 to June 20) then Reginald John Marsden Parker (from June 22)

Premiers

• Premier of Alberta – Ernest Manning
• Premier of British Columbia – John Hart
• Premier of Manitoba – Stuart Garson
• Premier of New Brunswick – John McNair
• Premier of Nova Scotia – A.S. MacMillan (until September 8) then Angus Macdonald
• Premier of Ontario – George A. Drew
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – J. Walter Jones
• Premier of Quebec – Maurice Duplessis
• Premier of Saskatchewan – Tommy Douglas

Territorial governments

Commissioners

• Controller of Yukon – George A. Jeckell
• Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Charles Camsell

Events

• 1944–1945: World War II: Japan's Special Balloon Regiment launched 9,000 Fu-Go balloon bombs towards the Pacific Northwest, intended to cause panic, by starting forest fires. Six casualties, a woman and her five children in American state of Oregon, were reported. The ten metre-wide balloons contained 540 cubic metres of hydrogen and reached as far inland as Manitoba. The Japanese project was declared a failure and abandoned, after six months.
• January 8 – Brantford, Ontario becomes the first Canadian community to fluoridate its water supply.
• January 20 – World War II: The first conscripted Canadian soldiers arrive overseas
• February 8 – World War II: The Anglo-Canadian Operation Veritable launched in the Netherlands
• February 24 – Radio Canada International begins operation
• February 25 – Sergeant Aubrey Cosens posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross
• March 1 – Major Frederick Albert Tilston wins the Victoria Cross
• March 29 – The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan is shut down
• April 16 – World War II: HMCS Esquimalt is sunk off Halifax by the .
• May 7 – The crew of vote themselves out of the Pacific war
• May 8 – VE Day sees celebrations across the nation, but also the Halifax Riot.
• June 4 – 1945 Ontario general election: George Drew's PCs win a majority

• June 11 – Federal election: Mackenzie King's Liberals win a third consecutive majority
• June 26 – Canada is a founding member of the United Nations
• August 2 – The Canadian Armoured Corps becomes the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps
• August 15 – VJ Day marks the end of the Second World War. Over a million Canadians had fought in the conflict and 42,000 were killed.
• September 5 – The defection of Soviet embassy clerk Igor Gouzenko reveals a Soviet spy ring in Canada.
• September 8 – Angus Macdonald becomes premier of Nova Scotia for the second time, replacing Alexander MacMillan
• September 12 – The Ford Motor employees in Windsor, Ontario, go on strike.
• October 23 – Jackie Robinson signs a contract with the Montreal Royals baseball team.

Full date unknown

• Family allowance payments are introduced.
• Canada has its first trade surplus with the United States.

Arts and literature

• The Tin Flute (Bonheur d'occasion) by Gabrielle Roy.

Sport

• February 25 – Maurice Richard sets a new record for the most goals (50) in a single ice hockey season.
• April 22 – The Toronto Maple Leafs win their fifth Stanley Cup by defeating the Detroit Red Wings 4 games to 3.
• April 23 – The Ontario Hockey Association's Toronto St. Michael's Majors win their second Memorial Cup by defeating the Southern Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League's Moose Jaw Canucks 4 games to 1. All games were played at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto
• September 29 – The Calgary Stampeders are established
• December 1 – The Toronto Argonauts win their sixth Grey Cup by defeating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 35 to 0 in the 33rd Grey Cup played in Varsity Stadium in Toronto.

Births

January to March

• January 15 - Bonnie Burnard, novelist (d. 2017)
• January 18 - Steven Truscott, exonerated murderer
• January 21 - Len Derkach, politician
• January 23 - Mike Harris, politician and 22nd Premier of Ontario
• January 27
• Harold Cardinal, writer, political leader, teacher, negotiator and lawyer (d. 2005)
• Joe Ghiz, politician and 29th Premier of Prince Edward Island (d. 1996)
• February 5 - Nancy McCredie, track and field athlete
• February 19
• Jim Bradley, politician
• Bill Casey, politician
• February 20 - Donald McPherson, figure skater (d. 2001)
• March 4 - Patrick Boyer, politician and university professor
• March 6 - John A. MacNaughton, financier and executive (d. 2013)
• March 17 - Dave Bailey, track and field athlete (d. 2022)
• March 26 - Diane McGifford, politician
• March 28 - Bobby Schmautz, ice hockey player (d. 2021)

April to June

• April 12 - Doug Riley, keyboard player and producer (d. 2007)
• April 14 - John S. Hunkin, banker (d. 2025)
• May 3 – Leo Panitch, political scientist (d. 2020)
• May 27 - Bruce Cockburn, folk/rock guitarist and singer-songwriter
• June 11 - Robert Munsch, children's writer
• June 16 - Lucienne Robillard, politician and minister
• June 20 - Anne Murray, singer

July to September

• August 4 - Ben Sveinson, politician
• August 11 - David Walsh, businessman, disgraced head of Bre-X (d. 1998)
• August 12 - Mary Stewart, swimmer and world record breaker
• August 15 - Rosann Wowchuk, politician and Deputy Premier of Manitoba
• September 21 - Bjarni Tryggvason, engineer and astronaut (d. 2022)

October to December

• October 15 - John Murrell, playwright (d. 2019)
• November 5 - Jacques Lanctôt, member of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ)
• November 11 - Norman Doyle, politician
• November 12 - Neil Young, singer-songwriter, musician and film director
• December 4 - Roberta Bondar, neurologist and Canada's first female astronaut
• December 24 - John Till, musician (d. 2022)

Full date unknown

• Felix Partz, artist and co-founder of the artistic collective General Idea (d. 1994)

Deaths

• January 15 – Kate Simpson Hayes, playwright and legislative librarian (b. 1856)
• March 2 - Emily Carr, artist and writer (b. 1871)
• March 23 - Walter Charles Murray, first President of the University of Saskatchewan (b. 1866)
• July 17 - Adjutor Rivard, lawyer, writer, judge and linguist (b. 1868)
• October 24 - Franklin Carmichael, painter and Group of Seven member (b. 1890)
• November 1 - Marie Lacoste Gérin-Lajoie, feminist and social activist (b. 1867)
• December 10 - Joseph-Octave Samson, businessperson, politician and 28th Mayor of Quebec City (b. 1862)

See also

• List of Canadian films

References