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Period: to
Canada 1954 - 2000
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Cold war begins
Canada was thrust into the Cold War world quickly and unexpectedly. In September 1945, a young Russian named Igor Gouzenko walked into the newsroom of the Ottawa Citizen and announced he had proof of a widespread Soviet spy ring operating in Canada.
Gouzenko's allegations were a wake up call for Canada and the rest of the world. The event would cause a chain reaction of anti-Communist sentiments throughout the West. -
VIetnam War begins
Vietnam may have been America's war but Canada was heavily involved — for and against. Canada harboured roughly 30,000 American draft dodgers. But at the same time, about 30,000 Canadians volunteered to fight in Southeast Asia. Canada was also involved in secret missions, weapons testing, arms production, and the supervision of ceasefires. Despite a law that made it illegal, many individual Canadians chose to sign up with the U.S. armed forces to fight in Vietnam. -
Canada joins NATO
Canada has been apart of the North Atlantic Treaty Organizatioin (NATO) since 1949. Canada was not only a memner nut one of the principal initiators of the alliance. This was a marked break for Canada's pre-war isolationaism, and was the first peacetime alliance Canada had ever joined. -
Newfoundland Joins Conferderation
Whether Newfoundland and Labrador should remain as an independent political organization, or join the federation of the other British North American colonies, was an issue from 1864 to 1949. In 1864, Newfoundland delegates attended the Quebec Conference and signed the resolutions which became of foundation of the 1867 British North America Act. But it was not until over 80 years later, in 1949, that Newfoundland became a Canadian province. -
korean war begins
The Korean is also known as Canada's "Forgotten War." Over 500 Canadians died in the United Nations' struggle to repel the communist forces that invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950. To the people they helped liberate, the Canadians were heroes. Yet those who made it home returned to an indifferent country and a government that took 40 years to officially acknowledge their sacrifice. -
Immigration Act
In 1952, the Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent passed the first new immigration act since the year 1910. The Immigration Act of 1952 was not a momentous departure from prior legislation as it largely summarized existing practices and established a legislative framework from which the government could enact additional orders and regulations. -
AVRO arrow
Canada's greatest aeronautical achievement was the CF-105 jet fighter, and the subsequent cancellation of the project in 1959 still remains a story of political intrigue and controversy. The CF-105, or Avro Arrow as it was known, was a supersonic jet interceptor developed by A.V. Roe of Canada. Faster and more advanced than any other comparable aircraft, the Arrow was designed to carry air-to-air nuclear-tipped missiles to destroy Soviet bomb attacks over the Canadian North. -
Korean war ends
Canada's casualties added to 1,558 including 516 deaths. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw was a military organization headed by the Soviet Union, consisting of eastern European Communist states. The pact was established in 1955 as a response to a perceived threat from the NATO alliance to which Canada belonged. The catalyst for creation of the Warsaw Pact was the integration of a re-militarized West Germany into the NATO alliance after ratification of the Paris Agreements. -
Suez Crisis
Eleven years after the second world war, a crisis occurred which had the potential to escalate into a third world war. If Canada had not become involved in the Suez Crisis, it could have escalated. These three components add up to the conclusion of the Suez Crisis: Canada's choice for those countries directly involved in the crisis, Canada's choice for involvement, and Canada's resolution of the United Nations Emergency Force, which woud put a stop to a possible world war. -
Canada joins NORAD
A soviet attack would in all likelihood come over the arctic, across Canada and into the U.S.. On August 1st, 1957 an agreement was announced that a new organization was to be formed between Canada and the United States to be known as NORAD or the North American Air Defence Agreement. This was intended to be an integrated system of defensive measures, installations and systems that would provide early warning and protection to North America in case of an attack by the Soviet Union. -
John Diefenbarker PM
John George Diefenbaker (Progressive Conservative Party of Canada) was Prime Minister of Canada from June 21, 1957, to April 22, 1963. During his term, he championed the Canadian Bill of Rights in 1958 and gave all Aboriginal people the right to vote in 1960. Mr. Diefenbaker was the first Prime Minister to appoint a woman Cabinet Minister and the first to appoint an Aboriginal person to the Senate. -
Quiet Revolution
The Quiet Revolution, which is a term applied to the changes that took place in Quebec from the late 1950's to the late 60's, was a time of great change in the province. The politics and social life of Quebec had been dictated by the Provincial Premier Maurice Duplessis since the 1930's and in a sense it was a throw back to the conservative movement in Quebec when Laurier was trying to break the church, business, nationalistic hold on the province in the 1890's. marice -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis began on October 15,1962, at the height of the Cold War, when an American spy plane took photographs of ballistic missiles, belonging to the Soviet Union, being installed in Cuba. The missiles, designed to deliver nuclear warheads, were capable of hitting targets anywhere in the United States or Canada posing a threat to Canada and the U.S. Although Canadian forces were placed on alert, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's hesitant response to the crisis aggravated the U.S. -
Lester Pearson PM
Pearson was Prime Minister from 1962-1968. Pearson left behind a notable legacy of legislation: a Canada Pension Plan, a universal medicare system, a unified armed force, and a new flag. However, its approach to the problem of Canada's economically disadvantaged regions was less successful. which included the Glace Bay heavy-water plant. Not all of these initiatives proved fruitful and some were costly, but they represented the high point of the Canadian welfare state. -
National Maedicare Act
Medicare developed in 2 stages. The first was the Hospital Insurance and Diagnostic Act of 1957, which gave the Canadian government authority to enter into an agreement with the provinces to establish a comprehensive, universal plan covering acute hospital care and laboratory and radiology diagnostic services. Nine years later, the Medical Care Act of 1966 extended health insurance to cover doctors' services. -
Trudeau PM
Trudeau's career as prime minister was one of electoral success. He served longer than every other contemporary leader in the Western world, becoming the elder statesman of the West. His achievements include the 1980 defeat of Québec separatism, official bilingualism, the patriated Constitution, and the Charter of Rights.
Trudeau was unable, however, to alleviate regional alienation or to end the conflict between federal and provincial governments. He remained in power from 1968 - 1980 -
White Paper
In 1969, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and his Minister of Indian Affairs, Jean Chrétien, unveiled a policy paper that proposed dismantling the Indian Act. The federal government’s intention was to achieve equality among all Canadians by eliminating Indian as a distinct legal status and by regarding Aboriginal peoples simply as citizens with the same rights, opportunities and responsibilities as other Canadians. -
October Crisis
The October Crisis began October 5th 1970 with the kidnapping of James CROSS, the British trade commissioner in Montréal, by members of the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ). It rapidly devolved into the most serious terrorist act carried out on Canadian soil after another official, Minister of Immigration and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte, was kidnapped and killed. -
Vietnam war ends
During the years 1954 to 1975 Canada served on two international truce commissions and provided medical supplies and technical assistance. Canadian diplomats were involved in negotiations between Washington and Hanoi and successive Canadian governments, both Liberal and Conservative, maintained that Ottawa was an impartial and objective peacekeeper, an innocent and helpful bystander negotiating for peace and administering aid to victims of the war. -
Immigration Act
Canada's immigration policy is the most explicit part of what might be described as a population policy. In a liberal democratic state such as Canada, only the prevailing rates of immigration and not those of mortality, fertility and emigration can be effectively regulated. By regulating the means of selection and by controlling the number of entrants, the government seeks to fulfil a variety of national objectives. -
USSR invades Afghanistan
Canada first established diplomatic relations with Afghanistan in 1968 to direct the humanitarian and development work that it had begun to provide in the early 1960s in response to a chain of natural disasters in the region. However, these diplomatic ties were split when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. After the depart of Soviet troops in 1989, the Canadian government did not re-establish diplomatic ties during the course of the Afghan civil war, but it still gave some assistance. -
Constitution Act
Constitution Act, 1982 came into force on 17 April 1982. The Act forms a part of the Constitution of Canada and is itself comprised of 7 parts.i) freedom of conscience and religion;
ii) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression; iii) freedom of peaceful assembly, and; iv) freedom of association. The charter also had other right such as i) each citizen has the right to vote;
ii) each citizen has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada... -
Jean Sauve
On May 19 1984 Jean Sauve was apointed as the Governor General of Canada. She took office and dedicated herself to youth, national unity and world peace. As Governor General she travelled widely, representing Canada Internationally and meeting many foreign heads of state to Canada. She managed to evolve the office of the Governor General as the new Constitution was implemented and the system adapted to the changes in the document. -
Trudeau PM
Trudeau resigned in 1984. -
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney (Progressive Conservative Party of Canada) was sworn in as Canada's 18th Prime Minister on September 18, 1984, and served until June 25, 1993.
While he was in office, the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement was signed in 1988 and the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1992. Mr. Mulroney was first elected to the House of Commons in 1983 and served as Leader of the Opposition from 1983 to 1984. -
Meech Lake Accord
In 1987 the Progressive Conservative government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney attempted to win Québec's consent to the revised Canadian Constitution — following the Québec government's rejection of it in 1981. The result was the Meech Lake Accord, an agreement between the federal and provincial governments to amend the Constitution by strengthening provincial powers and declaring Québec a "distinct society." Political support for the Accord later unravelled, and it was never put into effect. -
Canadian Multicultural Act
the new Multicultural Act of 1988 promoted inclusivity amongst Canada’s social, cultural, economic and political institutions. Government agencies and departments were expected to provide leadership in advancing multiculturalism at an institutional level. The act contained specific provisions outlining the responsibilities of federal organizations in implementing policies, programs and decision-making strategies that reflected a sensitivity and respect for the multicultural reality of Canada. -
Gulf War
During the Gulf War Canada contributed, about 4,000 service personnel participated in the intervention, with a peak of 2,700 personnel at one time in the Persian Gulf region. These service men and women were primarily attached to four Canadian units in the Gulf: the Canadian Task Group at sea; the Canadian Air Task Group in Doha, Quatar; the joint Headquarters, Canadian Forces Middle East, in Manamah, Bahrain; and First Canadian Field Hospital at Al-Qaysumah. -
Oka standoff
The Oka Crisis was a 78-day standoff between Mohawk protesters & police. At the heart of the crisis was the proposed spread of a golf course and development of condos on disputed land that included a Mohawk burial ground. Tensions hightened, after the death of Corporal Marcel Lemay, & a police officer. The situation was only settled after the army was called in. After the golf course expansion was removed, the land purchased by the government, has not yet been transferred to the Kanesatake. -
Cold war ends
By mid-1990, many of the Soviet republics had declared their independence. Turmoil in the Soviet Union continued, as there were several attempts at overthrowing Gorbachev. On December 8, 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Boris Yeltsin, president of the Russian Republic, formed the Commonwealth of Independent States (C.I.S.). After 45 years, the Cold War was over. -
Charlottetown Accord
The Charlottetown Accord of 1992 was a failed, joint attempt by the government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and all 10 provincial premiers to amend the Canadian Constitution, specifically to obtain Quebec's consent to the Constitution Act of 1982. The Accord would have also decentralized many federal powers to the provinces, and it was ultimately rejected by Canadian voters in a referendum. -
NAFTA agreement
The North American Free Trade Agreement , came into effect on January 1, 1994, creating the largest free trade region in the world, generating economic growth and helping to raise the standard of living for the people of all three member countries. By strengthening the rules and procedures governing trade and investment, the NAFTA has proved to be a solid foundation for building Canada’s prosperity and has set a valuable example of the benefits of trade liberalization for the rest of the world. -
Rwanda
Following the genocide in 1994, Canada contributed to efforts to re-establish Rwanda’s social institutions and infrastructure. In 2004, the Canadian Parliament declared April 7 as a Day of Remembrance of the victims of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. On April 7, 2008, the Canadian Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution to designate April 7 as a Day of Reflection on the Prevention of Genocide. -
Kyoto Accord
By 1995, countries realized that emission reductions provisions in the Convention were inadequate. They launched negotiations to strengthen the global response to climate change, and, two years later, adopted the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol legally binds developed countries to emission reduction targets. -
Nisga Treaty
In 1998 a decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal, was held that bringing a court action was sufficient to defeat a claim to Aboriginal title. This alone, if correct in law, would be sufficient to defeat almost every land claim that is brought to court. -
Nunavut Territory
Nunavut was established by the Nunavut Act of June 1993 and became a constitutional entity on 1 April 1999.
