1945 in Canada

Crown

Head of state (monarch) – King George VI (consort – Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon)

Federal government

Governor general – Alexander Cambridge (viceregal consort – Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone)

Prime minister – William Lyon Mackenzie King

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

Commissioners

Controller of Yukon – George A. Jeckell

Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Charles Camsell

Events

January 8 - Brantford, Ontario becomes the first Canadian community to fluoridate its water supply.

1944-1945: World War II: Japan's Special Balloon Regiment drops 9,000 balloon bombs over the Pacific Northwest, intended to cause panic, by starting forest fires. Six casualties, a woman and her five children in the 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 event was declared a failure and abandoned, after six months.

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 a German U-boat.

May 8 - VE Day sees celebrations across the nation, but also the Halifax Riot.

June 4 - Ontario general election, 1945: 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.

Full date unknown

Family allowance payments is 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 in a single ice hockey season.

January to March

January 15 - Bonnie Burnard, novelist

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 2 - Pauline Vaillancourt, singer

February 5 - Nancy McCredie, track and field athlete

February 19 - 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 26 - Diane McGifford, politician

March 17 - Dave Bailey, track and field athlete

April to June

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

October to December

October 15 - John Murrell, playwright

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

Full date unknown

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

Deaths

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)