1965 in Canada

Events from the year 1965 in Canada.

Incumbents

• Monarch: Elizabeth II
• Governor General: Georges Vanier
• Prime Minister: Lester B. Pearson
• Premier of Alberta: Ernest Manning
• Premier of British Columbia: W.A.C. Bennett
• Premier of Manitoba: Duff Roblin
• Premier of New Brunswick: Louis Robichaud
• Premier of Newfoundland: Joey Smallwood
• Premier of Nova Scotia: Robert Stanfield
• Premier of Ontario: John Robarts
• Premier of Prince Edward Island: Walter Shaw
• Premier of Quebec: Jean Lesage
• Premier of Saskatchewan: W. Ross Thatcher

Events

• January 1 – Trans-Canada Airlines is renamed Air Canada
• January 16 – The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement is signed
• January 28 – The Queen issues a royal proclamation, effective February 15, making the Maple Leaf flag the National Flag of Canada.
• February 15 – National Flag of Canada Day, marked by ceremonies across the Dominion, the Maple Leaf becomes the National Flag.
• March 2 – Lucien Rivard escapes from a Montreal area jail
• March 7 – Canadian Roman Catholic churches celebrate mass in the vernacular for the first time due to the reforms of Vatican II
• March 20 – Peter Lougheed is elected leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party
• April 2 – Lester Pearson gives a speech at Temple University in the United States that calls for a stop to the bombing of North Vietnam, infuriating President Lyndon Johnson
• May 16 – Cross Country Checkup debuts on radio
• June 7 – Navy, army, and air force commands are replaced by six functional commands
• July 8 – A crash of a Canadian Pacific Airlines flight in British Columbia kills 52.
• July 9 – The Hope Slide, the largest landslide ever recorded in Canada, kills four
• September 9 – The Fowler Report is released. It advocates creation of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)

Toronto City Hall opens

• September 13 - The new Toronto City Hall is opened.
• November 8 – Federal election: Lester Pearson's Liberals win a second consecutive minority
• November 9 – A failure at an Ontario power station causes the 1965 Blackout that stretches from Florida to Chicago and all of southern Ontario.
• November 29 – Alouette 2 is launched.

Full date unknown

• Eligibility age for pensions is lowered from 70 to 65

Arts and literature

New books

• George Grant: Lament for a Nation
• John Newlove: Moving in Alone
• Robert Kroetsch: But We Are Exiles
• Farley Mowat: West Viking
• Gilles Archambault: La vie à trois
• Hubert Aquin: Prochain épisode

Awards

• Gordon R. Dickson's Soldier, Ask Not wins a Hugo Award
• See 1965 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Stephen Leacock Award: Gregory Clark, War Stories
• Vicky Metcalf Award: Roderick Haig-Brown

Music

• Karel Ančerl replaces Seiji Ozawa as artistic director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra

Film

• October 13 – The Canadian Film Development Agency is formed
• Christopher Plummer stars as Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music
• William Shatner stars in Incubus

Sport

• March 11 – The NHL admits six new teams and doubles in size.

Births

January to March

• January 8
  • Wendy Fuller, diver
  • Eric Wohlberg, racing cyclist
• January 21 – Brian Bradley, ice hockey player
• January 23 – Tim Berrett, race walker
• January 27 – Ross MacDonald, sailor and Olympic silver medalist

Alison Redford

• January 28
  • Stéphane Bergeron, politician
  • Tom Ponting, swimmer and double Olympic silver medalist
• January 31 – Ofra Harnoy, cellist
• March 1 – Stewart Elliott, jockey
• March 7 - Alison Redford, politician, and the 14th and current Premier of Alberta
• March 15 – Marcel Gery, swimmer and Olympic bronze medalist
• March 23 – Daren Puppa, ice hockey player

April to June

• April 11 – Chris Pridham, tennis player
• April 21 – Ed Belfour, ice hockey player
• April 22 – Peter Zezel, ice hockey player (d. 2009)
• May 7 – Owen Hart, wrestler (d. 1999)
• May 9 – Steve Yzerman, ice hockey player
• May 10 – Linda Evangelista, supermodel
• May 19 – James Bezan, politician
• May 21 – Scott Browning, entrepreneur
• June 19 – Gary Vandermeulen, swimmer
• June 25 – Julie Daigneault, swimmer
• June 26 – Gaye Porteous, field hockey player

July to September

• July 26 – Michael Rascher, rower and Olympic gold medalist

Peter MacKay attending the 45th Munich Security Conference

• August 11 – Marc Bergevin, ice hockey player
• August 22 – Patricia Hy-Boulais, tennis player
• August 28 – Shania Twain, singer-songwriter
• September 8 – Mark Andrews, swimmer
• September 9 - Eric Tunney, comedian (Brain Candy) (d. 2010)
• September 20 – Peter Loubardias, sportscaster

Christy Clark

• September 27
  • Bernard Lord, politician and 30th Premier of New Brunswick
  • Peter MacKay, lawyer, politician and Minister

October to December

• October 5
  • Mario Lemieux, ice hockey player
  • Patrick Roy, ice hockey player
• October 23 – David Bédard, diver

Brad Wall on October 30, 2007

• October 29 – Christy Clark, politician and 35th and current Premier of British Columbia
• November 5 – Andrew Crosby, rower and Olympic gold medalist
• November 20 – John Graham, track and field athlete
• November 21 – Jon Kelly, swimmer
• November 24 – Brad Wall, politician and 14th Premier of Saskatchewan
• November 27 – Kathleen Heddle, rower and triple Olympic gold medalist
• December 1 – Jamie Pagendam, boxer
• December 10 – Jennifer Wyatt, golfer
• December 18 – Brian Walton, road and track cyclist and coach
• December 29 - Manon Perreault, politician

Full date unknown

• Emanuel Jaques, murder victim (d. 1977)

Deaths

• January 17 – Austin Claude Taylor, politician (b.1893)
• April 1 – Harry Crerar, General (b.1888)
• June 7 – John Stewart McDiarmid, politician and Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba (b.1882)
• August 23 – George Black, politician (b.1873)
• August 28 – Jacob Penner, politician (b.1880)
• September 10 – S. E. Rogers, politician (b.1888)

Full date unknown

• Fiorenza Johnson, wife of George Alexander Drew, 14th Prime Minister of Ontario