1945 in Canada

Two young women standing on Saint Catherine Street in Montreal, reading the front page of The Montreal Daily Star. The title "Germany Quit" announces the German surrender and the impending end of the World War II in Europe.

• 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 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 Japanese project was declared a failure and abandoned, after six months.[2]
• 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 a German U-boat.
• 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

A V-E Day parade on Sparks Street, Ottawa (May 8, 1945)

• 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.

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

• 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.

• 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)

• List of Canadian films

Platoon leader in 48th Highlanders of Canada describes Battle of Apeldoorn in Netherlands[3]

"A zest to life she has never felt before" - Manitoban nurses "tigers" of 1st Canadian Division in Italy[4]

Food shortage in occupied France, especially in cities but benefiting farmers, accompanied after liberation by high inflation[5]

Winter 1945 is trying for Canadian diplomats Charles Ritchie and Saul Rae and family, living in liberated Paris without fuel[6]

Record of two British mariners killed on Canadian cargo ship sunk in Scottish waters in war's last U-boat attack[7]

Film: newsreel shows U-boats surrendering in North American waters, including off Shelburne, Nova Scotia[8]

"A despondent-looking mob" - Canadian Parachute Battalion finds German soldiers and families eagerly surrender to avoid Russians[9]

"My survival was an absolute miracle" - 14-year-old orphan liberated from Buchenwald concentration camp[10]

Hundreds of children freed from Buchenwald, where several Polish inmates ran school[11]

Agreement on trials of European war criminals, who will return "to the countries in which their abominable deeds were done"[12]

"That vague expression and pose of utter bewilderment" - war artist's painting of lone survivor of bomber crash[13]

Royal Navy electrician posted to Quebec City makes substantial extra pay playing trumpet in Al Bedard's band[14]

War artist Lance-Corporal Molly Lamb's humorous graphic story of saying goodbye to her CWAC comrades[15]

"A friend to the service man and his dependents at home" - New Brunswick MP's election campaign flyer is aimed at military voters[16]

Black Canadian Army private goes to City Hall to challenge segregation policy in four Glasgow dance halls[17]

Returning veterans should have houses and suits, but souvenir firearms are not encouraged[18]

Poster: Information on Canadian production and fighting in later war period[19]

"A steadfast and progressive people, blessed with a bountiful land" - production of energy and farm products in wartime Alberta[20]

To block inflation, Canadians urged to avoid black markets, keep to price controls and "not buy two where one will do"[21]

Discussion guide on women's war effort and future role of women in workplace, home and community[22]

Postwar hurdles that Canadians face and need to discuss include too few people, too little independence, and disunity[23]

Editorial speculates on "Japanese mind" in assessing Japan's crimes, "which no Japanese wants to hear about today"[24]

Protests against transfer of more than half of Japanese Canadians to Japan, with calls for their rehabilitation and rights restoration[25]

PM King explains proposal for peace and security organization (UN), and how it would improve on League of Nations[26]

"Trust the people as to the future" - King believes putting war and UN conference above politics will aid Liberals' re-election[27]

On way to UN conference, diplomat Charles Ritchie labels PM King "the fat little conjurer with his flickering, shifty eyes"[28]

Canadians seek standing equal to their role in victory, but U.S. diplomat says cooperation among four major Allies is complex enough[29]

U.S.A., U.K. and Canada intend to share non-military atomic research with all nations for "an atmosphere of reciprocal confidence"[30]

Soviet embassy clerk Igor Gouzenko defects, "sickened by the evidence of intrigues and espionage directed against Canada"[31]

Film: newsreel of Russian espionage case with shots of Deep River, Ontario "atom bomb plant" and many Mounties[32]

U.S. State Department briefing paper on Britain's (and specifically Churchill's) lack of control over Commonwealth nations[33]

"Anglophobia" in U.S.A. targets U.K. (and Canada, as still part of Empire), hampering postwar economic settlement[34]

Private cars, buses and trucks seized for enormous roadblock during strike by Ford of Canada workers in Windsor, Ont.[35]

Program of Oscar Peterson Trio concert includes works by Chopin, Kreisler, Dvorak, Gershwin, Ellington and Peterson[36]