← 1964 1963 1962 1965 in Canada → 1966 1967 1968
Decades:	1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s
See also:	History of Canada Timeline of Canadian history List of years in Canada

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Events from the year 1965 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Elizabeth II^[1]

Federal government

• Governor General – Georges Vanier^[2]
• Prime Minister – Lester B. Pearson
• Chief Justice – Robert Taschereau (Quebec)
• Parliament – 26th (until September 8) then 27th (from December 9)

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – John Percy Page
• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – George Pearkes
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Errick Willis (until November 1) then Richard Spink Bowles
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Joseph Leonard O'Brien (until June 9) then John B. McNair
• Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland – Fabian O'Dea
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Henry Poole MacKeen
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – William Earl Rowe
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Willibald Joseph MacDonald
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Paul Comtois
• Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – Robert Hanbidge

Premiers

• Premier of Alberta – Ernest Manning
• Premier of British Columbia – W.A.C. Bennett
• Premier of Manitoba – Dufferin 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 – Ross Thatcher

Territorial governments

Commissioners

• Commissioner of Yukon – Gordon Robertson Cameron
• Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Bent Gestur Sivertz

Events

• January 1 – Trans-Canada Airlines is renamed Air Canada.
• January 9 – The Hope Slide, the largest landslide ever recorded in Canada, kills four.
• 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 – Canada adopts the maple leaf for 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.
• September 9 – The Fowler Report is released. It advocates creation of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)

• September 13 - The new Toronto City Hall is opened.^[3]
• 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 the California Seals, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota North Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and the St. Louis Blues into the league through expansion
• March 13 - Manitoba Bisons won their First University Cup be defeating the St. Dunstan's Saints 9 to 2, the Final game was played the Winnipeg Arena
• May 1 - The Montreal Canadiens won their Thirteenth Stanley Cup by defeating the Chicago Black Hawks 4 games to 3. The deciding Game 7 was played at the Montreal Forum. Trois-Rivières, Quebec's Jean Beliveau is awarded the First Conn Smythe Trophy as the 1965 Playoffs MVP
• September 10 - Future hall of fame baseball player Ferguson Jenkins plays his first major league game for the Philadelphia Phillies in Connie Mack Stadium
• May 11 - Ontario Hockey Association's Niagara Falls Flyers won their First Memorial Cup by defeating the Central Alberta Hockey League's Edmonton Oil Kings 4 games to 0. All games were played at Edmonton Gardens
• November 20 - Toronto Varsity Blues defeated the Alberta Golden Bears 14–7 in the 1st Vanier Cup played at Varsity Stadium in Toronto
• November 27 - The Hamilton Tiger-Cats won their 4th Grey Cup by defeating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 22–16 in the 53rd Grey Cup in Toronto's CNE Stadium.

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 medallist

• January 28
  • Stéphane Bergeron, politician
  • Lynda Boyd, actress
  • Tom Ponting, swimmer and double Olympic silver medallist
• January 31 – Ofra Harnoy, cellist
• March 1 – Stewart Elliott, jockey
• March 7 - Alison Redford, politician, and the 14th Premier of Alberta
• March 15 – Marcel Gery, swimmer and Olympic bronze medallist
• 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
• June 19 – Gary Vandermeulen, swimmer
• June 25 – Julie Daigneault, swimmer
• June 26 – Gaye Porteous, field hockey player

July to September

• July 11 – Michael Wayne McGray, serial killer
• July 17 – Ken Evraire, television journalist, host and former professional footballer
• July 26 – Michael Rascher, rower and Olympic gold medallist

• August 4 – James Tupper, actor
• August 11 – Marc Bergevin, ice hockey player
• August 22
  • Patricia Hy-Boulais, tennis player
  • David Reimer, Canadian man, born male but reassigned female and raised as a girl after a botched circumcision^[4]
• August 28 – Shania Twain, singer-songwriter
• September 8 – Mark Andrews, swimmer
• September 9 - Eric Tunney, comedian (Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy) (d. 2010)

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

October to December

• October 1 – Cliff Ronning, ice hockey player
• October 5
  • Mario Lemieux, ice hockey player
  • Patrick Roy, ice hockey player
• October 23 – David Bédard, diver

• October 29 – Christy Clark, politician and 35th Premier of British Columbia
• November 5 – Andrew Crosby, rower and Olympic gold medallist
• November 13 - Rick Roberts, actor
• 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 medallist (d. 2021)
• 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)
• July 19 - Franklin D. McDowell, author
• August 23 – George Black, politician (b.1873)
• August 28 – Jacob Penner, politician (b.1880)
• September 10 – S. E. Rogers, politician (b.1888)
• September 20 - Madge Macbeth, author
• October 8 - Thomas B. Costain, historian (b.1885)
• November 25 - Gwethalyn Graham, author (b.1913)