What can be said about the New Year that hasn’t been said a thousand times?
The new ones come; the old ones go.
As we close this year out, we can think back to some of the milestones we celebrated like…
One hundred years of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Two hundred years since breaking ground on the Welland Canal, and 25 years since the largest and northernmost territory, officially separated from the Northwest Territories and became Nunavut.
Every January 1st we dream big and greet the new year with hope and light.
I’m Craig Baird, this is Canadian History Ehx and although I can’t tell you about the future…. I certainly can tell you about the past and today we’re bridging the two as I share what celebrations we’re looking forward to in 2025.
Let’s begin our journey with the story of a great ship, lost300 years ago….
The Chameau was a beautiful and important ship which would become part of Canada’s early history.
For over a decade, she brought much needed supplies to what was then New France. She was the Amazon delivery truck of the early-18th century colony that would one day become Quebec and a major foundation of present-day Canada.
Blaise Ollivier was the young naval architect who developed The Chameau out of a fascination for English and Dutch ships and their seemingly advanced construction methods.
He believed he could outdo them and, in the process, create a vessel for France that was fast and well- armed and in 1717 the Chameau was launched.
She was one of the larger ships of her era, she was 41 metres long and 9.4 metres wide.
Armed with 44 cannons in total with 20 12-pounderson the lower deck and two more on the stern, and an additional 22 six-pounders on the upper deck. All that to say… she was armed to the teeth and could easily hold her own in any hostile naval encounter.
Upon launching the Chameau became a vital link between France and its colony in North America.
New France was only 100 years old by this point and was still struggling.
To keep the colony viable, the ship carried passengers, cargo and gold from France and returned with passengers, wood and beaver pelts.
In July 1725, the Chameau left from La Rochelle, France under the command of Jean de Saint James loaded with gold, silver and copper coins.
On board were several dignitaries including Louis de La Porte de Louvigny, the new Governor of Trois Rivieres.
The trip was uneventful for the most part until Aug. 27 when it met a great storm on its path.
You can have all the cannons in the world, but nothing will beat the wrath of Mother Nature.
Only a few kilometres away from Louisbourg, the ship was swept onto rocks and began to take on water. There were no lifeboats in that era, and no hope of rescue.
No one survived.
It is not known how many died but estimates range between 216 to over 300 people were lost at sea on that day.
But that is not the end of this tragic story.
Nearly 250 years later in 1965, Alex Storm, Dave MacEachern and Harvey Macleod found the shipwreck of the Chameau.
Most of the wood hull was gone, but the cargo made up of all those gold and silver coins remained.
Storm recovered most of the coins from the wreck site, worth an estimated $700,000.
And what happens when a lot of money gets involved in something?
Everyone wants a cut and on April 7, 1966, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court began the process of determining who would benefit because a lawsuit was filed by Storms alleged partners.
A previous partnership agreement from 1961 stated that Storm would be entitled to 20 percent of any treasure found.
What complicated things is that group he was a part of never found treasure and after several years with little communication between them, Storm walked away and formed a new partnership without ending his earlier agreement legally.
He only found treasure with his new partners, so the case went all the way up to the Supreme Court of Canada, who concluded Storm was in breach of his original agreement.
However, it also ruled he could keep most of the treasure.
In December 1971, most of the coins and artifacts were auctioned off.
Today, some of the artifacts can be found at the Louisbourg Maritime Museum.
The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, houses an exhibit of the Chameu and includes coins, navigational instruments, food ware and a rare bronze swivel cannon from the wreck.
We now jump ahead 50 years from the loss of the Chameau to 1775
And in that time Canada went through major changes including the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759 which was fought outside the Quebec City walls.
British General James Wolfe and his men were victorious over the French army led by General Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm. The victory marked the end of New France and the beginning of British domination.
But the battle came at a great cost, Wolfe and Montcalm were among the 100 soldiers that died in battle.
And as things settled over the next few years a new threat was forming in the south.
In April 1775, the American Revolutionary War broke out.
Shortly after, Benedict Arnold led a raid on Fort Saint-Jean near Montreal.
It triggered the fear that it would be only a matter of time before the Americans attacked a more prominent settlement like Montreal, or even Quebec City.
The Americans believed that French-Canadians would welcome them as liberators.
In truth, 250 years ago French-Canadians simply wanted to remain neutral in what they saw as a war between the British and the Americans.
They had no desire to join either side.
Meanwhile the American Congress approved for 3,000 men under Major General Philip Schuyler to attack Montreal, and 1,050 soldiers under Benedict Arnold for an attack on Quebec City.
In September 1775 The Continental Army marched towards Quebec and by Sept. 16 Schuyler handed over command to Brigadier General Richard Montgomery.
On Nov. 13, Montreal was captured.
Governor Guy Carleton escaped and made his way to Quebec City where he warned that an attack was coming.
With last minute reinforcements arriving in the city, everyone prepared for the Americans’ arrival.
Thankfully, Benedict Arnold’s march to Quebec City was disastrous on account of wet and cold weather which made the journey hell on his soldiers.
Boats were wrecked and food supplies ruined.
Of the 1,050 men destined for r Quebec City, 500 turned back or died and those that left took most of the remaining food with them.
Arnold’s forces were hungry and depleted and after a two-month journey they could do little when they arrived at the city walls and instead had to wait for Mongomery’s forces coming from Montreal.
On Dec. 6, he arrived and ordered Sir Guy Carleton, who was the Governor of Quebec, to surrender.
Carleton instead burned his letter.
Montgomery sent more and described their situation as hopeless.
But Carleton ignored every single one which made Montgomery anxious as he saw the days tick down to New Years.
Montgomery knew that on Dec. 31, 1775, his forces would leave because their time with the army would expire.
He attempted to convince them to stay, but they told him that when their enlistment ended, they were packing up and going home.
Wanting to take the city before the end of the year, Montgomery launched a rushed attack on Quebec City.
The American forces would converge in the lower city before scaling the walls to the upper city.
Montgomery led his men from Wolfe’s Cove towards the outer defenses.
But there was one major flaw… he did this in the middle of a terrible blizzard.
As they approached, warning church bells rang inside Quebec City and militiamen armed themselves.
Montgomery’s force sawed a hole through the outer palisade and broke through.
Once inside, Montgomery led 50 men down a narrow street towards a two-storey building.
What he didn’t know was that the building was part of the city’s defenses, inside were 39 Quebec militia and nine sailors armed to the teeth with cannons and muskets.
Before Montgomery could even unsheathe his sword, a cannonball tore through the group hitting Montgomery in the head, killing him instantly, along with his two most senior officers who were standing next to him.
Deputy Quartermaster Donald Campbell took control and immediately saw that the only path forward was a retreat.
He left with his uninjured men, leaving Montgomery’s headless body behind.
Snow fell on the now empty street, as Benedict Arnold made his own advance from a different position.
His forces broke through the outer gates unnoticed but as they approached the Palace Gate, heavy fire rained down upon them.
The height of the walls made it impossible to return fire and Arnold led his men to the docks where there were no walls.
As they entered the city, they became lost in the narrow streets amid the blizzard.
Blindly they turned down one street, only to be met by 30 Canadian militia armed with three light cannons.
One American was killed, six were wounded and they quickly began a hasty retreat.
Benedict Arnold was shot in the leg and wounded so he gave command over to Daniel Morgan as they fled to a safer position.
He led the men down until they were stopped by a sailor named Anderson who demanded their surrender.
As a response Morgan shot him dead and yelled “Quebec is ours!”
He then charged down the street as the Royal Highlanders fired at them from the windows above.
Now fish in a barrel, Morgan and his men sought shelter in houses as a 500 men British force came through the Palace Gate and trapped the Americans. With no other option, Morgan surrendered.
The Battle of Quebec was over, and it was the first defeat ever suffered by the Continental Army.
In the end over 60 Americans were killed, 426 were wounded and 431 were taken prisoner.
The British lost only six men.
But the idea of invading Canada continued to be debated in Congress up to 1780, but no decision was ever made.
During the peace negotiations in Paris in 1782–83 which would bring about the end of the American Revolutionary War, the American delegation asked for the cession of Canada (at the time, the term Canada applied only to what is now southern Quebec and southern Ontario) to the United States.
They were denied. but had they won the battle of Quebec 250 years ago and were still in possession of the territory… what is now southern Ontario and southern Quebec would be part of the United States.
Just putting it out there that every time the United States has tried to conquer or annex Canada, it has ended badly for them… including the War of 1812… but now we’re jumping ahead another 50 years to 1825.
In those five decades the most notable change that came to Canada was the merger of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company in 1821 following the Pemmican War.
And with it came a change in how the Company, and the Canadian government, treated the First Nations.
Amid this turmoil a boy was born at Jackfish Lake, Rupert’s Land, in present-day central Saskatchewan near the Alberta border.
His name was Mistahi-maskwa, but we know him better today as the famous Cree Chief Big Bear.
His father was Muckitoo, known as Black Powder, a minor chief of the Plains-Cree people. Who his mother was has been long lost to history.
From an early age, Big Bear seemed to be destined to be a leader.
Almost as soon as he could walk, he wandered around the camp talking with people and hearing them out. he was literally a born “man of the people”.
When he was about 12, smallpox reached the camp.
It had been originated and spread by European traders from the east and it decimated Indigenous populations which had no natural immunity to the virus.
Big Bear was infected and suffered for two months but survived.
The lasting reminder of the disease were the smallpox scars that stayed with him for the rest of his life.
Upon his recovery Big Bear spent a lot of time with his father.
As a teenager he journeyed with him and reflected upon the spirits that governed their lives.
Big Bear took a great deal of time to reflect on the spirits that visited him, but it was the bear that was the most prominent among them.
The Bear Spirit was an incredibly powerful spirit among his people, and it was from that spirit he received his name and his power bundle.
This bundle was an important part of Cree society and could only be opened during a dance or in a time of war.
It contained a fur necklace in the shape of a bear paw which was believed to enabled him to have a perfect power position where nothing could harm him.
With his father, Big Bear began to take part in what was called, Haunting The Blackfoot.
These were raids into Blackfoot territory, their hated enemy.
The two groups had been at war for decades, especially as the Cree gained prominence through trade with the Hudson’s Bay Company. It gave them European goods allowing the Cree to extend into Blackfoot Territory, leading to conflict.
During those raids Big Bear gained a reputation as a great warrior.
In 1865 when he was 40 years old, his father Black Powder died, and Big Bear became the new chief.
Even though he was described as an independent spirit who had trouble taking directions from outsiders, the people around him respected him From here, life continued as it always had. They hunted bison, fought the Blackfoot and lived off the land.
On Oct. 25, 1870, that changed.
Big Bear led his warriors into battle along the banks of the Belly River in present-day Lethbridge, Alberta to fight thee Blackfoot.
It proved to be disastrous.
While the Blackfoot only lost 40 men in the Battle of Belly River, the Cree lost 400, which was half their entire force.
Big Bear, possibly due to his power bundle, survived.
What no one knew at the time was that The Battle of Belly River would be the last major conflict fought between First Nations on Canadian soil.
I covered this battle in my episodes about Chief Piapot and Jerry Potts from 2023 and 2024, so be sure to check those out.
After the battle, It seemed like things were going to continue as they always had for Big Bear and his people.
But it was not to be.
By the mid-1870s, the bison were disappearing leading to starvation. Smallpox and tuberculosis continued to spread among the First Nations, causing untold suffering.
The final nail in the coffin came in the winter of 1878-79 when bison that had traveled north every year for centuries, if not millennia, did not arrive.
The era of the bison had ended.
While all this was happening, the Canadian government was negotiating numbered treaties, which ceded Indigenous People territory to the government.
In return they would have to live on reserves, to receive food rations, guns and ammunition and other items.
Big Bear, as a chief of the Cree, resisted signing the treaty for as long as he could.
He knew that the government would not live up to everything they promised. He also didn’t want his people to lose their freedom.
By 1876, every Plains Cree chief had signed Treaty 6 except Big Bear.
He waited, hoping for better terms in the treaty and said,
“We want none of the Queen’s presents: When we set a fox trap, we scatter pieces of meat all around but when the fox gets into the trap we knock him on the head. We want no baits. Let your chiefs come like men and talk to us.”
In the end, he had no choice. His people were starving. Nearly 250 people relied on him and The government told him the Cree would only get food rations if he signed.
Big Bear signed the treaty at Fort Walsh in the Cypress Hills on Dec. 8, 1882.
But…. he resisted moving to a reserve.
For three years, his people camped north of present-day Lloydminster along the future Alberta-Saskatchewan border.
The Canadian government became impatient and withheld rations until he eventually settled on a reserve near Fort Pitt.
After he signed, Big Bear lost influence and Chief Wandering Spirit rose to power.
On April 1, 1885, Big Bear’s son Little Big Man and Chief Wandering Spirit, heard that the Metis had defeated the North West Mounted Police in battle at Duck Lake.
They decided now was their chance.
Indian Agent Thomas Quinn, who had denied them rations was killed by Wandering Spirit along with nine other men in what has become known as The Frog Lake Massacre.
I talked about the Frog Lake Massacre in an episode in 2023, so check that out.
News spread and despite Big Bear’s efforts to stop the violence and solve matters peacefully, the Canadian government held him responsible.
On July 2, 1885, Big Bear surrendered at Fort Carleton.
The Trial had to be translated into Cree.
Only one man, Stanley Simpson, who had been taken prisoner at Fort Pitt by the Cree, appeared for the prosecution.
Most of the evidence presented proved Big Bear’s innocence and showed he took no part in the violence.
Nonetheless, he was found guilty of treason and sentenced to three years at Stony Mountain Penitentiary.
While in prison, Big Bear became ill and was released early in February 1887.
He moved to the Little Pine Reserve, where he died on Jan. 17, 1888.
Today, Big Bear is remembered as someone who tried to unite his people and protect them.
So sometime next year make sure you take a moment to celebrate him on the 200th anniversary of his birth.
You may have heard of Big Bear, but I bet you may not have heard of this next change maker…
Elizabeth McMaster was born on Dec. 27, 1847.
She grew up in a family that stood just on the fringe of Toronto’s high society. Like women in her class and era she focused on family, religious faith, and charitable work.
That’s how saw that there was a significant gap in healthcare in Toronto. Especially when it came to the children.
From 1825 to 1875, half of the recorded deaths in Toronto were children under the age of 10.
In 1874, she organized what was known as The Ladies Committee and started to raise money to rent a space that could be used to treat children.
By February 1875, she had enough donations to rent a small row house where she set up a hospital available to all children, regardless of their parents’ income.
On March 1, 1875, the hospital opened with just six iron cots.
150 years later, that hospital is known as The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
Despite its importance today, during its first month staff had nothing to do.
They had no patients until April 3, 1875, when a young girl named Maggie arrived after she was scalded by hot water.
By the end of 1875, 44 patients had been admitted to the hospital and 67 treated in the outpatient clinic.
A year after it opened, the children’s hospital moved to larger facilities and expanded to 16 beds.
From then on, the hospital revolutionized medicine and helped untold thousands of children.
Toronto was fast developing and by the end of the 19th century, the hospital needed to expand.
In 1892, it upgraded from 16 beds to 320 with a new four-storey building on College Street.
Sixteen years later in 1908, the first Canadian milk pasteurization plant opened in the hospital preventing the spread of typhoid through contaminated milk.
The plant operated for thirty years before Canada made pasteurization mandatory.
A few years later, a young doctor named Frederick Banting served his internship at the hospital and became an attending physician.
Later in life at the University of Toronto in 1922, he co-discovered insulin, saving millions of lives in the process and earning the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Around the same time that Banting was working on insulin nearby, doctors at the hospital pioneered blood transfusion for children.
A few years later in 1931, Canadian pediatricians Frederick Tisdall, Theodore Drake, Pearl Summerfeldt and Alan Brown, along with lab tech Ruth Herbert and chemist Mead Johnson developed Pablum to combat infant malnutrition.
Their baby food changed the world and helped prevent rickets by providing children with enough Vitamin D in their diet.
This not only saved lives, but it also helped the hospital immensely.
For25 years, it earned royalties on r every package of Pablum sold.
In 1951, the hospital moved to its present location at 555 University Avenue.
That property also has a connection to Canadian history because that was the childhood home of silent film icon Mary Pickford.
There is a bronze bust of her nearby.
At this new location, the hospital continued to innovate, from performing the world’s first in-utero heart surgery, to establishing Canada’s first bone marrow transplant program, to pioneering cardiac surgery to correct Blue Baby Syndrome.
All of that would have never been possible, if not for Elizabeth McMaster and her desire to help Toronto’s children 150 years ago.
While Elizabeth McMaster advocated for children’s needs in Ontario and gave the world medical innovation… William Davis’ personal sacrifice led to massive progress in workers rights…
Mining has been the backbone of Nova Scotia. The industry helped to build the economy and established many communities throughout the province.
But it came at price…safety wasn’t really considered, and lives were expendable…. that is until a watershed moment 100 years ago.
It changed the history of mining and the labour rights movement in Nova Scotia, and it was all thanks to William Davis.
Davis was born on June 3, 1887, in England. The family moved to Nova Scotia and his father, and 14-year-old brother went to work in the coal mines near the town of Springhill.
If you’re a long-time listener the name will sound familiar because I covered the story behind the 1891 Springhill Mining Disaster, and subsequent disasters, in late 2023.
William Davis lost both his father and brother in the explosion, but it didn’t stop him in the mines.
We don’t know for sure at what age he first went deep into the earth not knowing if he would ever come back but we do know that in 1905 he joined Dominion Coal Company Limited (DOMCO) in Cape Breton.
He eventually worked his way up to pumpman at a mine in New Waterford in 1920 and by then Davis was married with nine children.
Despite working long hours in dangerous conditions, he barely made enough money to make ends meet for his large and growing family.
Not only was his pay low, but the company controlled nearly everything in his life from housing, to merchandising and pricing at stores.
The situation was dire, and workers were at a breaking point, so they began to revolt.
From 1920 to 1925, there were 58 strikes in the Sydney coalfield alone.
British Empire Steel Corporation (BESCO) President Roy Mitchell was no fan of unions, and he refused to negotiate a better contract so on Jan. 15, 1925, miners let their contract run out.
By March, he cut off all credit at company stores to force a contract under his terms.
The miner’s union refused and on March 6, 12,000 men went on strike.
BESCO refused to negotiate, because Mitchell felt he held all the cards and as far as he was concerned the miners could strike for as long as they wanted, and it would change nothing.
This emboldened the miners and cemented their cause.
The strike dragged on for months.
When the company brought in scabs to replace the men on the picket lines they were chased away.
In retaliation, the company had striking men arrested and hauled off to jail in the first week of June.
The mine had been shut down for four months, so by June 10th, Mitchell had had enough.
He demanded that all available police escort 30 company men to restart the mine plant and pumps.
The striking miners knew they needed to stop this, so they called for an outdoor meeting.
At 11 a.m. on June 11, 700 to 3,000 men arrived at the mine.
A spokesman for the miners asked the company men to quit and join them on the picket line.
Suddenly police charged and fired 300 shots into the air to scare the miners.
William Davis was unable to get away in time and a police officer shot him in the heart.
Within five minutes he was dead.
The miners quickly stopped, turned around and ran towards the police, forcing them to retreat instead.
Three days later, 5,000 people attended William Davis’ funeral.
The outrage over his death bubbled over and over the next few days, striking miners robbed company stores to redistribute items among the miners and their families.
At the end of the month, BESCO arranged for the provincial police force and 2,000 Canadian troops to restore order.
By now it was the end of July and due to the military presence, the miners returned to work.
The strike was over, but few demands were met.
But the miner never forgot William Davis and they raised money for his widow so she could have a monthly pension which allowed her to purchase a headstone for her husband and take care of her growing family.
On Sept. 23, 1925, William Davis Jr. was born. He was the tenth child, and he grew up knowing of his father’s sacrifice.
By the time he was about ten months old, his father’s coworkers declared an idle day in New Waterford.
Instead of going to work on June 11, 1926, the miners went to the union hall and then marched to the Calvin United Church to honour their fallen brother.
This was repeated each June 11 and slowly the practice spread across Nova Scotia. Before long, it became known as Davis Day which became District Memorial Day in 1938.
By 1974, it returned to being Davis Day and was officially celebrated on the second Monday in June.
In 1985, Miners’ Memorial Park in New Waterford was re-named Davis Square in honour of William Davis and the hiking trail in Cape Breton, which follows the route of miners who traveled to Waterford Lake in 1925 became the Davis Wilderness Trail.
And today, Davis Day is still celebrated, and the fight for decent working conditions which started 100 years ago still goes on.
For our last story we jump forward 50 years to a moment that changed Toronto’s skyline forever.
But I’m getting ahead of myself… because throughout the early and mid-part of the 20th century, skyscrapers began to creep higher and higher, as the city progressed into the modern era.
They also caused issues with communications because existing transmission towers were being dwarfed by the buildings.
Radio and television signals bounced off the buildings, creating poor reception.
In 1968 the Canadian National Railway looked to build a television and radio platform that could serve the Toronto area and demonstrate the power of Canadian industry by creating a tower that rose above all others.
The entire project was going to be part of the largest revitalization scheme ever conducted in North America.
The Metro Centre would be a $1 billion joint venture between Canadian Pacific and Canadian National to convert 190 acres railway lands storage buildings and roundhouses near the shores of Lake Ontario into livable land.
The plan included apartment buildings for 20,000 people, as well as terraced homes, 418,000 square metres of new office space and 55,750 square metres of commercial property.
It would separate automobile, pedestrian and transit traffic through various levels.
The centrepiece would be the CN Tower.
According to an article in The Toronto Star from 1969, quote “This would be Canada’s tallest structure of any kind and one of the tallest self-supporting structures in the world.” end quote.
(BEAT)
The project came with detractors.
Aviation experts worried the tower could be a hazard for aircraft and The Canadian Owners and Pilots Association said in a press release,
“Sooner or later an aircraft is bound to strike it, possibly killing people in the tower, and on the ground, as well as those in the aircraft.”
David Crombie, a city alderman and future mayor, unsuccessfully tried to lower the height of the tower by two-thirds in response to the concerns over migratory birds, since Toronto is part of a vital travel route.
Despite the concerns, work on Metro Centre was scheduled to begin in 1969, but it wasn’t long before it stalled completely, and the entire plan was scrapped.
Well… everything BUT The CN Tower.
And for the next few years, the tower changed and evolved until it received the official go-ahead in 1972.
The first step was to test the soil to assess the condition of the bedrock at the construction site.
Engineers confirmed that they could build the CN Tower to be the tallest structure on the planet.
And with that construction began on Feb. 6, 1973, by Canada Cement Company with a massive excavation site where 50,802 kilograms of earth and shale were removed, and the site went down 14.94 metres at the centre.
Once the ground was excavated, the base was constructed using 7,000 cubic metres of concrete, with 408,233 kilograms of rebar and 2,721 kilograms of steel cable, with a thickness of 6.71 metres.
Construction of the base took only four months in total.
The next step would be the main support pillar for the tower.
And it required an engineering feat that had never been attempted before.
Using a raised slipform at the base, the large metal platform raised itself on jacks 6.1 metres per day as concrete was poured from Monday to Friday and then allowed to set.
To verify the vertical accuracy of the tower, massive plumb bobs were hung and observed using telescopes on the ground.
This allowed the accuracy of the tower to vary by only 29 millimeters and it would slowly decrease in circumference to produce the tapered contour of the finished tower we know today.
On Feb. 22, 1974, the structure became the tallest structure in Canada when it passed the Inco Superstack in Sudbury.
Construction continued and 40,500 cubic metres of concrete was poured.
Then came the main level, and construction began on it in August of 1974.
45 hydraulic jacks were attached to a temporary steel crown on top of the tower by cables, 12 steel brackets were raised.
It took a week for the jacks to crawl up to the top of the tower to the final portion.
These brackets were built to support the main level which was built of concrete poured over a wooden frame, attached to rebar at the lower level of the deck, then reinforced with large steel compression.
It was described as building a seven-storey building 335 metres in the air.
The main level base is a donut shaped structure called the radome which protects the sensitive transmission equipment inside.
It is covered in a Teflon-coated fiberglass fabric that only measures .76 millimetres in width and balloons out to a size five times its normal size to maintain constant pressure.
The most recognizable part of the structure is the large antenna that rises above the main platform and for that construction took to the skies… literally.
Nicknamed Olga, a helicopter flew the antenna to the top of the structure in 36 sections.
In the process the helicopter became caught in the tower and workers scrambled to free the aircraft before it ran out of fuel.
With only 14 minutes to spare, workers managed to melt the metalwork that was causing the problem.
The helicopter flights became a tourist attraction, and the schedule was printed in the newspaper, there were always spectators.
And the helicopter cut down construction time tremendously, so it only took three and a half weeks, rather than the scheduled six months to complete which meant 50 years ago Paul Mitchell, a foreman on the project, had the honour of topping off the tower.
When construction finished, the total mass of the structure was 130,000,000 kilograms which is the same weight as 684 Blue Whales and $63 million to build all of which was repaid in only 15 years.
1,537 people worked 24 hours a day, five days a week to get it all done.
Only one person died during construction.
Jack Ashton, a consultant with the concrete inspection company, was hit in the head by falling plywood, which broke his neck and killed him instantly.
It officially became the world’s tallest free-standing structure on March 31, 1975, rising to 553 metres or 147-storeys high.
Ross McWhirter, the editor of the Guinness Book of World Records was on hand for the event.
A year later it opened to the public in a ceremony on June 26, 1976, which included Finance Minister Donald Macdonald, government officials and stilt walkers.
Roger Tickner, a seven-foot-tall kitchen equipment manager and 6-foot-three Paula Lishman, activated the exterior lights as the clock hit midnight.
Paul King wrote for the Toronto Star,
“The only place higher that man ever stood on a stationary base, except for a mountain peak, is the moon. On Earth, man can climb no higher in any enclosed structure.”
It instantly became a tourist destination and a beacon of home for Torontonians, to mark the ten-year anniversary of the tower’s opening, Dan Goodwin, a high-rise firefighter climbed the outside of the tower on June 26, 1986,
The CN tower remained the tallest building in the world for 34 years until the Burj Khalifa surpassed it on Sept. 12, 2007.
Only the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building and the Great Pyramid of Giza spent more time as the world’s tallest.
However, the CN Tower remains the tallest freestanding structure in the Western Hemisphere, almost 30 metres taller than the Willis Tower in Chicago and four metres taller than One World Trade Center in New York.
The tower continues to hold the record for the world’s highest public observation gallery, the world’s highest glass floor paneled elevator, the world’s longest metal staircase, the world’s highest and largest revolving restaurant, the world’s highest bar and the world’s highest wine cellar.
The tower is also one of the safest in the world for its height.
In the event of a power failure, five diesel generators supply emergency power within 10 seconds to its elevators.
If an elevator exceeds a certain speed or starts to fall, the most it can drop is 1.83 metres due to a safety break that jams the elevator in the shaft.
While the CN Tower will sway in extreme winds, it can handle up to 418 kilometres per hour.
Inside the antenna, two ten-ton swinging counterparts, ensure that the tower never exceeds acceptable conditions. Armour plated windows also prevent the windows from breaking in extreme wind.
In 1995, the CN Tower was listed as one of the seven wonders of the modern world by the American Society of Civil Engineers
And today if you’re a brave soul you can harness your potential with a full-circle, hands-free journey around the exterior of the Tower’s main pod, 116 storeys above the ground.
[TRANSITION]As the clock winds down on 2024, we have so many wonderful things to look forward to next year…
We get to celebrate many of the people and places mentioned in this episode as well as all the individual anniversaries and special occasions that are dear to our hearts.
What are some of yours? Please write me and let me know. I love to hear from you.
For me 2025 will allow me to celebrate a new personal achievement.
In April, my first history book, Canada’s Main Street, will be released through Sutherland Press.
It covers the story of the construction of the Trans-Canada Highway.
It took me a year and a half of writing and research, and I hope everyone enjoys it and if you see me along the highway that stretches from coast to coast… I’ll be sharing the history of our great country…
As I do every week on this podcast…
Thank you so very much for listening Happy New Year everyone.
