A Gallup Poll released on January 1 revealed that 51 per cent of Canadians believed that 1975 would be worse than 1974, while only an optimistic 22 per cent believed the reverse. Parliament was jammed, and a lengthy session did not clear the order paper. No solutions to fundamental energy, transportation, and labour problems seemed in sight in the form of a coherent national policy. Budget constraints forced Ottawa and the provinces to mark time in moving towards a completed social security programme, and even threatened the funding of health services. Above all, there lay the fundamental challenge of inflation...

January 10, 1975: it was Robert Nixon’s great moment. Wearing a lop-sided grin he told a cheering audience of seven hundred Toronto and District Liberal Association members that the latest Gallup Poll showed his Liberals with 41 per cent of the popular vote among decided voters, the Conservatives with 33 per cent, and the New Democrats with 26 per cent. Speaking under the slogan ‘The Only Alternative’, Mr Nixon said Liberals finally seemed convinced they could win the election expected in the fall. In a forceful address, which portended the kind of campaign he would run later in the year,...

To a large extent 1975 was a transitional year from the international system of the pre-1973 period to a new, but still unclear, system in which fundamental redistributions of power and influence could occur. The increased influence of the Arab states partially accounted for the changed environment, but in addition the impact of détente between the United States and the Soviet Union remained uncertain despite the successful conclusion of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe. Furthermore, the work of major multilateral forums, such as the Law of the Sea Conference, remained uncompleted; and the implications of Third World...

1975 was a dramatic and turbulent year. The imposition of price and wage controls in October, the resignation of John Turner as finance minister in September, the increasing distrust of Mr Trudeau and his government by the business community, and the announcement of higher oil and gas prices in the June budget were the key economic events of the year. Underlying these events were continuing double-digit rates of inflation and a sharp increase in the rate of unemployment to over 7 per cent as the real growth rate of the economy came to a halt.

Surprisingly, John Turner was able...