ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a chronology of key policies and events in Canada’s energy history. It highlights historical events in a straightforward way on a decade-by-decade basis, focuses on the post-World War Hera in general and on the post-1973 period in particular. The chapter also provides a brief profile of the pre-1945 energy policy legacy. Canadian energy events must first be located in the context of the broad pre-1945 legacy of the Canadian political economy. The 1950s marked the transformation of Canada from a coal- to an oil-based economy. The Trans-Canada pipeline was lauded by its supporters as a classic example of nation building in action. The Borden Commission’s rejection of the Alberta to Montreal Pipeline also involved different dynamics in defining “the national interest.” As a result of falling world oil prices, the Canadian oil industry in the late 1950s was encountering increasing difficulty in competing against imports of cheaper foreign oil.
