Acknowledgements | Preface | Saskatchewan Before Provincehood l Saskatchewan Populations & Premiers
1905 | 1915 | 1925 | 1935 | 1945 | 1955 | 1965 | 1975 | 1985 | 1995

Victory Parade
Dinsmore, 1945

Saskatchewan Air Ambulance Service
location unknown, c. 1946

Testing for TB
Watson, 1949

Electricity comes to farm kitchen
location unknown, c. 1950

Cobalt-60 cancer treatment
Saskatoon, 1951

Oil drilling crew
Minton, c. 1954

Saskatchewan Golden Jubilee Choir
Regina, 1954

1945

• Near Lloydminster, the first commercial oil well begins production at the site of a 1944 discovery.
  
• The Saskatchewan Archives is created to preserve documents relating to the province’s history. It succeeds the Public Records Office which had been established by the provincial government at the University of Saskatchewan in 1938.

1946

• The first government-operated air ambulance service in North America takes flight. It serves rural and isolated areas of the province.
  
• Swift Current Health Region No. 1 provides the first comprehensive health care plan in Canada. Based on the plan introduced by the RM of McKillop in 1939, it will become a model for the future.
  
• The Union of Saskatchewan Indians is formed when three First Nations political groups amalgamate to work for protection of Treaties and Treaty rights.
  
• A sodium sulphate plant is built at Chaplin. It will become the largest producer of sodium sulphate in Canada and the United States.
  
• Eighteen year old Gordie Howe, from Floral, joins the National Hockey League Detroit Red Wings. He will go on to become a hockey legend, known internationally as “Mr. Hockey.”

1947

• Saskatchewan is the first province to provide universal hospital insurance. Individuals pay five dollars annually; families pay $30.
  
• Saskatchewan passes Canada’s first human rights legislation prohibiting discrimination in accommodation, employment, occupation and education.

1948

• The Saskatchewan Arts Board is created by the government to promote the arts. It is the first such organization in North America.
  
• The University of Saskatchewan builds a 25 million electron-volt betatron. Used for cancer research, the betatron is Canada’s first.

1949

• The government begins a program to bring electricity to Saskatchewan farms. Some 1100 farms are connected to the provincial grid this year.
  
• The Western Development Museum Act is passed, although the museum opened two years earlier in North Battleford. Its mandate is to collect and preserve the material history of Western Canada.

1950

• Work begins on the Interprovincial Pipeline to transport oil from Alberta to Ontario. It reaches Regina this year.
  
• The Korean War begins; about 1000 people from Saskatchewan will serve overseas.

1951

• Innovative work on the cobalt bomb at the University of Saskatchewan helps to revolutionize cancer treatment around the world. Cobalt-60 therapy treats cancerous tumours with radiation.
  
• The census shows that Saskatchewan’s population slips to fifth place among the provinces.

1952

• An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease closes the American border to Saskatchewan livestock. Over 1000 cattle in the Regina area are destroyed to prevent the spread of the disease.
  
• Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited begins production of uranium in northern Saskatchewan. Over the next 50 years, the province will become the world’s largest uranium producer.
  
• Polio strikes hundreds of children and adults in Saskatchewan, causing widespread fear. Many patients, unable to breathe on their own, are confined to iron lungs, sometimes for weeks or months.
  
• Saskatchewan’s first major oil field containing medium gravity crude is discovered in the southwest. This marks the beginning of the province’s oil boom. Fosterton Well No. 1 begins pumping in February. It will pump for over 40 years.
  
• Trapshooter George Genereux of Saskatoon wins Canada’s only gold medal at the Helsinki Olympics.

1953

• Saskatchewan celebrates the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
  
• The oil boom in the Williston Basin between Weyburn and Estevan begins.

1954

• Television comes to Saskatchewan. CKCK in Regina and CFQC in Saskatoon begin broadcasting.
  
• A Trans-Canada Airlines passenger plane collides with an RCAF Harvard trainer over Moose Jaw, killing 37 people and destroying three houses.