Canada beats Valentine’s Day cold records set when MacDonald was prime minister

The weather on Valentine’s Day was cold enough to freeze even the warmest of hearts in parts of Canada.

Quebec saw windchills reach -46 C, Newfoundland saw 30 centimetres of snowfall in some places and Ontario broke an astounding 17 records for low temperatures in one icy swoop.

Barrie, Ont. reached -33.3 C, which broke a Valentine’s Day record set in 1879 when Sir John A. MacDonald was the prime minister.

A couple hundred kilometres away, Welland, Ont. plummeted to -26.9 C, beating out a the previous record from 1885, the same year that Louis Riel died.

The cold weather caused trouble for many Ontario motorists _ the south central Ontario branch of the Canadian Automobile Association says it received over 8,000 calls for assistance Sunday.

Quebec’s frigid windchills were cold enough to freeze exposed skin in as little as five minutes.

It capped off a weekend of cold temperatures that affected many parts of eastern and central Canada.

But the tides are expected to turn over the next week, as the forecast shows temperatures surpassing the freezing mark in some parts of the country next weekend.