This was the first World Championship hosted in North America that was not part of ice hockey at the Olympic Games.

When the Berlin Wall was constructed in 1961 by East Germany to prevent its citizens from fleeing to the West, NATO responded with travel restrictions which prevented the East Germany national ice hockey team from attending the World Championships.

[2] Canadian Amateur Hockey Association president Jack Roxburgh felt that politics should not affect sports, and that the decision went against the goodwill and relations established by teams traveling behind the Iron Curtain.

[3] Teams from the Soviet Union and other communist countries ultimately chose to withdraw in protest of the NATO decision.

[4] With the absences of the USSR, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany, the top two nations from the 1961 'B' pool were elevated (Norway and Great Britain).