1989 in Canada
From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
| Years in Canada: | 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 |
| Centuries: | 19th century · 20th century · 21st century |
| Decades: | 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s |
| Years: | 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 |
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Events from the year 1989 in Canada.
Incumbents
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Crown
- Head of state (monarch) – Queen Elizabeth II (consort – Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh)
Federal government
Provincial governments
Lieutenant governors
- Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – Helen Hunley
- Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – David Lam
- Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – George Johnson
- Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Gilbert Finn
- Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland – James McGrath
- Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Alan Abraham (until February 20) then Lloyd Crouse
- Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Lincoln Alexander
- Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Lloyd MacPhail
- Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Gilles Lamontagne
- Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – Sylvia Fedoruk
Premiers
- Premier of Alberta – Don Getty
- Premier of British Columbia – Bill Vander Zalm
- Premier of Manitoba – Gary Filmon
- Premier of New Brunswick – Frank McKenna
- Premier of Newfoundland – Brian Peckford (until March 22) then Tom Rideout (March 22 to May 5) then Clyde Wells
- Premier of Nova Scotia – John Buchanan
- Premier of Ontario – David Peterson
- Premier of Prince Edward Island – Joe Ghiz
- Premier of Quebec – Robert Bourassa
- Premier of Saskatchewan – Grant Devine
Territorial governments
Commissioners
- Commissioner of Yukon – John Kenneth McKinnon
- Commissioner of Northwest Territories – John Havelock Parker (until October 2) then Daniel L. Norris
Premiers
Events
- January 1: The Canadian-American Free Trade Agreement comes into effect.
- January 21: Brian Peckford announces his resignation from politics, giving the party 2 months to find a replacement as party leader and premier.
- January 30: Prime Minister Brian Mulroney shuffles his cabinet, appointing 6 new ministers and reassigning the responsibilities of 19 others.
- February 10: President of the United States George H. W. Bush Prime Minister Mulroney in Ottawa, laying the groundwork for the Acid Rain Treaty of 1991.
- February 20: In the Yukon Territory, the ruling New Democrats narrowly maintain control of the Yukon Legislative Assembly, winning 9 seats vs. the Progressive Conservative Party's 7.
- March 1: The Canadian Space Agency is created.
- March 10: An Air Ontario flight crashes near Dryden, Ontario killing 24
- March 13: 2:44 AM ET: A solar coronal mass ejection causes a blackout across all of Quebec, as it hits the Hydro-Québec power grid, affecting 6 million people for more than 9 hours.[1]
- March 13: Deborah Grey wins a by-election to become the first Reform Party Member of Parliament.[2]
- March 20: Alberta election: Don Getty's PCs win a sixth consecutive majority.
- March 22: Thomas Rideout becomes premier of Newfoundland, replacing Brian Peckford.
- April 20: The Liberal Party of Newfoundland, led by Clyde Wells, wins the Newfoundland general election.
- May 3: John Turner resigns as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
- May 5: Clyde Wells becomes premier of Newfoundland, defeating Thomas Rideout in a general election.
- May 25: The Calgary Flames defeat the Montreal Canadiens to win the 1989 Stanley Cup Finals.
- May 29: The Liberal Party of Prince Edward Island, led by Joe Ghiz, remains in power following the Prince Edward Island general election.
- June 3: The SkyDome (now known as Rogers Centre) is opened in Toronto.
- June 5: The federal government announces sweeping cuts to Via Rail
- July 31: Cable television network CBC Newsworld is launched.
- August 2: Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs Bernard Valcourt resigns after he is convicted of drunk driving.
- September 1: French cable sports network, RDS, signs on.
- September 25: In the Quebec general election, the Quebec Liberal Party, led by Robert Bourassa, is reelected with a large Liberal majority.
- October 6: Prime Minister Mulroney nominates Ray Hnatyshyn to succeed Jeanne Sauvé as Governor General of Canada.
- October 8: The Cormier Village hayride accident kills 13 people and injures 45.
- October 15 – Wayne Gretzky becomes the leading scorer in the history of the National Hockey League.
- December 2: Audrey McLaughlin is elected head of the NDP replacing Ed Broadbent becoming the first female major party leader in Canadian history
- December 6: École Polytechnique Massacre: Marc Lépine murders fourteen women at the École Polytechnique of the Université de Montréal in Montreal, Quebec. The event proves a spur to both the Canadian feminist and gun control movements.
- December 21: Quebec uses the notwithstanding clause for the first time.
- December 31: All rail service is terminated in Prince Edward Island after CN Rail abandons its historic rail lines in the province.
Full date unknown
- Corel releases Corel Draw
- Heather Erxleben becomes Canada's first official female combat soldier
- Sidney Altman shares in the Nobel Prize for Chemistry
Arts and literature
New works
- Mordecai Richler: Solomon Gursky Was Here
- Steve McCaffery: The Black Debt
- Erin Mouré: WSW
- Joy Fielding: Good Intentions
- Dave Duncan: West of January
- Tomson Highway: Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing
- William Bell: Death Wind
- Farley Mowat: The New Found Land
Awards
- Books in Canada First Novel Award: Rick Salutin, A Man of Little Faith
- See 1989 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
- Geoffrey Bilson Award: Martyn Godfrey, Mystery in the Frozen Lands, and Dorothy Perkyns, Rachel’s Revolution
- Gerald Lampert Award: Sarah Klassen, Journey to Yalta
- Marian Engel Award: Merna Summers
- Pat Lowther Award: Heather Spears, The Word for Sand
- Stephen Leacock Award: John Kertes, Winter Tulips
- Trillium Book Award: Modris Eksteins, Rites of Spring
- Vicky Metcalf Award: Stéphane Poulin
Music
Sport
- May 25 - In Montreal, the Calgary Flames win the Stanley Cup over the Montreal Canadiens.
- June 5 - First baseball game in SkyDome is played.
- November 26 - In the 77th Grey Cup the Saskatchewan Roughriders defeat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at SkyDome in Toronto.
Births
- March 19 - Stephanie Horner, swimmer
- December 2 - Cassie Steele, actress and singer-songwriter
Deaths
January to June
- January 20 - Beatrice Lillie, comic actress (b.1894)
- January 22 - Farquhar Oliver, politician (b.1904)
- January 31 - William Stephenson, soldier, airman, businessperson, inventor and spymaster (b.1897)
- February 9 - Ken Adachi, writer and literary critic (b.1929)
- May 14 - Joe Primeau, ice hockey player (b.1906)
- May 14 - E. P. Taylor, business tycoon and race horse breeder (b.1901)
- June 14 - Louis-Philippe-Antoine Bélanger, politician (b.1907)
- June 26 - Howard Charles Green, politician and Minister (b.1895)
July to December
- July 3 - Peter Fox, politician (b.1921)
- July 13 - Samuel Boulanger, politician (b.1909)
- July 24 - Michael Estok, poet
- August 10 - George Ignatieff, diplomat (b.1913)
- November 11 - Kenneth MacLean Glazier, Sr., minister and librarian (b.1912)
- September 12 - Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, gymnast
- November 13 - Victor Davis, swimmer, Olympic gold medalist and World Champion (b.1964)
- November 15 - George Manuel, Aboriginal leader (b.1921)
- November 29 - Nancy Bell, senator (b.1924)
- December 6 - Marc Lépine, murderer responsible for the École Polytechnique massacre (b.1964)
- December 26 - Doug Harvey, ice hockey player (b.1924)
- December 26 - Maryon Pearson, wife of Lester B. Pearson, 14th Prime Minister of Canada (b.1901)
