1989 in Canada

Events from the year 1989 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Head of state (monarch) – Queen Elizabeth II (consort – Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh)

Federal government

• Governor general – Jeanne Sauvé (viceregal consort – Maurice Sauvé)
• Prime minister – Brian Mulroney

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – Helen Hunley
• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – David Lam
• 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

• Premier of the Northwest Territories – Dennis Patterson
• Premier of Yukon – Tony Penikett

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: 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

• Cyborgs Revisited

Sport

• May 25 - In Montreal, the Calgary Flames win the Stanley Cup against 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 - 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 - 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)

References

1. ^ "Space Weather Blackout - Massive Power Grid Failure".  
2. ^ "Elected in By-Elections". parl.gc.ca. Retrieved 2012-03-04.