1989 in Canada

"See also:"
1988 in Canada,
other events of 1989,
1990 in Canada and the
list of 'years in Canada'.

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Incumbents

*Monarch: Queen Elizabeth II
*Governor General: Jeanne Sauvé
*Prime Minister: Brian Mulroney
*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 then Thomas Rideout 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

See also: 1989 Canadian incumbents for more

Events

* January 1: The Canadian-American Free Trade Agreement comes into effect
* March 1: The Canadian Space Agency is created
* March 10: An Air Ontario flight crashes near Dryden, Ontario killing 24
* March 20: Alberta election: Don Getty's PCs win a sixth consecutive majority
* March 22: Thomas Rideout becomes premier of Newfoundland, replacing Brian Peckford
* May 5: Clyde Wells becomes premier of Newfoundland, replacing Thomas Rideout
* May 25: In Montreal, the Calgary Flames win the Stanley Cup against the Montreal Canadiens
* June 5: First baseball game in SkyDome is played
* June 5: The federal government announces sweeping cuts to VIA Rail
* July 31: Cable television network CBC Newsworld is launched.
* September 1: French cable sports network, RDS, signs on.
* 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
*Deborah Grey wins a by-election to become the first Reform Party Member of Parliament.
* Corel releases CorelDraw
* 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
*Simply Saucer, "Cyborgs Revisited"

Births

*September 1: Katie Lai, actor
*Cassie Steele, actor
*Thomas Haggerty

Deaths

*February 9: Ken Adachi, writer and editor
*May 14: E.P. Taylor, businessman
*July 13: Samuel Boulanger, politician
*June 14: Louis-Philippe-Antoine Bélanger, politician
*November 11: Kenneth MacLean Glazier, Sr., former minister and former Secretary of the Alberta Liberal Party