1979 in Canada

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Elizabeth II

  Federal government

• Governor general – Jules Léger then Edward Schreyer
• Prime minister – Pierre Trudeau then Joe Clark
• Chief Justice – Bora Laskin
• Parliament – 30th then 31st

  Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – Ralph Steinhauer then Francis Charles Lynch-Staunton
• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Henry Pybus Bell-Irving
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Francis Lawrence Jobin
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Hédard Robichaud
• Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland – Gordon Arnaud Winter
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – John Elvin Shaffner
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Pauline Mills McGibbon
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Gordon Lockhart Bennett
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Jean-Pierre Côté
• Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – Irwin McIntosh

  Premiers

• Premier of Alberta – Peter Lougheed
• Premier of British Columbia – Bill Bennett
• Premier of Manitoba – Sterling Lyon
• Premier of New Brunswick – Richard Hatfield
• Premier of Newfoundland – Frank Moores then Brian Peckford
• Premier of Nova Scotia – John Buchanan
• Premier of Ontario – Bill Davis
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – Bennett Campbell then Angus MacLean
• Premier of Quebec – René Lévesque
• Premier of Saskatchewan – Allan Blakeney

  Territorial governments

Commissioners

• Commissioner of Yukon – Frank Fingland then Ione Christensen then Douglas Bell
• Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Stuart Milton Hodgson then John Havelock Parker

  Premiers

• Premier of Yukon – Chris Pearson

  Events

January to June

• January 17 - Edward Richard Schreyer replaces Jules Léger as Governor General
• February 1 - The first Winterlude is held in Ottawa
• February 24 - An explosion rips through Number 26 Colliery located in Glace Bay, Cape Breton killing 12 men.
• February 26 a total solar eclipse take place in the USA And Canada
• March 14 - Alberta election: Peter Lougheed's PCs win a third consecutive majority
• March 26 - Brian Peckford becomes premier of Newfoundland, replacing Frank Moores
• May 3 - Angus MacLean becomes premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Bennett Campbell
• May 22 - Canadians go to the polls in the federal election. They defeat Pierre Trudeau's Liberals and elect Joe Clark's PCs, but only with a minority
• June 4
• *Joe Clark becomes Canada's sixteenth, and youngest ever, prime minister.
• *Flora MacDonald becomes Canada's first female Secretary of State for External Affairs.
• June 7 - The Sudbury Strike of 1978 ends after nine months.

  July to December

• September 5 - Canada's first gold bullion coin goes on sale
• November 10 - The 1979 Mississauga train derailment causes the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people
• December 13 - Supreme Court declares Quebec and Manitoba's provincial legislatures to be unconstitutional because of their use of only one language.
• December 13 - The government is defeated on a non-confidence motion and Prime Minister Clark calls an election
• December 31 - A fire at Le Club Opemiska in Chapais, Quebec, kills 48 at a New Year's Eve party.

  Full date unknown

• Chris Haney and Scott Abbott invent Trivial Pursuit
• Petro-Canada buys U.S.-controlled Pacific Petroleums
• The first women enroll in Canadian military colleges
• Founding of Academy of Canadian Cinema

  Arts and literature

New works

• Irving Layton: The Tightrope Dancer
• Margaret Atwood: Life Before Man
• Steve McCaffery: Intimate Distortions
• Roch Carrier: Les enfants du bonhomme dans la lune
• Joy Fielding: Trance
• Gabrielle Roy: Courte-Queue
• Gordon R. Dickson: The Spirit of Dorsai
• Farley Mowat: And No Birds Sang

  Awards

• Antonine Maillet wins the French Prix Goncourt for her novel Pélagie-la-Charette
• See 1979 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Stephen Leacock Award - Sondra Gotlieb, True Confessions
• Vicky Metcalf Award - Cliff Faulknor

  Television

• Lorne Michaels starts Broadway Video, a company that would go on to produce shows like The Kids in the Hall and Saturday Night Live
• You Can't Do That On Television premiers

  Sport

• March 18 - Alberta Golden Bears won their Fifth University Cup by defeating the Dalhousie Tigers 5-1 in Montreal
• May 13 - Peterborough Petes won their only Memorial Cup by defeating the Brandon Wheat Kings 2 to 1. The Final game was played at Palais des Sports in Sherbrooke, Quebec
• May 21 - Montreal Canadiens won their Twenty Second Stanley Cup by defeating the New York Rangers 4 games to 1. The deciding Game 5 was played at the Montreal Forum. Peterborough, Ontario's Bob Gainey was awarded the Conn Smythe
• June 22 - The World Hockey Association folds. Four teams—the Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordiques, and Hartford Whalers—survive and move to the NHL.
• September 1 - Pat Patterson won the First World Wrestling Federation Intercontinental Champion
• September 8 - Vancouver Whitecaps won their only Soccer Bowl by defeating the Tampa Bay Rowdies 2–1 at Soccer Bowl '79 played Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey
• November 17 - Acadia Axemen won their First Vanier Cup by defeating the Western Ontario Mustangs 34-12 in the 15th Vanier Cup played at Varsity Stadium in Toronto
• November 25 - Edmonton Eskimos won their Sixth Grey Cup by defeating the Montreal Alouettes by the score 17 to 9 in the 67th Grey Cup played at Olympic Stadium at Montreal. Vancouver's Don Sweet is awarded his Third Most Valuable Canadian

  Births

January to June

• January 8 - Sarah Polley, actress, singer, film director and screenwriter
• January 9 - Jenny Johnson, field hockey player
• January 14 - Nick Boynton, ice hockey player
• January 24 - Tom Kostopoulos, ice hockey player
• February 8 - Adam Trupish, boxer
• February 11 - Eric Cyr, baseball player
• February 15 - Ohenewa Akuffo, freestyle wrestler
• February 21 - Andre Noble, actor
• February 22 - Jeremy Wilcox, volleyball player
• March 15 - Azelia Liu, field hockey player
• April 4 - Roberto Luongo, ice hockey player
• April 17 - Eric Brewer, ice hockey player
• May 9 - Pierre Bouvier, singer
• May 10 - Dion Lavhey, Montreal Canadiens player
• May 11 - Erin Lang, singer-songwriter and guitarist
• June 1 - Craig Olejnik, actor
• June 3 - Pierre Poilievre, politician
• June 5 - Pete Wentz, musician
• June 24 - Fanny Létourneau, synchronized swimmer
• June 27 - Rebecca Jane Middleton, murder victim

  July to December

• July 2 - Joe Thornton, ice hockey player
• July 16 - Nathan Rogers, singer-songwriter
• August 3 - Evangeline Lilly, actress
• August 9 - Erin Chan, synchronized swimmer
• August 22 - Jennifer Finnigan, actress
• August 31 - Mark Johnston, swimmer
• September 15 - Patrick Marleau, ice hockey player
• September 15 - Brett Youngberg, volleyball player
• September 21 - Nathaniel Miller, water polo player
• October 7 - Aaron Ashmore, actor
• October 7 - Shawn Ashmore, actor
• October 13 - Ryan Malcolm, singer and winner of Canadian Idol
• November 14 - Randee Hermus, soccer player
• November 21 - Alex Tanguay, ice hockey player
• December 6 - Maxime Collin, child actor
• December 10 - Andrea Rushton, field hockey player
• December 27 - Pascale Dorcelus, weightlifter

  Deaths

• February 23 - W. A. C. Bennett, Premier of British Columbia
• March 26 - Lionel Bertrand, politician, journalist and newspaper editor
• May 9 - Cyrus S. Eaton, investment banker, businessman and philanthropist
• May 15 - Dora Mavor Moore, actor, teacher and director
• May 29 - Mary Pickford, actress and studio co-founder
• July 11 - Claude Wagner, judge and politician
• August 16 - John Diefenbaker, politician and 13th Prime Minister of Canada
• September 28 - John Herbert Chapman, scientist and space researcher
• November 24 - John Robert Cartwright, jurist and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
• December 19 - Donald Creighton, historian