1989 in Canada

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Elizabeth II

  Federal government

• Governor general – Jeanne Sauvé
• Prime minister – Brian Mulroney
• Chief Justice – Brian Dickson
• Parliament – 34th

  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 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 then Tom 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

  Territorial governments

Commissioners

• Commissioner of Yukon – John Kenneth McKinnon
• Commissioner of Northwest Territories – John Havelock Parker 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: 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.
• March 13: Deborah Grey wins a by-election to become the first Reform Party Member of Parliament.
• March 19: LGBT activist Joe Rose is murdered on public transit in Montreal.
• 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 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

• Simply Saucer, Cyborgs Revisited
• Tragically Hip – Up to Here

  Sport

• May 13 – Swift Current Broncos win their only Memorial Cup by defeating the Saskatoon Blades 4 to 3. The final game was played at Saskatchewan Place in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
• May 25 – Calgary Flames win their only Stanley Cup by defeating the Montreal Canadiens 4 games to 2. The deciding Game 6 is played at the Montreal Forum. Inverness, Nova Scotia's Al MacInnis is awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy
• June 5 – Toronto Blue Jays lose the first baseball game played at the SkyDome to the Milwaukee Brewers 3 to 5.
• November 18 – Western Ontario Mustangs win their fifth Vanier Cup by defeating the Saskatchewan Huskies 35 to 10 in the 25th Grey Cup played at the SkyDome in Toronto.
• November 26 – Saskatchewan Roughriders win their second Grey Cup by defeating the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 43 to 40 in the 77th Grey Cup played at the SkyDome in Toronto.

  Births

• January 9 – Nina Dobrev, actress
• January 14 – Karine Thomas, synchronized swimmer
• February 11 – Jesse Rath, actor
• February 13 – Carly McKillip, actress
• February 14 – Emma Miskew, curler
• February 20 – Melanie Leishman, actress
• March 3 – Andrea Brooks, actress
• March 19 – Stephanie Horner, swimmer
• April 13 – Mallory Deluce, ice hockey player
• April 19 – Simu Liu, actor
• April 25 – Marie-Michèle Gagnon, skier
• April 28 – Steffi DiDomenicantonio, singer
• May 11 – Alyssa Brown, artistic gymnast
• May 17 – Tessa Virtue, ice dancer
• May 23 – Grace Mahary, model
• June 11 – Keith Aulie, ice hockey player
• June 17 – Brandon Jones, singer
• July 27 – Charlotte Arnold, actress
• July 31 – Marshall Williams, actor
• August 2 – Dominic Jalbert, ice hockey player
• September 12 – Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, artistic gymnast
• September 23 – Craig Sharpe, singer
• September 25 – Jordan Gavaris, actor
• October 20 – Colin Wilson, Canadian-American ice hockey player
• October 24 – Shenae Grimes, actress
• November 5 – Joey Lawrence, photographer
• November 24 – Nicole Sassine, sprinter
• December 2 – Cassie Steele, actress and singer-songwriter

  Deaths

January to June

• January 20 – Beatrice Lillie, comic actress
• January 22 – Farquhar Oliver, politician
• January 31 – William Stephenson, soldier, airman, businessperson, inventor and spymaster
• February 9 – Ken Adachi, writer and literary critic
• May 14 – Joe Primeau, ice hockey player
• May 14 – E. P. Taylor, business tycoon and race horse breeder
• June 14 – Louis-Philippe-Antoine Bélanger, politician
• June 26 – Howard Charles Green, politician and Minister

  July to December

• July 3 – Peter Fox, politician
• July 13 – Samuel Boulanger, politician
• July 24 – Michael Estok, poet
• August 10 – George Ignatieff, diplomat
• November 11 – Kenneth MacLean Glazier, Sr., minister and librarian
• September 12 – Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, gymnast
• November 13 – Victor Davis, swimmer, Olympic gold medalist and World Champion
• November 15 – George Manuel, Aboriginal leader
• November 29 – Nancy Bell, senator
• December 6 – Marc Lépine, murderer responsible for the École Polytechnique massacre
• December 26 – Doug Harvey, ice hockey player
• December 26 – Maryon Pearson, wife of Lester B. Pearson, 14th Prime Minister of Canada