1989 in Canada

Events from the year 1989 in Canada.

Crown

 * Monarch – Elizabeth II

Federal government

 * Governor General – Jeanne Sauvé
 * Prime Minister – Brian Mulroney
 * Chief Justice – Brian Dickson (Manitoba)
 * Parliament – 34th

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

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: Newfoundland premier Brian Peckford announces his resignation from politics, giving the PC 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 (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.

New works

 * Mordecai Richler: Solomon Gursky Was Here
 * Steve McCaffery: The Black Debt
 * Erín Moure: 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 (and first since 1966) 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 5 - Rachel Homan, curler
 * 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 3 – Nav, rapper
 * November 5 – Joey Lawrence, photographer
 * November 24 – Nicole Sassine, sprinter
 * December 2 – Cassie Steele, actress and singer-songwriter

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)