1986 in Canada

See also: 1985 in Canada, other events of 1986, 1987 in Canada and the list of 'years in Canada'.

Incumbents

• Prime Minister – Brian Mulroney
• Governor General – Jeanne Sauvé

• Premier of Alberta – Don Getty
• Premier of British Columbia – Bill Bennett then Bill Vander Zalm
• Premier of Manitoba – Howard Pawley
• Premier of New Brunswick – Richard Hatfield
• Premier of Newfoundland – Brian Peckford
• Premier of Nova Scotia – John Buchanan
• Premier of Ontario – David Peterson
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – James Lee then Joe Ghiz
• Premier of Quebec – Robert Bourassa
• Premier of Saskatchewan – Grant Devine

See 1986 Canadian incumbents for more

Events

• January 22 – An investigation determines that a bomb caused the crash of Air India flight 182
• January 31 – The Canadian dollar hits an all-time low of 70.2 U.S. cents on international money markets
• February 8 – Hinton train collision: 23 people are killed when a VIA Rail train collides with a Canadian National Railway train near Hinton, Alberta
• March 15 – In an international women's field hockey match at Wembley Stadium,Wembley,England, Canada beat England 3–1.
• May 1 – Shirley Carr becomes the first female head of the Canadian Union of Public Employees
• May 2 – Joe Ghiz becomes premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing James Lee
• May 2 – The 1986 World Exposition in Vancouver, British Columbia opens.
• May 8 – Alberta election: Don Getty's PCs win a fifth consecutive majority, but a smaller majority than before
• May 24 – In Calgary, the Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup against the Calgary Flames
• May 25 – An attempt is made to assassinate Malkiat Singh Sidhu a cabinet minister in the Indian province of Punjab in Vancouver
• June 19 – The new Competition Act comes into force
• June 20 – Jean Drapeau resigns as mayor of Montreal
• August 5 – Canada adopts sanctions against South Africa for its apartheid policies
• August 6 – Bill Vander Zalm becomes premier of British Columbia, replacing Bill Bennett
• August 11 – Tamil refugees are found drifting off the coast of Newfoundland
• September 30 – Canadian MPs elect the Speaker by secret ballot for the first time.
• October 6 – Canada receives a United Nations award for sheltering refugees
• October 20 – Saskatchewan election: Grant Devine's PCs win a second consecutive majority
• December 8 – The University of Toronto's John C. Polanyi shares the Nobel Prize for chemistry for the development of the chemical laser
• Negotiators begin work on what would eventually be the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement
• The birds series of Canadian banknotes is released
• Supreme Court rules on the RWDSU v. Dolphin Delivery Ltd. case
• Conrad Black buys The Daily Telegraph
• Dinosaur fossils are found in Parsboro, Nova Scotia

Arts and Literature

New Works:

• Margaret Atwood – Freeforall
• W.P. Kinsella – The Fence Post Chronicles
• Robert Munsch – Love You Forever
• Alice Munro – The Progress of Love
• Antonine Maillet – Garrochés en paradis
• Hugh Hood – The Motor Boys in Ottawa
• William Gibson – Count Zero

Awards:

• See 1986 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Books in Canada First Novel Award: Wayne Johnson, The Story of Bobby O'Mally
• Gerald Lampert Award: Joan Fern Shaw, Raspberry Vinegar
• Marian Engel Award: Alice Munro
• Pat Lowther Award: Erin Mouré, Domestic Fuel
• Stephen Leacock Award: Joey Slinger, No Axe too Small to Grind
• Vicky Metcalf Award: Dennis Lee

New Music:

• Leonard Cohen – First We Take Manhattan
• Neil Young – First We Take Manhattan

New Movies:

• James Cameron's Aliens is released
• David Cronenberg's The Fly
• Denys Arcand's The Decline of the American Empire

Births

• January 8 – Jaclyn Linetsky, actor
• December 12 – Marie-Pier Beaudet, Olympian

Deaths

• February 27 – Jacques Plante, hockey star
• March 4 – Elizabeth Smart, poet and novelist
• August 20 – Milton Acorn, poet
• November 5 – Claude Jutra, filmmaker