1986 in Canada
See also: 1985 in Canada, other events of 1986, 1987 in Canada and the list of 'years in Canada'.
Table of contents |
Incumbents
- 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
Categories: 1986 in Canada | Years in Canada