1989 in Canada

See also: 1988 in Canada, other events of 1989, 1990 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 Vander Zalm
• Premier of Manitoba – Gary Filmon
• Premier of New Brunswick – Frank McKenna
• Premier of Newfoundland – Brian Peckford then Thomas 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

See also: 1989 Canadian incumbents for more

Events

• January 1 – The Canadian-American Free Trade Agreement comes into effect
• March 1 – The Canadian Space Agency is created
• March 10 – An Air Ontario flight crashes near Dryden, Ontario killing 24
• March 20 – Alberta election: Don Getty's PCs win a sixth consecutive majority
• March 22 – Thomas Rideout becomes premier of Newfoundland, replacing Brian Peckford
• May 5 – Clyde Wells becomes premier of Newfoundland, replacing Thomas Rideout
• May 25 – In Montreal, the Calgary Flames win the Stanley Cup against the Montreal Canadiens
• June 5 – First baseball game in SkyDome is played
• June 5 – The federal government announces sweeping cuts to VIA Rail
• July 31 – Cable television network CBC Newsworld is launched.
• 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 – A gunman murders fourteen women at the École Polytechnique of the University of Montreal 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
• Deborah Grey wins a by-election to become the first Reform Party Member of Parliament.
• Corel releases CorelDraw
• 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

Television

• Kids in the Hall premiers on CBC

Births

• September 1 – Katie Lai, actor
• Cassie Steele, actor

Deaths

• May 14 – E.P. Taylor, businessman
• November 11 – Kenneth MacLean Glazier, Sr., former minister and former Secretary of the Alberta Liberal Party