Wikipedia: 1989 in Canada

1989 in Canada
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

See also: 1988 in Canada, other events of 1989, 1990 in Canada and the list of 'years in Canada'.

Incumbents

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
June 5 - First baseball game in SkyDome is played
June 5 - The federal governmnet 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
One dollar bills are replaced by the one-dollar coin, popularly called the "loonie."
Sidney Altman shares in the Nobel Prize for Chemistry

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

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