1989 in Canada - Events

Events

  • January 1: The Canadian-American Free Trade Agreement comes into effect.
  • January 21: Brian Peckford announces his resignation from politics, giving the 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 re-assigning 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 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.

Read more about this topic:  1989 In Canada

Famous quotes containing the word events:

    “Just as a mirror may be used to reflect images, so ancient events may be used to understand the present.”
    —Chinese proverb.

    “Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion a child’s loss of a doll and a king’s loss of a crown are events of the same size.”
    —Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)

    “I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.”
    —Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)