1979 in Canada

"See also:"
1978 in Canada,
other events of 1979,
1980 in Canada and the
list of 'years in Canada'.

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Incumbents

*Monarch: Queen Elizabeth II
*Governor General: Jules Léger then Edward Richard Schreyer
*Prime Minister: Pierre Trudeau then Joe Clark
*Premier of Alberta: Peter Lougheed
*Premier of British Columbia: W.R. Bennett
*Premier of Manitoba: Sterling Lyon
*Premier of New Brunswick: Richard Hatfield
*Premier of Newfoundland: Frank Moores then Brian Peckford
*Premier of Nova Scotia: John Buchanan
*Premier of Ontario: Bill Davis
*Premier of Prince Edward Island: Bennett Campbell then Angus MacLean
*Premier of Quebec: René Lévesque
*Premier of Saskatchewan: Allan Blakeney

Events

*January 17: Edward Richard Schreyer replaces Jules Léger as Governor General
*February 1: The first Winterlude is held in Ottawa
*February 24: An explosion rips through Number 26 Colliery located in Glace Bay, Cape Breton killing 12 men.
*March 14: Alberta election: Peter Lougheed's PCs win a third consecutive majority
*March 26: Brian Peckford becomes premier of Newfoundland, replacing Frank Moores
*May 3: Angus MacLean becomes premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Bennett Campbell
*May 21: Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup defeating the New York Rangers 4 games to 1.
*May 22: Canadians go to the polls in the federal election. They defeat Pierre Trudeau's Liberals and elect Joe Clark's PCs, but only with a minority
*June 4: Joe Clark becomes Canada's sixteenth, and youngest ever, prime minister
*June 7: The Sudbury Strike of 1978 ends after nine months.
*June 22: The World Hockey Association folds. Four teams—the Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordiques, and Hartford Whalers—survive and move to the NHL
*September 5: Canada's first gold bullion coin goes on sale
*November 10: The 1979 Mississauga train derailment causes the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people
*December 13: Supreme Court declares Quebec and Manitoba's provincial legislatures to be unconstitutional because of their use of only one language.
*December 13: The government is defeated on a non-confidence motion and Prime Minister Clark calls an election
*December 31: A fire at Le Club Opemiska in Chaplais, Quebec, kills 42 at a New Year's Eve party
*Chris Haney and Scott Abbott invent Trivial Pursuit
*Petro-Canada buys U.S.-controlled Pacific Petroleums
*The first women enroll in Canadian military colleges

Arts and literature

:New Works
*Irving Layton: "The Tightrope Dancer"
*Margaret Atwood: "Life Before Man"
*Steve McCaffery: "Intimate Distortions"
*Roch Carrier: "Les enfants du bonhomme dans la lune"
*Joy Fielding: "Trance"
*Gabrielle Roy: "Courte-Queue"
*Gordon R. Dickson: "The Spirit of Dorsai"
*Farley Mowat: "And No Birds Sang":Awards
*Antonine Maillet wins the French Prix Goncourt for her novel "Pélagie-la-Charette"
* See 1979 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
*Stephen Leacock Award: Sondra Gotlieb, "True Confessions"
*Vicky Metcalf Award: Cliff Faulknor:Television
*Lorne Michaels starts Broadway Video a company that goes on to produce shows like The "Kids in the Hall"
*You Can't Do That On Television premiers

Births

*January 2: Kathleen Edwards, musician
*January 8: Sarah Polley, actor
*January 9: Jenny Johnson, field hockey midfielder
*January 15: Nick Boynton, ice hockey player
*February 8: Adam Trupish, boxer
*February 21: Andre Noble, actor
*March 15: Azelia Liu, field hockey goalkeeper
*April 4: Roberto Luongo, ice hockey goaltender
*April 17: Eric Brewer, ice hockey player
*June 1: Craig Olejnik, actor
*July 2: Joe Thornton, ice hockey player
*August 3: Evangeline Lilly, actor
*August 22: Jennifer Finnigan, actor
*August 31: Mark Johnston, freestyle swimmer
*September 15: Patrick Marleau, ice hockey player
*October 7: Shawn Ashmore, actor
*October 7: Aaron Ashmore, actor
*November 21: Alex Tanguay, ice hockey player
*December 10: Andrea Rushton, field hockey player

Deaths

*February 23: W.A.C. Bennett, former premier of British Columbia
*March 26: Lionel Bertrand, federal and Quebec politician
*May 29: Mary Pickford, actress, studio founder
*August 16: former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker
*December 19: Donald Creighton, historian