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
- Prime Minister - Pierre Trudeau then Joe Clark
- Governor General - Jules Léger then Edward Richard Schreyer
- 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
- 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 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 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 - a train carrying chemicals derails in Mississauga, Ontario and hundreds of thousands have to be evacuated
- 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 a Le Club Opemiska in Chaplais, Quebec kills 42 at a New Year's Eve party
- Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup defeating the New York Rangers 4 games to 1.
- 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 15 - Nick Boynton, hockey player
- February 21 - Andre Noble, actor
- March 15 - Alezia Liu, field hockey goalkeeper
- April 4 - Roberto Luongo, hockey goaltender
- April 17 - Eric Brewer, hockey player
- July 2 - Joe Thornton, hockey player
- August 3 - Evangeline Lilly, actor
- August 22 - Jennifer Finnigan, actor
- September 15 - Patrick Marleau, hockey player
- October 7 - Shawn Ashmore, actor
- October 7 - Aaron Ashmore, actor
- November 21 - Alex Tanguay, hockey player
- December 10 - Andrea Rushton, field hockey player
Deaths
- February 23 - W.A.C. Bennett, former premier of British Columbia
- May 29 - Mary Pickford, actress, studio founder
- August 16 - former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker
- December 19 - Donald Creighton, historian