1979 in Canada

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Events from the year 1979 in Canada.

Incumbents

• see 1979 Canadian incumbents

Events

January to June

• 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 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.

July to December

• 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

Full date unknown

• Chris Haney and Scott Abbott invent Trivial Pursuit
• Petro-Canada buys U.S.-controlled Pacific Petroleums
• The first women enroll in Canadian military colleges
• Founding of Academy of Canadian Cinema

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 would go on to produce shows like The Kids in the Hall and Saturday Night Live
• You Can't Do That On Television premiers

Sport

• May 21 - Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup defeating the New York Rangers 4 games to 1.
• 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.

Births

January to June

• January 8 - Sarah Polley, actress, singer, film director and screenwriter
• January 9 - Jenny Johnson, field hockey player
• January 14 - Nick Boynton, ice hockey player
• January 19 - Laurie Lavhey, born in Nova Scotia
• February 8 - Adam Trupish, boxer
• February 11 - Eric Cyr, baseball player
• February 15 - Ohenewa Akuffo, freestyle wrestler
• February 21 - Andre Noble, actor (d. 2004)
• February 22 - Jeremy Wilcox, volleyball player
• March 15 - Azelia Liu, field hockey player
• April 4 - Roberto Luongo, ice hockey player
• April 17 - Eric Brewer, ice hockey player
• May 10 - Dion Lavhey, Montreal Canadiens player
• June 1 - Craig Olejnik, actor
• June 5 - Pete Wentz, musician
• June 27 - Rebecca Jane Middleton, murder victim (d. 1996)

July to December

• July 2 - Joe Thornton, ice hockey player
• July 16 - Nathan Rogers, singer-songwriter
• August 3 - Evangeline Lilly, actress
• August 9 - Erin Chan, synchronized swimmer
• August 22 - Jennifer Finnigan, actress
• August 31 - Mark Johnston, swimmer
• September 15 - Patrick Marleau, ice hockey player
• September 15 - Brett Youngberg, volleyball player
• September 21 - Nathaniel Miller, water polo player
• October 7 - Aaron Ashmore, actor
• October 7 - Shawn Ashmore, actor
• November 14 - Randee Hermus, soccer player
• November 21 - Alex Tanguay, ice hockey player
• December 10 - Andrea Rushton, field hockey player

Deaths

John Diefenbaker

• February 23 - W. A. C. Bennett, Premier of British Columbia (b.1900)
• March 26 - Lionel Bertrand, politician, journalist and newspaper editor (b.1906)
• May 9 - Cyrus S. Eaton, investment banker, businessman and philanthropist (b.1883)
• May 15 - Dora Mavor Moore, actor, teacher and director (b.1888)
• May 29 - Mary Pickford, actress and studio co-founder (b.1892)
• July 11 - Claude Wagner, judge and politician (b.1925)
• August 16 - John Diefenbaker, politician and 13th Prime Minister of Canada (b.1895)
• September 28 - John Herbert Chapman, scientist and space researcher (b.1921)
• November 24 - John Robert Cartwright, jurist and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada (b.1895)
• December 19 - Donald Creighton, historian (b.1902)

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