1981 in Canada

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Events from the year 1981 in Canada.

Incumbents

• Monarch - Elizabeth II
• Governor General - Edward Schreyer
• Prime Minister - Pierre Trudeau
• Premier of Alberta - Peter Lougheed
• Premier of British Columbia - Bill Bennett
• Premier of Manitoba - Sterling Lyon then Howard Pawley
• Premier of New Brunswick - Richard Hatfield
• Premier of Newfoundland - Brian Peckford
• Premier of Nova Scotia - John Buchanan
• Premier of Ontario - Bill Davis
• Premier of Prince Edward Island - Angus MacLean then James Lee
• Premier of Quebec - René Lévesque
• Premier of Saskatchewan - Allan Blakeney

For more see: 1981 Canadian incumbents

Events

• January 1 - Gasoline and diesel are sold by the litre rather than the gallon.
• February 5 - More than three hundred men are arrested after police sweeps of Toronto bathhouses. The arrests create an outcry among Canada's gay population, and become a historic turning point in Canadian LGBT history. See 1981 Toronto bathhouse raids.
• March 19 - Ontario election: Bill Davis's PCs win a majority
• June 4 - NABET employees at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation hold a long strike, disrupting programming for much of the Spring.
• July 17 – The government of British Columbia named a 2,639-metre (8,658 foot) peak in the Rocky Mountains after Terry Fox.
• July 30 – The 83-kilometre (52 mi) section of the Trans-Canada Highway in Ontario where Terry Fox was forced to end his run, was renamed in his honour
• September 1 - Quebec's French language sign law comes into effect
• September 1 - The Albertan and federal governments sign an energy agreement
• September - The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission holds pay-TV hearings in Hull, Quebec
• October 16 - Canada Post becomes a crown corporation.
• November 5 - Canadian government and all provinces, except Quebec, agree on how to patriate the Canadian Constitution
• November 13 - The Canadarm is first deployed aboard the Space Shuttle
• November 17 - James Lee becomes premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Angus MacLean
• November 30 - Howard Pawley becomes premier of Manitoba, replacing Sterling Lyon.

Full date unknown

• Power Corporation sells Canada Steamship Lines Inc. to Paul Martin and Laurence Pathy
• News media: NOW created

Arts and literature

New works

• Margaret Atwood - True Stories
• Bill Bissett - Northern Birds in Coulour
• W.O. Mitchell - How I Spent My Summer Holidays
• Gordon R. Dickson - Lost Dorsai
• Nancy Huston - Les Variations Goldberg

Awards

• See 1981 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Books in Canada First Novel Award: W.D. Valgardson, Gentle Sinners
• Gerald Lampert Award: Elizabeth Allan, The Shored Up House
• Marian Engel Award:
• Pat Lowther Award: M. Travis Lane, Divinations and Short Poems 1973-1978
• Stephen Leacock Award: Gary Lautens, Take My Family...Please!
• Vicky Metcalf Award: Monica Hughes

Film

• David Cronenberg's Scanners is released
• James Cameron's Piranha II: The Spawning, his first directing effort, is released
• Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains is released
• Joy Kogawa's Obasan is released

Sport

• September 28 - Calgary is awarded the 1988 Winter Olympics.

Births

January to June

• January 11 - Jonathan Mandick, rower
• January 15 - Dylan Armstrong, shot putter
• January 16 - Nic Youngblud, water polo player
• January 17 - Julien Cousineau, alpine skier
• January 20 - Owen Hargreaves, soccer player
• January 21 - Dany Heatley, ice hockey player
• February 13 - Kristina Kiss, soccer player
• February 24 - Adam Kunkel, hurdler
• March 14 - Isabelle Pearson, judoka
• April 6 - Auburn Sigurdson, softball player
• April 19 - Hayden Christensen, actor
• May 20 - Morgan Knabe, swimmer
• June 21 - Kevin Mitchell, water polo player
• July 9 - Kimveer Gill, murderer responsible for the Dawson College shooting (d.2006)

July to December

• August 9 - Lauren Bay Regula, softball player
• August 19 - Taylor Pyatt, ice hockey player
• September 7 - Annie Martin, beach volleyball player
• September 26 - Kaila Holtz, softball player
• October 4 - Justin Williams, ice hockey player
• October 9 - Chad Hankewich, swimmer
• November 20 - Christian Bernier, volleyball player

Deaths

Terry Fox

• January 5 - Lomer Brisson, politician and lawyer (b.1916)
• January 16 - John Oates Bower, politician, businessman and executive (b.1901)
• April 10 - George Carlyle Marler, politician, notary and philatelist (b.1901)
• May 4 - Samuel Rosborough Balcom, politician (b.1888)
• May 23 - David Lewis, lawyer and politician (b.1909)
• May 29 - Walter Russell Shaw, politician and Premier of Prince Edward Island (b.1887)
• June 28 - Terry Fox, humanitarian, athlete and cancer treatment activist (b.1958)
• September 23 - Dan George, actor and author (b.1899)
• November 3 - Thérèse Casgrain, feminist, reformer, politician and Senator (b.1896)
• December 28 - Allan Dwan, film director, producer and screenwriter (b.1885)

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