1987 in Canada

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Events from the year 1987 in Canada.

Incumbents

• Monarch: Elizabeth II
• Governor General: Jeanne Sauvé
• Prime Minister: Brian Mulroney
• Premier of Alberta: Don Getty
• Premier of British Columbia: Bill Vander Zalm
• Premier of Manitoba: Howard Pawley
• Premier of New Brunswick: Richard Hatfield then Frank McKenna
• Premier of Newfoundland: Brian Peckford
• Premier of Nova Scotia: John Buchanan
• Premier of Ontario: David Peterson
• Premier of Prince Edward Island: Joe Ghiz
• Premier of Quebec: Robert Bourassa
• Premier of Saskatchewan: Grant Devine

Events

• January 1 - Frobisher Bay changes its name to Iqaluit.
• April 21 - The body lifeless of Claude Jutra was finally found in the Saint Lawrence River near Cap-Santé.^[1]
• April 30 - Provincial premiers agree to Meech Lake Accord.
• May 22 - Rick Hansen returns home to Vancouver after his Man in Motion world tour.
• June 30 - Canada introduces a $1 coin, commonly called loonie; the dollar bill is withdrawn in 1989.
• July 3 - Quebec City becomes the first city in North America to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• July 14 - Montreal is hit by a series of severe thunderstorms during the Montreal Flood of 1987.
• July 31 - The Edmonton Tornado kills 27 peoples.
• September 10 - Ontario election: David Peterson's Liberals win a majority.
• September 20 - Pope John Paul II visits the Northwest Territories.
• October - Canadian and American negotiators reach agreement on the Canadian-American Free Trade Agreement.
• October 27 - Frank McKenna becomes premier of New Brunswick, replacing Richard Hatfield.
• November 12 - Dennis Patterson becomes government leader of the Northwest Territories, replacing Nick Sibbeston.
• November 30 - Several new Canadian specialty channels are licensed: YTV, VisionTV, CBC Newsworld, The Weather Network/MeteoMedia, and one pay-television channel: The Family Channel.
• The Reform Party of Canada is founded.

Arts and literature

New works

• William Bell: Metal Head
• Dave Duncan: A Rose-Red City
• Michael Ignatieff: The Russian Album
• Irving Layton: Fortunate Exile
• Donald Jack: This One's on Me
• Steve McCaffery: Evoba
• Antonine Maillet: Margot la folle
• Farley Mowat: Virunga: The Passion of Dian Fossey
• Paul Quarrington, King Leary
• Mordecai Richler: Jacob Two-Two and the Dinosaur

Awards

• See 1987 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Books in Canada First Novel Award: Karen Lawrence, The Life of Helen Alone
• Gerald Lampert Award: Rosemary Sullivan, The Space a Name Makes
• Marian Engel Award: Audrey Thomas
• Pat Lowther Award: Heather Spears, How to Read Faces
• Stephen Leacock Award: W.P. Kinsella, The Fencepost Chronicles
• Trillium Book Award: Michael Ondaatje, In the Skin of a Lion
• Vicky Metcalf Award: Robert Munsch

Music

• November 27 - Rock band Cowboy Junkies record their most famous album, The Trinity Session, at Toronto's Church of the Holy Trinity.

Sport

• August 30 - Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson sets a new world record in the 100 metre dash.

Births

• April 27
  • Joëlle Békhazi, water polo player
  • Emma Taylor-Isherwood, actress
• April 30 - Jeremy Bordeleau, canoeist
• May 17 - Con Kudaba, water polo player
• August 7 - Sidney Crosby, ice hockey player
• August 28 - Silvio De Paola, Golfer
• October 6 - Kia Byers, canoeist
• October 16 - Pascal Wollach, swimmer

Deaths

January to June

• January 5 - Margaret Laurence, novelist and short story writer (b.1926)
• January 5 - Herman Smith-Johannsen, ski pioneer and supercentenarian (b.1875)
• January 27 - Norman McLaren, animator and film director (b.1914)
• February 19 - Russell Doern, politician (b.1935)
• March 21 - Walter L. Gordon, accountant, businessman, politician and writer (b.1906)

July to December

• September 11 - Lorne Greene, actor (b.1915)
• September 19 - Ralph Steinhauer, native leader, first Aboriginal to become the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta (b.1905)
• November 1 - René Lévesque, politician, Minister and 23rd Premier of Quebec (b.1922)
• November 6 - George Laurence, nuclear physicist (b.1905)
• November 18 - George Ryga, playwright and novelist (b.1932)
• November 29 - Gwendolyn MacEwen, novelist and poet (b.1941)

Full date unknown

• Hugh Alexander Bryson, politician (b.1912)
• Juda Hirsch Quastel, biochemist (b.1899)

References

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