What were major events from the 80s?

Answer 1

Wow where to start, well in no particular order:

The Canadian Constitution was repatriated in 1982. Meaning Canada could make changes without consulting Britain. Canada then added and amending formula entrenching Ontario and Quebec's control over all other members of Confederation. It also meant that the Constitution is for all practical purposes frozen in time, unable to adapt to the needs of the Confederation.

Other major events would include the National Energy Program. It was a program designed to transfer provincial, Western Canadian, wealth to Eastern Canada and to take control of the oil and gas industry from Alberta. The cost to Alberta alone was over $60 Billion dollars and effectively shut down their #1 industry.

Another major event was the ongoing transfer of Manitoba's aerospace industry to Quebec and Ontario. Aerospace was once Manitoba's #1 or #2 industry due to their location in the centre of Canada and North America. That trend continued in the most abusive way with the CF-18 maintenance contract. A federal contract that was awarded to Bristol Aerospace of Winnipeg because they had the expertise, experience, equipment and people to to the job better and cheaper than anywhere in Canada.

The federal government stepped in, cancelled the bidding process and awarded the contract to Quebec, even giving Quebec tens of millions of dollars to purchase needed technology from a Toronto company which had been part of the Winnipeg bid.

The Meech Lake Accord became another slap in the face to Canadians when the federal government tried to force it unto an unwilling nation. Fortunately Newfoundland and Labrador refused to ratify the accord before the Jun 23 1990 deadline, exposing the flaws in the amending formula.

The 1980's also saw Canada vote on one of the fundamental Canadian issues. An issue that created Confederation, Reciprocity reared it's ugly head once again. Canada had voted on Reciprocity or Free Trade with a neighbour 10X our size during the Confederation votes and again in the 1911 federal election. In both cases giving up control of our economy to our larger neighbour was overwhelmingly rejected.

The Federal Election of 1988 was Canada's first election on Free Trade since 1911 and once again Canadians overwhelming rejected Reciprocity. This time though the wishes of Canadians were simply rejected by the government and our ruling Elite who supported the Conservative government and then many following Liberal governments in signing and strengthening trade agreements that have seen Canadian manufacturing base exported to the USA, then Mexico and now China. Many see Canada and the Free Trade Agreement as the start of Globalization.

The 1980's also saw Canada's worst recession since the 1930's, the loss of or attacks on large parts of Canadian culture, most notably the iconic RCMP uniform.

On the upside Terry Fox started his Marathon of Hope which continues to this day, O' Canada became our national anthem, we convert to the metric system, Canada goes into space with the Canadarm or as everyone else calls it the shuttle robot arm and our first astronaut.

The 1980's was a very eventful decade, the repercussions of which we are still feeling today.