1999 in Canada

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Elizabeth II

  Federal government

• Governor general – Roméo LeBlanc then Adrienne Clarkson
• Prime minister – Jean Chrétien
• Chief Justice – Antonio Lamer
• Parliament – 36th

  Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – Bud Olson
• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Garde Gardom
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Yvon Dumont then Peter Liba
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Marilyn Trenholme Counsell
• Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland – Arthur Maxwell House
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – James Kinley
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Hillary Weston
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Gilbert Clements
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Lise Thibault
• Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – Jack Wiebe

  Premiers

• Premier of Alberta – Ralph Klein
• Premier of British Columbia – Glen Clark then Dan Miller
• Premier of Manitoba – Gary Filmon then Gary Doer
• Premier of New Brunswick – Camille Thériault then Bernard Lord
• Premier of Newfoundland – Brian Tobin
• Premier of Nova Scotia – Russell MacLellan then John Hamm
• Premier of Ontario – Mike Harris
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – Pat Binns
• Premier of Quebec – Lucien Bouchard
• Premier of Saskatchewan – Roy Romanow

  Territorial governments

Commissioners

• Commissioner of Yukon – Judy Gingell
• Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Helen Maksagak then Daniel Joseph Marion
• Commissioner of Nunavut – Helen Maksagak

  Premiers

• Premier of the Northwest Territories – Jim Antoine
• Premier of Nunavut – Paul Okalik
• Premier of Yukon – Piers McDonald

  Events

January to June

• January 1 – An avalanche destroys a school gymnasium during New Year's celebrations in Kangguspoo in far northern Quebec, killing 9.
• February 9 – Brian Tobin's Liberals are re-elected in Newfoundland.
• April 1 – Nunavut becomes the newest territory. Paul Okalik becomes the first premier.
• April 6 – A disgruntled employee kills four people, then killed himself in OC Transpo of Ottawa.
• April 28 – W. R. Myers High School shooting: in Taber, Alberta, a 15-year-old boy, who had recently been withdrawn from public school to escape bullying, walks into W.R. Myers High School and shoots two students with a.22 rifle, killing one and injuring the other.
• May 1 – Sponsorship scandal: The federal government issues a $615,000 contract for a report from Groupaction into its own activities.
• May 11 – Chevron announces a major natural gas find in the Northwest Territories.
• May 17 – The Saskatchewan government awards David Milgaard after he was jailed for 23 years for a murder he did not commit.
• May 20 – The Supreme Court expands gay spousal rights.
• May 27 – Julie Payette becomes the first Canadian to board the International Space Station.
• June 3 – Ontario election: Mike Harris's PCs win a second consecutive majority.
• June 3 – Canada and the United States sign a treaty to divide the Pacific salmon fishery.
• June 4 – An agreement on split-run magazines prevents looming trade war with the United States.
• June 7 – Bernard Lord's Conservatives win a surprise election victory in New Brunswick.
• June 10 – The Reform Party of Canada votes to become the Canadian Alliance.
• June 17 – Canadian citizen Stanley Faulder is executed in Texas, despite diplomatic complaints by the Canadian government.
• June 21 – Bernard Lord becomes premier of New Brunswick, replacing Camille Thériault.
• June 30 – A British Columbia court strikes down Canada's child pornography laws.

  July to December

• July 27 – Nova Scotia election: The Conservatives win a majority government in Nova Scotia.
• August 16 – John Hamm becomes premier of Nova Scotia, replacing Russell MacLellan.
• August 20 – The Supreme Court rules that Quebec cannot secede unilaterally, but that Canada is obliged to recognize a clear "yes" vote.
• August 20 – Eaton's files for bankruptcy.
• August 24 – Onex announces a plan to buy and merge Air Canada and Canadian Airlines.
• August 25 – Dan Miller, as interim leader of the NDP, becomes premier of British Columbia, replacing Glen Clark who resigned on the 21st.
• September 15 – Louise Arbour appointed to the Supreme Court replacing Antonio Lamer.
• September 19 – Saskatchewan election: Roy Romanow's NDP wins only a minority but forms a coalition with the Liberals to maintain control of the Legislative Assembly.
• September 25 – The federal government refuses requests for aid by the six remaining Canadian NHL franchises.
• October 5 – Gary Doer of the NDP becomes premier of Manitoba, replacing Gary Filmon of the Conservatives.
• October 7 – Adrienne Clarkson becomes Governor General.
• October 8 – Bill Clinton dedicates the new Embassy of the United States in Ottawa.
• October 15 – Robert Mundell wins the Nobel Prize for economics.
• October 19 – Air Canada, backed by other airlines, announces a takeover bid for Canadian Airlines.
• November 3 – Beverley McLachlin becomes the first female chief justice of the Supreme Court.
• November 5 – A Quebec court decides that Onex's bid for Air Canada is illegal.
• November 5 – Quebec sign law is overturned.
• November 21 – Nimiq 1 Canada's first direct broadcast digital TV satellite launched by a Proton K Blok DM-3 rocket from the Tyuratam launch centre in Kazakhstan.
• December 8 – Air Canada takes over Canadian Airlines.
• December 11 – The verdict in the Just Desserts shooting case is handed down. Two of the accused are found guilty, the third is acquitted.
• December 14 – Montreal resident Ahmed Ressam is arrested in Seattle and found with large quantities of explosives.

  Arts and literature

New works

• Bonnie Burnard: A Good House
• Wayson Choy:
• Matt Cohen: Elizabeth and After
• Antonine Maillet: Chronique d'une sorcière de vent
• Russell Smith: Young Men
• Lola MacLaughlin: "Four Cities/Four Solos"

  Awards

• Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Bonnie Burnard, A Good House
• See 1999 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Books in Canada First Novel Award: Andre Alexis, Childhood
• Gerald Lampert Award: Stephanie Bolster, White Stone: The Alice Poems
• Geoffrey Bilson Award: Iain Lawrence, The Wreckers
• Marian Engel Award: Janice Kulyk Keeger
• Norma Fleck Award: Andy Turnbull and Debora Pearson, By Truck to the North: My Winter Adventure
• Pat Lowther Award: Hilary Clark, More Light
• Stephen Leacock Award: Stuart McLean, Home from the Vinyl Cafe
• Trillium Book Award English: Alistair MacLeod, No Great Mischief
• Trillium Book Award French: Andrée Christensen and Jacques Flamand, Lithochronos ou le premier vol de la pierre
• Vicky Metcalf Award: Joan Clark

  Music

• Céline Dion, Alanis Morissette, and Shania Twain win major Grammy Awards

  Television

• September 13 – The first episode of the children's series Mona the Vampire is broadcast on YTV

  Sport

• February 13 – The last hockey game is played at Maple Leaf Gardens as the team moves to the new Air Canada Centre.
• April 16 – Wayne Gretzky retires from ice hockey.
• May 23 – Ottawa 67's win their second Memorial Cup by defeating the Calgary Hitmen. The tournament was played at Ottawa Civic Centre in Ottawa
• June 19 – Oshawa, Ontario's Joe Nieuwendyk of the Dallas Stars is awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy
• July 23 – August 8 – The Pan American games are held in Winnipeg.
• November 13 – Lennox Lewis defeats Evander Holyfield to become the Heavyweight Champion of the World.
• November 28 – Hamilton Tiger-Cats win their eighth Grey Cup by defeating the Calgary Stampeders 32 to 21 in the 87th Grey Cup played at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver. Hamilton, Ontario's Mike Morreale was awarded the game's Most Valuable Canadian

  Births

• February 12 – Maggie Coles-Lyster, cyclist
• February 14 – Maya Burhanpurkar, scientist
• February 19 – Quinn Lord, actor
• April 8 – Jacob Guay, singer
• April 27 – Brooklynn Proulx, actress
• May 5 - Jonny Gray, actor
• July 9 – Claire Corlett, actress
• July 14 – Dawson Dunbar, actor
• August 2 – Mark Lee, rapper and member of South Korean boy group NCT
• August 22 – Dakota Goyo, actor
• September 7
• *Michelle Creber, actress
• *Laurie Jussaume, cyclist
• September 22 – Erin Pitt, actress
• November 8 – Katherine Uchida, rhythmic gymnast
• November 30 – Gage Munroe, actor

  Full date unknown

• Natasha Calis, actress
• Veronica Penny

  Deaths

January to March

• January 8 – James William Baskin, politician and businessman
• January 10 – Walter Harris, politician and lawyer
• February 8 – Denise Leblanc-Bantey, politician
• February 18 – Neil Gaudry, politician
• February 22 – Isidore Goresky, farm labourer, teacher and provincial politician
• March 3 – Gerhard Herzberg, physicist and physical chemist
• March 9 – Harry Somers, composer
• March 15 – Guy D'Artois, army officer
• March 23 – Osmond Borradaile, cameraman, cinematographer and veteran of First and Second World War
• March 24 – Edmund Tobin Asselin, politician

  April to June

• April 4 – Greg McConnell, indie rock musician
• April 5 – Paul David, cardiologist and founder of the Montreal Heart Institute
• May 2 – Douglas Harkness, politician, teacher, farmer and former Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Canadian Artillery.
• May 23 – Owen Hart, wrestler
• June 8 – Gordon Towers, politician and Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta
• June 17 – Stanley Faulder, murderer and first Canadian citizen to be executed in the United States since 1952

  July to December

• July 1 – Edward Dmytryk, Canadian-born American film director
• July 16 – Alan Macnaughton, politician
• August 12 – Jean Drapeau, lawyer, politician and Mayor of Montreal
• September 24 – Robert Bend, politician
• October 14 – Ian Wahn, politician and lawyer
• October 31 – Greg Moore, racecar driver
• December 2 – Matt Cohen, writer
• December 4 – Bert Hoffmeister, army officer
• December 10 – Rick Danko, musician and singer
• December 20 – Hank Snow, country music artist
• December 23 – Wallace Diestelmeyer, figure skater