See also: 1988 in Canada, other events of 1989, 1990 in Canada and the list of 'years in Canada'.

Incumbents

• Prime Minister - Brian Mulroney
• Governor General - Jeanne Sauvé

• Premier of Alberta - Don Getty
• Premier of British Columbia - Bill Vander Zalm
• Premier of Manitoba - Gary Filmon
• Premier of New Brunswick - Frank McKenna
• Premier of Newfoundland - Brian Peckford then Thomas Rideout then Clyde Wells
• 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

See also: 1989 Canadian incumbents for more

Events

• January 1 - The Canadian-American Free Trade Agreement comes into effect
• March 1 - The Canadian Space Agency is created
• March 10 - An Air Ontario flight crashes near Dryden, Ontario killing 24
• March 20 - Alberta election: Don Getty's PCs win a sixth consecutive majority
• March 22 - Thomas Rideout becomes premier of Newfoundland, replacing Brian Peckford
• May 5 - Clyde Wells becomes premier of Newfoundland, replacing Thomas Rideout
• May 25 - In Montreal, the Calgary Flames win the Stanley Cup against the Montreal Canadiens
• June 5 - First baseball game in SkyDome is played
• June 5 - The federal government announces sweeping cuts to VIA Rail
• July 31 - Cable television network CBC Newsworld is launched.
• December 2 - Audrey McLaughlin is elected head of the NDP replacing Ed Broadbent becoming the first female major party leader in Canadian history
• December 6 - École Polytechnique Massacre - A gunman murders fourteen women at the École Polytechnique of the University of Montreal in Montreal, Quebec. The event proves a spur to both the Canadian feminist and gun control movements.
• December 21 - Quebec uses the notwithstanding clause for the first time
• Deborah Grey wins a by-election to become the first Reform Party Member of Parliament.
• Corel releases CorelDraw
• Heather Erxleben becomes Canada's first official female combat soldier
• One dollar bills are replaced by the one-dollar coin, popularly called the "loonie."
• Sidney Altman shares in the Nobel Prize for Chemistry

Arts and Literature

New Works

• Mordecai Richler - Solomon Gursky Was Here
• Steve McCaffery - The Black Debt
• Erin Mouré - WSW
• Joy Fielding - Good Intentions
• Dave Duncan - West of January
• Tomson Highway - Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing
• William Bell - Death Wind
• Farley Mowat - The New Found Land

Awards

• Books in Canada First Novel Award: Rick Salutin, A Man of Little Faith
• See 1989 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Geoffrey Bilson Award: Martyn Godfrey , Mystery in the Frozen Lands, and Dorothy Perkyns , Rachel’s Revolution
• Gerald Lampert Award: Sarah Klassen , Journey to Yalta
• Marian Engel Award: Merna Summers
• Pat Lowther Award: Heather Spears , The Word for Sand
• Stephen Leacock Award: John Kertes , Winter Tulips
• Trillium Book Award: Modris Eksteins , Rites of Spring
• Vicky Metcalf Award: Stéphane Poulin

Television

• Kids in the Hall premiers on CBC

Births

• Spetmber 1 - Katie Lai, actor
• Cassie Steele, actor

Deaths

• May 14 - E.P. Taylor, businessman
• November 11 - Kenneth MacLean Glazier, Sr., former minister and former Secretary of the Alberta Liberal Party