1986 in Canada

Crown

• Monarch – Elizabeth II^[1]

Federal government

• Governor General – Jeanne Sauvé^[2]
• Prime Minister – Brian Mulroney
• Chief Justice – Brian Dickson (Manitoba)
• Parliament – 33rd

Provincial governments

Territorial governments

January to June

• January 22 – An investigation determines that a bomb caused the crash of Air India flight 182.
• January 31 – The Canadian dollar hits an all-time low of 70.2 U.S. cents on international money markets.
• February 8 – Hinton train collision: 23 people are killed when the Super Continental passenger train collides with a Canadian National Railway freight train near Hinton, Alberta.
• April 4 – Port Simpson, British Columbia, is renamed to Lax Kwʼalaams.
• May 1 – Shirley Carr becomes the first female head of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
• May 2
  • Joe Ghiz becomes premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing James Lee.
  • The 1986 World Exposition (Expo 86) in Vancouver opens.
• May 8 – Alberta election: The PCs, led by Don Getty, win a fifth consecutive majority, but a smaller majority than before.
• May 9 – Roger Coles resigns as leader of Yukon Liberal Party and MLA for Tatchun after being arrested and charged with selling cocaine to an undercover police officer.^[3]
• May 25 – In Vancouver an attempt is made to assassinate Malkiat Singh Sidhu, a cabinet minister in the Indian state of Punjab.
• June 14 – An accident involving the Mindbender roller coaster at West Edmonton Mall kills three people and seriously injures a fourth.
• June 19 – The new Competition Act comes into force.
• June 20 – Jean Drapeau resigns as mayor of Montreal.

July to December

• August 5 – Canada adopts sanctions against South Africa for its apartheid policies
• August 6 – Bill Vander Zalm becomes premier of British Columbia, replacing Bill Bennett
• August 11 – Tamil refugees are found drifting off the coast of Newfoundland
• September 16 – Elizabeth II augments the coat of arms of Saskatchewan with a crest and supporters
• September 30 – MPs elect the speaker by secret ballot for the first time.
• October 6 – Canada receives a United Nations award for sheltering refugees
• October 20 – Saskatchewan election: Grant Devine's PCs win a second consecutive majority
• November 13 – The announcement that the film producer Claude Jutra was reported missing for over one week. He had started to suffer the first symptoms of the Alzheimer's disease.^[4]
• December 8 – The University of Toronto's John C. Polanyi shares the Nobel Prize for chemistry for the development of the chemical laser.

Full date unknown

• Negotiators begin work on what would eventually be the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement
• The birds series of Canadian banknotes is released
• Supreme Court rules on the RWDSU v. Dolphin Delivery Ltd. case
• Conrad Black buys The Daily Telegraph
• Dinosaur fossils are found near Parrsboro, Nova Scotia

New works

• Margaret Atwood - Freeforall
• W.P. Kinsella - The Fence Post Chronicles
• Robert Munsch - Love You Forever
• Alice Munro - The Progress of Love
• Antonine Maillet - Garrochés en paradis
• Hugh Hood - The Motor Boys in Ottawa
• William Gibson - Count Zero

Awards

• See 1986 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Books in Canada First Novel Award: Wayne Johnston, The Story of Bobby O'Mally
• Gerald Lampert Award: Joan Fern Shaw, Raspberry Vinegar
• Marian Engel Award: Alice Munro
• Pat Lowther Award: Erín Moure, Domestic Fuel
• Stephen Leacock Award: Joey Slinger, No Axe too Small to Grind
• Vicky Metcalf Award: Dennis Lee

New music

• Leonard Cohen - First We Take Manhattan
• Neil Young - Landing on Water

New movies

• James Cameron's Aliens is released
• David Cronenberg's The Fly
• Denys Arcand's The Decline of the American Empire

January to June

• January 4 - Wilbur R. Franks, scientist and inventor (b. 1901)
• January 26 - Norman MacKenzie, author, lawyer, professor and Senator (b. 1894)
• February 23 - Louis-Philippe Pigeon, judge of the Supreme Court of Canada (b. 1905)
• February 24 - Tommy Douglas, politician and Premier of Saskatchewan (b. 1904)
• February 27 - Jacques Plante, ice hockey player (b. 1929)
• March 4 - Richard Manuel, composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist (b. 1943)
• March 4 - Elizabeth Smart, poet and novelist (b. 1913)
• June 13 - Wilfrid Eggleston, journalist and chief censor for Canada from 1942 until 1944 (b. 1901)

July to December

• July 25 - Alison Parrott, murder victim (b. 1974)
• August 20 - Milton Acorn, poet, writer and playwright (b. 1923)
• September 28 – Howard Graham, army officer, Chief of the General Staff (b. 1898)
• October 11 – Barker Fairley, painter (b. 1887 in the United Kingdom)
• October 26 – John Henry Cates, businessman and political figure (b. 1896)
• November 5 - Claude Jutra, actor, film director and writer (b. 1930)
• November 8 - King Clancy, ice hockey player (b. 1903)
• November 19 - Don Jamieson, politician, diplomat and broadcaster (b. 1921)
• December 24 – John Damien, racing steward whose 1975 dismissal from his job for being gay ultimately led to the inclusion of sexual orientation in the Ontario Human Rights Code in 1986
• December 31 - Donald Fleming, politician, International Monetary Fund official and lawyer (b. 1905)