Events from the year 1978 in Canada.
Incumbents
Crown
Monarch – Elizabeth II
Federal government
Governor General – Jules Léger
Prime Minister – Pierre Trudeau
Chief Justice – Bora Laskin (Ontario) Parliament – 30th
Provincial governments
Lieutenant governors
Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – Ralph Steinhauer
Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Walter Stewart Owen (until May 18) then Henry Pybus Bell-Irving Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Francis Lawrence Jobin Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Hédard Robichaud Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland – Gordon Arnaud Winter Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Clarence Gosse (until December 23) then John Elvin Shaffner Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Pauline Mills McGibbon Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Gordon Lockhart Bennett Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Hugues Lapointe (until April 27) then Jean-Pierre Côté Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – George Porteous (until February 6) then Irwin McIntosh (from February 22)
Premiers
Premier of Alberta – Peter Lougheed
Premier of British Columbia – Bill Bennett
Premier of Manitoba – Sterling Lyon
Premier of New Brunswick – Richard Hatfield
Premier of Newfoundland – Frank Moores
Premier of Nova Scotia – Gerald Regan (until October 5) then John Buchanan
Premier of Ontario – Bill Davis
Premier of Prince Edward Island – Alexander B. Campbell (until September 18) then Bennett Campbell Premier of Quebec – René Lévesque Premier of Saskatchewan – Allan Blakeney
Territorial governments
Commissioners
Commissioner of Yukon – Arthur MacDonald Pearson (until November 1) then Frank Fingland (interim) Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Stuart Milton Hodgson
Premiers
Premier of Yukon – Chris Pearson (from November 20)
Events
January 12 – Via Rail Canada is established as a Crown corporation
January 24 – Cosmos 954, a Soviet satellite, breaks up over northern Canada. June 26 – An Air Canada DC-9 overruns a runway in Toronto. Two people die. August 4 – 41 are killed when a bus plunges into a lake near Eastman, Quebec. September 15 – The Sudbury Strike of 1978 begins. September 18 – Bennett Campbell becomes premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Alexander B. Campbell October 5 – John MacLennan Buchanan becomes premier of Nova Scotia, replacing Gerald Regan October 16 – At midnight after a year and a half of conciliation the Canadian Union of Postal Workers goes on strike. October 16 – Fifteen federal by-elections are held across the country. The governing Liberals lose five seats, which leads to a general election the following May. October 17 – Parliament votes to force the postal workers back to work. October 18 – Saskatchewan election: Allan Blakeney's NDP win a third consecutive majority. Despite accusations of marital infidelity, Colin Thatcher, who would later be involved in the murder of his ex-wife, is re-elected to the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly. December 14 – Chris Pearson becomes government leader of Yukon as responsible government is instituted
Full date unknown
Rexdale Women's Centre is founded in Toronto. Supreme Court of Canada declares unilingual legislatures and courts unconstitutional Under the new immigration act homosexuals are no longer an inadmissible class
Arts and literature
New works
Margaret Atwood: Up in the Tree
Mordecai Richler: The Great Comic Book Heroes and Other Essays
John Newlove: The Fat Man: Selected Poems (1962–1972) John Gray and Eric Peterson: Billy Bishop Goes to War Henry Beissel: Goya
Awards
Alice Munro's Who Do You Think You Are? is nominated for the Booker Prize
See 1979 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards. Stephen Leacock Award: Ernest Buckler, Whirligig Vicky Metcalf Award: Lyn Cook