1968 in Canada

Crown

Head of state (monarch) – Queen Elizabeth II (consort – Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh)

Federal government

Governor general – Roland Michener (viceregal consort – Norah Michener)

Prime minister – Lester B. Pearson (until April 20) and then Pierre Trudeau

Lieutenant governors

Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – Grant MacEwan

Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – George Pearkes (until July 2) then John Robert Nicholson

Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Richard Spink Bowles

Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – John B. McNair (until January 31) then Wallace Samuel Bird

Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland – Fabian O'Dea

Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Henry Poole MacKeen (until July 22) then Victor de Bedia Oland

Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – William Earl Rowe (until July 4) then William Ross Macdonald

Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Willibald Joseph MacDonald

Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Hugues Lapointe

Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – Robert Hanbidge

Premiers

Premier of Alberta – Ernest Manning (until December 12) and then Harry Strom

Premier of British Columbia – W.A.C. Bennett

Premier of Manitoba – Walter Weir

Premier of New Brunswick – Louis Robichaud

Premier of Newfoundland – Joey Smallwood

Premier of Nova Scotia – G.I. Smith

Premier of Ontario – John Robarts

Premier of Prince Edward Island – Alexander B. Campbell

Premier of Quebec – Daniel Johnson, Sr. (until September 26) and then Jean-Jacques Bertrand (from October 2)

Premier of Saskatchewan – Ross Thatcher

Commissioners

Commissioner of Yukon – James Smith

Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Stuart Milton Hodgson

January to June

February 1 – The three branches of the Canadian Forces are merged into one, adopting a common green uniform and Army-derived ranks

February 20 – Prime Minister Pearson gives the first ever televised address to the nation as he tells Canadians that he will table a confidence motion the next day to prove his party still has control. After a week of filibustering by the Opposition, the motion passes.

April 1 – The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is formed

April 6 – Pierre Trudeau wins 1968 Liberal Party leadership election

May 14 – The grand opening of the Toronto-Dominion Centre is held

June 1 – The flag of Alberta is authorized

June 24 – Separatists riot in Montreal on S^t-Jean-Baptiste Day

June 25 – Federal election: Pierre Trudeau's Liberals win a majority

July to December

July 1 – The laws creating Canada's Medicare system come into effect

July 18–August 9 – Canada Post workers represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers go on strike

August 20 – Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia to end the "Prague Spring" of political liberalization. Thousands of refugees flee to Canada.

September 26 – Daniel Johnson, Sr, Premier of Quebec, dies in office

October 2 – Jean-Jacques Bertrand becomes premier of Quebec

October 15 – The Mouvement Souveraineté-Association merges with the Ralliement National to create the Parti Québécois, René Lévesque is selected as the party's first leader

December 12 – Harry Strom becomes premier of Alberta, replacing Ernest Manning

December 31 – Quebec's Legislative Assembly is renamed the National Assembly

Full date unknown

IMAX technique invented

Canada's new Divorce Act introduces no fault divorce

The Rochdale College experiment begins in Toronto

New works

Alice Munro – Dance of the Happy Shades

Mordecai Richler – Hunting Tigers Under Glass

Margaret Atwood – The Animals in That Country

Robert Fulford – This Was Expo

John Newlove – Black Night Window

Kildare Dobbs – Reading the Time

Mordecai Richler – Cocksure

Robert Kroetsch – Alberta

Marian Engel – No Clouds of Glory

Gordon R. Dickson – Soldier, Ask Not

Farley Mowat – This Rock Within the Sea: A Heritage Lost

Harold Cardinal – The Unjust Society

Poetry

Mary Alice Downie and Barbara Robertson, editors, The Wind Has Wings, anthology of 77 Canadian poems for children (anthology)

Dennis Lee, editor, T. O. Now, anthology of 13 "apprentice poets living in Toronto" (anthology)

Joe Rosenblatt, Winter of the Luna Moon

Irving Layton, The Shattered Plinths, 60 new poems

Leonard Cohen, Selected Poems, 1956-1968

Alfred Purdy, Wild Grape Wine

Dorothy Livesay, The Documentaries, poems from the 1930s and 1940s, and including "Roots", a long poem

Awards

David Suzuki wins UNESCO's Kalinga Prize for science writing

See 1968 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

Stephen Leacock Award: Max Ferguson, And Now...Here's Max

Vicky Metcalf Award: Lorraine McLaughlin

Theatre

August 28 – Michel Tremblay's Les Belles-Sœurs premiers in Montreal.

Art

December 18 – Henry Moore donates hundreds of works to the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Sport

May 27 – Montreal is awarded a Major League Baseball franchise that would eventually be the Montreal Expos.

January to March

January 5 – Joé Juneau, ice hockey player

January 7 – Tara Croxford, field hockey player

January 13 – Pat Onstad, international soccer player

January 14 – Michael Meldrum, swimmer

January 28 – Sarah McLachlan, musician, singer and songwriter

February 1 – Mark Recchi, ice hockey player

February 9 – Joel Brough, field hockey player

February 22 – Shawn Graham, politician and 31st Premier of New Brunswick

February 27 – Matt Stairs, baseball player

March 17 – Patty Sullivan, television personality

March 30 – Celine Dion, singer, songwriter and actress

April to June

April 18 – David Hewlett, actor who was born in the United Kingdom before emigrating to Canada

May 8 – Louise Stratten, actress and younger sister of the murdered actress Dorothy Stratten

May 12 – Jane Kerr, swimmer

May 20 – William Irwin, boxer

May 30 – Jason Kenney, politician and Minister

June 7 - Macha Grenon, actress

June 10 – Susan Haskell, actress

June 16 – Lyne Poirier, judoka

June 27 – Pascale Bussières, actress

June 29 – Theoren Fleury, ice hockey player

July to September

July 2 – Mark Tewksbury, swimmer and Olympic gold medalist

July 11 – Michael Cram, actor and singer-songwriter

July 22 – Harry Taylor, swimmer

August 20 – Jody Holden, beach volleyball player

September 20 – Leah Pinsent, actress

September 23 – Donna McGinnis, swimmer

October to December

October 2 – Sandy Goss, swimmer

October 2 – Glen Wesley, ice hockey player

October 26 – Tom Cavanagh, actor

November 1 – Andrea Nugent, swimmer

November 14 – Serge Postigo, actor

November 19 – Gord Fraser, road racing cyclist

November 25 – Jill Hennessy, actress and musician, and Jacqueline Hennessy, actress and journalist

December 2 – Darren Ward, swimmer

December 3 – Brendan Fraser, actor

December 10 – Caroline Wittrin, hammer thrower

December 17 – Paul Tracy, racing car driver

Full date unknown

Shawn Doyle, actor

Evan Solomon, writer, magazine publisher and television host

Deaths

January 31 – George Arthur Brethen, politician (b.1877)

February 5 – Frances Loring, sculptor (b.1887)

February 13 – Portia White, singer (b.1911)

February 16 – Healey Willan, organist and composer (b.1880)

February 17 – Ernest Charles Drury, politician, writer and 8th Premier of Ontario (b.1878)

April 29 – Aubin-Edmond Arsenault, politician and Premier of Prince Edward Island (b.1870)

May 30 – Charles Gavan Power, politician, Minister and Senator (b.1888)

June 14 – John B. McNair, lawyer, politician, judge and 22nd Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick (b.1889)

August 1 – Maurice Spector, Chairman of the Communist Party of Canada (b.1898)

September 26 – Daniel Johnson, Sr., politician and 20th Premier of Quebec (b.1915)

December 15 – Antonio Barrette, politician and 18th Premier of Quebec (b.1899)