See also: 1978 in Canada, 1980 in Canada and the list of 'years in Canada'.

Incumbents

• Prime Minister - Pierre Trudeau then Joe Clark
• Governor General - Jules Léger then Edward Richard Schreyer

• Premier of Alberta - Peter Lougheed
• Premier of British Columbia - W.R. Bennett
• Premier of Manitoba - Sterling Lyon
• Premier of New Brunswick - Richard Hatfield
• Premier of Newfoundland - Frank Moores then Brian Peckford
• Premier of Nova Scotia - John Buchanan
• Premier of Ontario - Bill Davis
• Premier of Prince Edward Island - Bennett Campbell then Angus MacLean
• Premier of Quebec - René Lévesque
• Premier of Saskatchewan - Allan Blakeney

Events

• January 17 - Edward Richard Schreyer replaces Jules Léger as Governor General
• February 1 - The first Winterlude is held in Ottawa
• March 14 - Alberta election: Peter Lougheed's PCs win a third consecutive majority
• March 26 - Brian Peckford becomes premier of Newfoundland, replacing Frank Moores
• May 3 - Angus MacLean becomes premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Bennett Campbell
• May 22 - Canadians go to the polls in the 1979 Canadian election. They defeat Pierre Trudeau's Liberals and elect Joe Clark's Tories, but only with a minority
• June 4 - Joe Clark becomes Canada's sixteenth, and youngest ever, prime minister
• June 22 - The World Hockey Association folds. Four teams the Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordiques, and Hartford Whalers survive and move to the NHL
• September 5 - Canada's first gold bullion coin goes on sale
• November 10 - a train carrying chemicals derails in Mississauga, Ontario and hundreds of thousands have to be evacuated
• December 13 - Supreme Court declares Quebec and Manitoba's provincial legislatures to be unconstitutional because of their use of only one language.
• December 13- The government is defeated on a non-confidence motion and Prime Minister Clark calls an election
• December 31 - A fire a Le Club Opemiska in Chaplais, Quebec kills 42 at a New Year's Eve party
• Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup defeating the New York Rangers 4 games to 1.
• Chris Haney and Scott Abbott invent Trivial Pursuit
• Petro-Canada buys U.S.-controlled Pacific Petroleums
• The first women enroll in Canadian military colleges

Arts and Literature

New Works

• Irving Layton - The Tightrope Dancer
• Margaret Atwood - Life Before Man
• Steve McCaffery - Intimate Distortions
• Roch Carrier - Les enfants du bonhomme dans la lune
• Joy Fielding - Trance
• Gabrielle Roy - Courte-Queue
• Gordon R. Dickson - The Spirit of Dorsai
• Farley Mowat - And No Birds Sang

Awards

• Antonine Maillet wins the French Prix Goncourt for her novel Pélagie-la-Charette
• See 1979 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Stephen Leacock Award: Sondra Gotlieb, True Confessions
• Vicky Metcalf Award: Cliff Faulknor

Television

• Lorne Michaels starts Broadway Video a company that goes on to produce shows like The Kids in the Hall
• You Can't Do That On Television premiers

Births

• January 2 - Kathleen Edwards, musician
• January 8 - Sarah Polley, actor
• January 15 - Nick Boynton, hockey player
• February 21 - Andre Noble, actor
• March 15 - Alezia Liu, field hockey goalkeeper
• April 4 - Roberto Luongo, hockey goaltender
• April 17 - Eric Brewer, hockey player
• July 2 - Joe Thornton, hockey player
• August 3 - Evangeline Lilly, actor
• August 22 - Jennifer Finnigan, actor
• September 15 - Patrick Marleau, hockey player
• October 7 - Shawn Ashmore, actor
• October 7 - Aaron Ashmore, actor
• November 21 - Alex Tanguay, hockey player
• December 10 - Andrea Rushton, field hockey player

Deaths

• February 23 - W.A.C. Bennett, former premier of British Columbia
• May 29 - Mary Pickford, actress, studio founder
• August 16 - former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker
• December 19 - Donald Creighton, historian