Table of contents

1 Incumbents 2 Events 3 Arts and literature 4 Births 5 Deaths

Incumbents

• Prime Minister - Jean Chretien
• Governor General - Romeo LeBlanc

• Premier of Alberta - Ralph Klein
• Premier of British Columbia - Glen Clark
• Premier of Manitoba - Gary Filmon
• Premier of New Brunswick - Raymond Frenette then Camille Thériault
• Premier of Newfoundland - Brian Tobin
• Premier of Nova Scotia - Russell MacLellan
• Premier of Ontario - Mike Harris
• Premier of Prince Edward Island - Pat Bins
• Premier of Quebec - Lucien Bouchard
• Premier of Saskatchewan - Roy Romanow

• January 1 - Toronto and six other communites are merged to form a new megacity. The next day Mel Lastman is sworn in as its first mayor.
• January 2 - Three separate avalanches in British Columbia kill a total of nine people.
• January - A massive ice storm, caused by El Niño, strikes southern Ontario and Quebec, resulting in widespread power failures, severe damage to forests, and a number of deaths.
• January 6 - Alan Eagleson pleads guilty to fraud.
• January 7 - The federal government formally apologizes for the past mistreatment of First Nations.
• January 23 - The Royal Bank and the Bank of Montreal announce plans to merge, which are later scuttled by the federal government.
• February 6 - The Hudson's Bay Company takes over K-Mart Canada, folding it into its Zellers chain.
• February 7 - February 22 - Nagano Olympics Canada wins the fourth-most medals, but is embarrassed when their star-filled hockey team fails to win a medal.
• February 10 - Canadian National Railway merges with the Illinois Central.
• February 12 - The Toronto Maple Leafs buy the Toronto Raptors.
• February 13 - Three girls, all under 18 years of age, are found guilty in Victoria, BC, of killing 14-year-old Reena Virk. Three others plead guilty of assault.
• February 16 - The Supreme Court is asked to rule on the legality of Quebec separatism.
• February 18 - Controversial plans to include a Holocaust memorial in the Canadian War Museum are scrapped.
• February 24 - In the 1998 Canadian budget Finance Minister Paul Martin delivers a balanced budget.
• March 2 - Daniel Johnson, leader of the Quebec Liberal Party, announces his resignation.
• March 6 - The Dionne Quintuplets are given money and an apology by the Ontario government.
• March 6 - British Columbian doctors begin the first of a series of protests against funding shortages.
• March 12 - Quebec and Newfoundland resolve the long running Churchill Falls dispute.
• March 12 - Mutual Life of Canada aquires MetLife to become Canada's second-largest insurace company.
• March 23 - Senator Andrew Thompson is forced to resign his Senate seat after not attending for two years.
• March 24 - The 1998 Nova Scotia election leaves the Liberals and NDP tied for the most seats.
• March 27 - Jean Charest announces that he will seek the leadership of the Quebec Liberal Party.
• March 27 - The federal government agrees to compensate hepatitis C victims of tainted blood.
• April 1 - Floods in the Saguenay region of Quebec force 2000 from their homes.
• April 2 - The Supreme Court rules that Alberta's laws discriminting against homosexuals are unconstiutional.
• April 3 - Members of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary are permitted side arms for the first time.
• April 17 - Dafydd Rhys Williams flies aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia, becoming the first non-American to serve as medical officer.
• April 17 - The Toronto Dominion Bank and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce announce plans to merge, however the merger is later blocked by the government.
• April 25 - The United States announces large tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber.
• April 26-28 - Prime Minister Chrétien pays an official visit to Cuba.
• May 1 - Separatist David Levine is named head of the newly amalgamated Ottawa hospital sparking great controversy.
• Early May - Wildfires burning in Alberta force the evacuation of a number of communities.
• May 14 - Camille Thériault becomes premier of New Brunswick, replacing Raymond Frenette.
• May 21 The Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans shuts down the B.C. Coho fishery.
• May 29 - The Supreme Court strikes down a ban on pre-election opinion polls.
• June 9 - Three are killed in a gas explosion in Montreal.
• June 10 - One person is killed by a explosion at an Irving Oil refinery.
• June 11 - Eleven are killed in a plane crash a Mirabel airport
• June 24 - Macmillan Bloedel says that it will end clear cutting of old growth forests.
• July 15 - The B.C. government and the Nisga'a First Nation sign a historic, and controversial, land claims agreement.
• July 20 - The Southam chain buys the Financial Post from Sun Media.
• August - The Canadian dollar plunges all month.
• August 11 - 8,000 people are evacuated as forest fires threaten Salmon Arm, British Columbia.
• August 20 - The Supreme Court of Canada states Quebec can not legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval.
• August 28 - The dollar reaches its lowest point ever, at only 64.02 US cents.
• September 2 - Pilots for Air Canada launch the first strike in company's history.
• September 2 - Crash of Swissair Flight 111 off Peggys Cove in Nova Scotia.
• September 3 - A three-week lockout beigns in Ontario's Catholic school system.
• September 22 - 20,000 protest Canada's new gun registry on Parliament Hill.
• October 8 - Canada is elected to a seat on the United Nations Security Council.
• October 14 - Canada's first diamond mine opens in the Northwest Territories.
• October 27 - Conrad Black's National Post publishes its first issue.
• November 14 - Former Prime Minister Joe Clark is selected as the new leader of the Progressive Conservative Party.
• November 26 - Don Morin is forced to resign as Premier of the Northwest Territories.
• November 30 - The Parti Québécois is re-elected in Quebec, despite losing the popular vote.
• December 1 - Work on Canada's new gun registry begins.
• December 10 - James Antoine becomes premier of the Northwest Territories, replacing Don Morin.
• December 14 - Minister of Finance Paul Martin prohibits Canada's banks from merging.
• Grey Cup: Calgary Stampeders win 26-24 over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
• Vanier Cup: Saskatchewan Huskies win 24-17 over the Concordia Stingers.

• The Bay of Love and Sorrows - David Adams Richards
• Greater Than Angels - Carol Matas
• The Love of a Good Woman - Alice Munro
• Prières d'un adolescent très très sage - Roch Carrier
• Broken Entries: Race Subjectivity Writing - Roy Miki
• Isaiah Berlin: A Life - Michael Ignatieff
• Coyotes Sing to the Moon - Thomas King
• Toronto Discovered - Robert Fulford
• Body Music - Dennis Lee

• Carol Shields's Larry's Party wins the Orange Prize for Fiction
• Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Alice Munro: The Love of a Good Woman
• See 1998 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Books in Canada First Novel Award: Margaret Gibson, Opium Dreams
• Geoffrey Bilson Award: Irene N. Watts, Good-Bye Marianne
• Gerald Lampert Award: Mark Sinnett, The Landing
• Marian Engel Award: Sharon Butala
• Pat Lowther Award: Barbara Nickel, The Gladys Elegies
• Stephen Leacock Award: Mordecai Richler, Barney's Version
• Trillium Book Award English: André Alexis, Childhood and Alice Munro, The Love of a Good Woman
• Trillium Book Award French: Daniel Poliquin, L'homme de paille and Stefan Psenak, Du chaos et de l'ordre des choses
• Vicky Metcalf Award: Kit Pearson

• Shania Twain's Come on Over is one of the year's top selling albums in North America
• Les Chansons en or by Celine Dion is released
• Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie by Alanis Morissette

• Titanic, directed by Canadian James Cameron, wins 11 Oscars.

• Canada's Sesame Street switches to showing exclusively Canadian content, renaming itself Sesame Park, as it no longer uses any American made segments from Sesame Street

• The French government names Karen Kain as an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters

Deaths