1982 in Canada
overview of Canada-related events during the year of 1982
Events from the year 1982 in Canada.
Incumbents
Crown
Monarch – Elizabeth II
Federal government
Governor General – Edward Schreyer
Prime Minister – Pierre Trudeau
Chief Justice – Bora Laskin (Ontario)
Parliament – 32nd
Provincial governments
Lieutenant governors
Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – Francis Charles Lynch-Staunton
Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Henry Pybus Bell-Irving
Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Pearl McGonigal
Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – George Stanley
Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland – William Anthony Paddon
Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – John Elvin Shaffner
Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – John Black Aird
Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Joseph Aubin Doiron
Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Jean-Pierre Côté
Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – Irwin McIntosh
Premiers
Premier of Alberta – Peter Lougheed
Premier of British Columbia – Bill Bennett
Premier of Manitoba – Howard Pawley
Premier of New Brunswick – Richard Hatfield
Premier of Newfoundland – Brian Peckford
Premier of Nova Scotia – John Buchanan
Premier of Ontario – Bill Davis
Premier of Prince Edward Island – James Lee
Premier of Quebec – René Lévesque
Premier of Saskatchewan – Allan Blakeney (Until May 8) then Grant Devine
Territorial governments
Commissioners
Commissioner of Yukon – Douglas Bell
Commissioner of Northwest Territories – John Havelock Parker
Premiers
Premier of the Northwest Territories – George Braden
Premier of Yukon – Chris Pearson
Events
January to June
January 11 – CBC's The National moves to 10 p.m. and The Journal debuts at 10:22 p.m.
January 15 – Striking Quebec transit workers are forced back to work.
February – First reported cases of AIDS in Canada.
February 15 – 84 are killed when the Ocean Ranger oil platform capsizes.
March 4 – Bertha Wilson is appointed Canada's first female Supreme Court justice.
March 8 – The Canada Act is passed by the British House of Commons.
April 14 – 1982 Northwest Territories division plebiscite
April 17 – In an outdoor ceremony in Ottawa, Queen Elizabeth II signs a royal proclamation that completes patriation of the constitution, and the Constitution Act, 1982, including the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, comes into effect.
April 26 – Saskatchewan election: Grant Devine's PCs win a landslide majority, defeating Allan Blakeney's NDP.
May 5 – Peru requests Canadian intervention in the ongoing Falklands War.
“1982 in Canada” enters the record as overview of Canada-related events during the year of 1982. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Canada, overview and Canada-related can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2812823. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1982.
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