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Events from the year 2001 in Canada.

Incumbents

Estimated Canadian population: 31,110,565

Events

January to March

• January 1 - The Ontario cities of Ottawa, Hamilton and Sudbury officially merge with their suburban municipalities to create new "megacities". (Sudbury, now Greater Sudbury, was the only one of the three to change its name. Toronto had been similarly merged in 1998.)
• January 17 - The Bank of Canada unveils a new $10 bill with enhanced security features.
• January 18 - MafiaBoy pleads guilty to 56 of 66 mischief charges in a Montreal courtroom. The other 10 charges were withdrawn.
• January 27 - Lorne Calvert becomes the leader of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party after winning the fourth ballot at the party's 2001 leadership convention.
• January 29 - Peter Milliken is elected as the new Speaker of the House of Commons after five rounds of voting.
• January 29 - The Toronto Stock Exchange allows stocks greater than $5 in value to trade at 1¢ increments instead of at 5¢ increments.
• January 30 - Governor General Adrienne Clarkson reads the Speech from the Throne at the beginning of the 37th Canadian parliament. [1]
• January 30 - An envelope mailed to Citizenship and Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan containing a mysterious blue powder caused the Immigration Canada building to be sealed off. A Winnipeg laboratory on February 1 said the powder posed no health risk.
• February 2 - Canada begins banning imports of beef and beef products from Brazil due to concerns of mad cow disease.
• February 2 - Ontario Minister of Finance Ernie Eves quits to become vice-chair and senior adviser at Credit Suisse First Boston Canada.
• February 3 - Roger Grimes becomes leader of the Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador after winning the second ballot at the party's leadership convention.
• February 5 - Prime Minister Jean Chrétien becomes the first foreign leader to visit the newly elected President of the United States, George W. Bush, in Washington, D.C.

Police fire tear gas at protesters at the Summit of the America's conference in Quebec City.

• February 8 - Lorne Calvert becomes premier of Saskatchewan, replacing Roy Romanow
• February 13 - Roger Grimes becomes premier of Newfoundland, replacing Beaton Tulk
• March 8 - Bernard Landry becomes premier of Quebec, replacing Lucien Bouchard
• March 12 - Alberta election: Ralph Klein's PCs win a ninth consecutive majority

April to June

• April 20 - Summit of the Americas is held in Quebec City to discuss the FTAA; the city, which has been divided by a high fence around much of the downtown core, also hosts the People's Summit and is wracked by the Quebec City protests.
• May 4 - Chrétien's longtime Chief of Staff, Jean Pelletier, is made the head of VIA Rail
• May 16 - British Columbia election: Gordon Campbell's BC Liberals win a landslide victory over Premier Ujjal Dosanjh's NDP.
• May 18 - Conrad Black renounces his Canadian citizenship
• May 23 - Federal Ethics Commissioner releases a report which clears Alfonso Gagliano of any wrongdoing in the sponsorship scandal
• June 5 - Gordon Campbell becomes premier of British Columbia, replacing Ujjal Dosanjh

July to December

• July - Canada becomes the first country in the world to legalize medical marijuana
• July 17 - Infighting in the Canadian Alliance forces out leader Stockwell Day
• August 24 - Conrad Black sells The National Post to Izzy Asper's CanWest
• September 4 - Documentary Channel signs on.
• September 11 - Canada's border with the United States is on high alert in the aftermath of the September 11 Terrorist Attacks in the United States. Canadian government initiates both "Operation Support" and "Operation Yellow Ribbon."
• September 14 - Three days after the September 11 terrorist attacks, while the rest of the world sees the memorial service for the victims at the Washington National Cathedral, Canadians see the similar service on Parliament Hill—the largest single vigil ever seen in the nation's capital.
• October 7 - the 2001 Attack on Afghanistan begins. Canadian fighter pilots and ground troops are involved in the war
• November 17 - Vancouver resident Aaron Webster is killed in what many believe to be a gay bashing attack

Full date unknown

• Chris Hadfield becomes the first Canadian to perform a spacewalk
• CTV purchases The Globe and Mail

Arts and literature

• March 4 - Bruce Cockburn is inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

New literature

• Discipline of Power: Jeffrey Simpson
• Dolce Agonia: Nancy Huston
• Eunoia: Christian Bök
• Life of Pi: Yann Martel
• Shadows: Timothy Findley
• Stanley Park: Timothy Taylor
• The Stone Carvers: Jane Urquhart

Literary awards

• Alistair MacLeod's No Great Mischief wins the lucrative IMPAC Award
• Giller Prize for Canadian Fiction: Richard B. Wright: Clara Callan
• See 2001 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Books in Canada First Novel Award: Michael Redhill, Martin Sloane
• Geoffrey Bilson Award: Sharon McKay, Charlie Wilcox
• Gerald Lampert Award: Anne Simpson, Light Falls Through You
• Griffin Poetry Prize: Anne Carson, Men in the Off Hours
• Marian Engel Award: Elizabeth Hay
• Matt Cohen Prize: Mavis Gallant
• Norma Fleck Award: Gena K. Gorrell, Heart and Soul: The Story of Florence Nightingale
• Pat Lowther Award: Sharon Thesen, A Pair of Scissors
• Stephen Leacock Award: Stuart McLean, Vinyl Café Unplugged
• Trillium Book Award English: Richard B. Wright, Clara Callan
• Trillium Book Award French: Michèle Matteau, Cognac et Porto
• Vicky Metcalf Award: Linda Granfield

New music

• All Killer No Filler: Sum 41
• Back to the Mansion: April Wine
• Pretty Together: Sloan
• Silver Side Up: Nickelback
• Ten New Songs: Leonard Cohen

Film

• Atanarjuat wins the Golden Reel for Best First Feature at Cannes

Television

• Rick Mercer leaves This Hour Has 22 Minutes, replaced by Colin Mochrie
• Kevin Newman anchors Global Television Network's national newscast, Global National, beginning days before 9/11.

Sport

• January 21 - Chris Jericho wins Intercontinental Championship from Chris Benoit.
• January 31 - George N. Gillett Jr. buys 80% of the Montreal Canadiens and 100% of the Molson Centre in Montreal for US$275 million.
• February 3 - Catriona LeMay Doan wins gold in the 500 m and 1000 m speed skating races in Heerenveen, Netherlands.
• May 21 - Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit win World Wrestling Federation (WWF) Tag Team Championship.
• December 9 - Chris Jericho becomes first to unify World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) Championships hence becoming first undisputed Champion.

Births

Deaths

January to March

• January 18 - Al Waxman, actor and director (b.1935)
• January 31 - Gordon R. Dickson, science fiction author (b.1923)
• February 5 - David Iftody, politician (b.1956)
• February 28 - Gildas Molgat, politician (b.1927)
• March 23 - Louis Dudek, poet, literary critic and publisher (b.1918)
• March 23 - David McTaggart, environmentalist (b.1932)

April to June

• April 2 - Charles Daudelin, sculptor and painter (b.1920)
• April 16 - Horace Gwynne, boxer and Olympic gold medalist (b.1913)
• May 5 - Aba Bayefsky, artist and teacher (b.1923)
• June 3 - Maurice Breton, politician and lawyer (b.1909)
• June 7 - Charles Templeton, cartoonist, evangelist, agnostic, politician, newspaper editor, inventor, broadcaster and author (b.1915)
• June 23 - Yvonne Dionne, one of the Dionne quintuplets (b.1934)

July to December

• July 3 - Mordecai Richler, author, screenwriter and essayist (b.1931)
• July 24 - Georges Dor, author, composer, playwright, singer, poet, translator and theatrical producer and director (b.1931)
• August 9 - Kimberly Rogers, Sudbury woman whose suicide while under house arrest for a disputed welfare fraud conviction led to a major scandal and inquest (b. c1961)
• September 18 - Ernie Coombs, children's entertainer Mr. Dressup (b.1927)
• November 19 - Marcelle Ferron, painter and stained glass artist (b.1924)
• November 24 - Donald McPherson, figure skater (b.1945)
• December 14 - Pauline Mills McGibbon, politician and 22nd Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario (b.1910)

Full date unknown

• Jack Harman, sculptor
• Gordon Donaldson, author and journalist (b.1926)