2001 in Canada

Crown

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

Federal government

• Governor general – Adrienne Clarkson (viceregal consort – John Ralston Saul)
• Prime minister – Jean Chrétien
• Chief Justice – Beverley McLachlin (British Columbia)
• Parliament – 37th (from January 29)

Provincial governments

Territorial governments

January to March

• January 1 – The Ontario cities of Ottawa, Hamilton and Sudbury 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 The other 10 charges were withdrawn.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.
• 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 18 [Online only media rabble.ca] is founded on April 18, 2001, with well known media critic and feminist activist Judy Rebick as publisher.^[1]
• 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 14 – Video lottery terminal referendum in New Brunswick.
• 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.
• August 24 – René Lévesque Bust unveiled.
• August 28 – The US Governors of New England agree with the Quebec and Atlantic Canadian premiers to the Climate Change Action Plan 2001.
• September 7 - Documentary Channel signs on.
• September 11 – Canada's border with the United States is on high alert in the aftermath of the 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.
• Jean Drapeau Statue unveiled.

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 International Dublin Literary 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: The Fast Runner wins the Golden Reel for Best First Feature at Cannes

Television

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

January to March

• January 18 – Al Waxman, actor and director (born 1935)
• January 31 – Gordon R. Dickson, science fiction author (born 1923)
• February 5 – David Iftody, politician (born 1956)
• February 28 – Gildas Molgat, politician (born 1927)
• March 23
  • Louis Dudek, poet, literary critic and publisher (born 1918)
  • David McTaggart, environmentalist (born 1932)
• March 28 – Moe Koffman, flautist and saxophonist, cancer (born 1928)

April to June

• April 2 – Charles Daudelin, sculptor and painter (born 1920)
• April 16 – Horace Gwynne, boxer and Olympic gold medalist (born 1913)
• May 5 – Aba Bayefsky, artist and teacher (born 1923)
• June – Gordon Donaldson, author and journalist (b.1926)
• June 3 – Maurice Breton, politician and lawyer (born 1909)
• June 7 – Charles Templeton, cartoonist, evangelist, agnostic, politician, newspaper editor, inventor, broadcaster and author (born 1915)
• June 23 – Yvonne Dionne, one of the Dionne quintuplets (born 1934)

July to December

• July 3 – Mordecai Richler, author, screenwriter and essayist (born 1931)
• July 24 – Georges Dor, author, composer, playwright, singer, poet, translator and theatrical producer and director (born 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 (born 1927)
• November 19 – Marcelle Ferron, painter and stained glass artist (born 1924)
• November 24 – Donald McPherson, figure skater (born 1945)
• December 14 – Pauline Mills McGibbon, politician and 22nd Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario (born 1910)

Full date unknown

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