2005 in Canada

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Elizabeth II

  Federal government

• Governor General – Adrienne Clarkson then Michaëlle Jean
• Prime Minister – Paul Martin
• Chief Justice – Beverley McLachlin
• Parliament – 38th

  Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Alberta – Lois Hole then Norman Kwong
• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Iona Campagnolo
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – John Harvard
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Herménégilde Chiasson
• Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador – Edward Roberts
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Myra Freeman
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – James Bartleman
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Léonce Bernard
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Lise Thibault
• Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan – Lynda Haverstock

  Premiers

• Premier of Alberta – Ralph Klein
• Premier of British Columbia – Gordon Campbell
• Premier of Manitoba – Gary Doer
• Premier of New Brunswick – Bernard Lord
• Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador – Danny Williams
• Premier of Nova Scotia – John Hamm
• Premier of Ontario – Dalton McGuinty
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – Pat Binns
• Premier of Quebec – Jean Charest
• Premier of Saskatchewan – Lorne Calvert

  Territorial governments

Commissioners

• Commissioner of Yukon – Jack Cable then Geraldine Van Bibber
• Commissioner of Northwest Territories – Glenna Hansen then Tony Whitford
• Commissioner of Nunavut – Peter Irniq then Ann Meekitjuk Hanson

  Premiers

• Premier of the Northwest Territories – Joe Handley
• Premier of Nunavut – Paul Okalik
• Premier of Yukon – Dennis Fentie

  Events

January

• January 7 – Minister of Health Ujjal Dosanjh arrives in Sri Lanka to survey the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami damage.
• January 8 – Disaster Assistance Response Team arrives in Sri Lanka to provide fresh water, tents, food and medical assistance to victims of the 2004 tsunami disaster.
• January 10 – The Canadian government increases its monetary contribution in the Humanitarian response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami to $425 million.
• January 14 – Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Judy Sgro resigns from her cabinet post as she is being investigated for illegal immigration practices.
• January 16 – Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin begins a nine-day trip to Asia in Indonesia surveying the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami damage. Martin also travelled to Sri Lanka, India, Japan and China.
• January 20 – Norman Kwong is appointed the new Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, following the death in office of Lois Hole.

  February

• February – Canada introduces the Civil Marriage Act, making Canada the fourth country to sanction same-sex marriage.
• February 1 – Ontario Progressive Conservative Party member Ernie Eves resigns from the Ontario legislature.
• February 2 – Harjit Singh is deported to India.
• February 6 – A group of Ontarians file a class action lawsuit against Agropur Cooperative after they became sick from chocolate milk tainted by a cleaning chemical.
• February 8 – Controversial Toronto police chief Julian Fantino is appointed Ontario's new commissioner of emergency management.
• February 8 – Edmonton police chief Fred Rayner is fired after news of a police sting targeting a journalist and the chair of the city's police board comes to light.
• February 10 – Wal-Mart says it will close one of its stores in Jonquière, Quebec, just as its 200 workers are about to win the first-ever union contract from the world's largest retailer.
• February 14 – The Canadian government signs a multibillion-dollar deal with Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia for offshore natural resource revenues.
• February 18 – Quebec Premier Jean Charest shuffles his cabinet to improve his party's popularity.
• February 22 – Canada rejects a proposed missile defence plan with the United States.
• February 23 – The 2005 Canadian budget is presented.
• February 25 – The Anglican Church of Canada is asked to voluntarily withdraw for the time being from the Anglican Consultative Council on account of the blessing of same-sex unions at six parishes in the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster.

  March

• March 1 – Frank McKenna becomes the new Canadian Ambassador to the United States.
• March 3 – Four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers – Peter Schiemann, Lionide Johnston, Anthony Gordon and Brock Myrol – are killed by local James Roszko in a drug raid on his farm in Mayerthorpe, Alberta.
• March 8 – Grant DePatie, a gas station worker in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, is dragged to death for seven kilometers under a moving van after chasing after a 16-year-old who had stolen $12 worth of gas. Later, a new law called "Grant's Law", requires citizens in British Columbia to pay before they pump, becoming the first province in Canada to enforce this law.
• March 11 – 2004 Canadian sponsorship scandal: The Canadian government launches a $39 million lawsuit against Lafleur Communication Marketing, GroupAction, Groupe Everest and Le Groupe Polygone.
• March 11 – Without warning, Jetsgo immediately ceases all operations.
• March 16 – Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri are found not guilty by the Supreme Court of British Columbia at the Air India Trial.
• March 23 – The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America was launched by Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada, Vicente Fox, President of Mexico, and George W. Bush, President of the United States in Waco, Texas with a view to deepening the North American Free Trade Agreement following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the U.S.
• March 24 – Paul Martin arranges the appointment of Roméo Dallaire, Art Eggleton, Lillian Dyck, Jim Cowan, Elaine McCoy, Grant Mitchell, Robert Peterson, Nancy Ruth and Claudette Tardif to the Senate of Canada.

  April

• April 1 – Thompson Rivers University is born from the merger of University College of the Cariboo and British Columbia Open University.
• April 12 – Kelly Ellard is found guilty of second degree murder in the 1997 murder of Reena Virk.
• April 13 – Neo-Nazi leader Wolfgang Droege, leader of the Heritage Front, is found shot dead in his apartment.
• April 21 – Prime Minister Paul Martin and the leaders of the opposition address the nation separately on television on the subject of the sponsorship scandal and the possibility of a general election being called this spring.
• April 26 – The Liberal Party of Canada and the New Democratic Party announce that they have come to an agreement in principle on the 2005 Canadian budget. This agreement is a move by the Liberals to avoid a vote of no confidence in the House of Commons, which would cause a general election to be called.
• April 29 – Sean Eagan dies from a heart condition while climbing Mount Everest.

  May

• May – The Council on Foreign Relations releases the Report of an Independent Task Force on North America entitled Building A North American Community which elaborates on the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America agreed in Waco, Texas on March 23, 2005, by Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox to produce a North American Union merging Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. The Report airs the same month that the "First North-American Model Parliament" is launched in the Senate of Canada by the [North American Forum on Integration based in Montreal.
• May 1 – Canada imposes a 15% surtax sanction on U.S. imports of cigarettes, oysters and live swine, after the Byrd Amendment was found to be illegal by the World Trade Organization.
• May 5 – A Canadian Forces Maritime Command board of inquiry finds no one accountable for the fatal fire aboard HMCS Chicoutimi.
• May 10 – The House passes a motion, which the opposition says should topple the government. The governing Liberals refuse to resign following this by claiming that this is a procedural matter and not a vote of no confidence.
• May 13 – Jetsgo declares bankruptcy.
• May 17 – Belinda Stronach who ran for the leadership of the Conservative Party crosses the floor to the Liberal Party and becomes Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development.
• May 17 – Queen Elizabeth II arrives in Canada for a nine-day visit to celebrate the centennial of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
• May 17 – British Columbia general election and electoral reform referendum.
• May 19 – In the House of Commons, Paul Martin's minority government survives two confidence votes. For the first time in Canadian history, the Speaker of the House votes to break a tie in a confidence vote, which the government wins 153 to 152.
• May 20 – Six oil workers die and another two dozen are injured in Alberta when their bus is T-boned by a tractor-trailer.
• May 23 – The four Canadian soldiers killed in the Tarnak Farm incident by United States Air Force fighter pilot Major Harry Schmidt on April 18, 2002, are posthumously remembered at a ceremony in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, along with three Americans, whose names were added to a memorial wall.
• May 24 – Todd Russell of the Liberal Party wins a federal by-election held in Labrador to replace the late Lawrence D. O'Brien.
• May 26 – the National Assembly of Quebec passes a motion to prevent the use of Islamic courts in Quebec.
• May 27–30 – Triumvirate, the "First North-American Model Parliament", being a simulation of a North American parliament, is launched in the Canadian Senate in Ottawa by the North American Forum on Integration, at the invitation of Liberal Senator Céline Hervieux-Payette.
• May 31 – Miss Universe Canada Natalie Glebova became Miss Universe in Bangkok.