• Jan. 14, 2009

  • Canada-based Nortel Networks, once one of the biggest telecommunications equipment makers in the world, files for bankruptcy protection.
• March 12, 2009

  • A helicopter ferrying workers to offshore oil platforms plummets into the Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland; 17 passengers are lost.
• March 19, 2009

  • At a meeting in Tromsø, Nor., representatives of the U.S., Canada, Russia, Denmark, and Norway—all signatories of a 1973 treaty that limited polar bear hunting—issue a joint statement that the greatest long-term threat to the survival of polar bears is climate change.
• March 28, 2009

  • Researchers at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto reveal that they have found a sophisticated China-based computer-spying operation that has infiltrated some 1,300 computers in 103 countries; the network seems to be focused on the Dalai Lama, Tibetan exiles, and the governments of countries in South and Southwest Asia.
• June 10, 2009

  • An alliance between bankrupt American automaker Chrysler LLC and Italian carmaker Fiat SpA is officially signed; the new Chrysler Group LLC, headed by Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne, is owned by the United Auto Workers union, Fiat, and the governments of the U.S. and Canada.
• Sept. 10, 2009

  • The carmaker General Motors announces that it plans to sell a majority stake of its European operations, Opel and Vauxhall, to Canadian automobile parts manufacturer Magna International and Magna’s Russian investment partner, Sberbank.
• Oct. 13, 2009

  • In Sweden a Right Livelihood Award is granted to David Suzuki of Canada for his advocacy of socially responsible science and for raising awareness of the peril of global warming.
• Nov. 3, 2009

  • The board of directors of the carmaker General Motors decides not to sell its European divisions Opel and Vauxhall; the sale of the units to Canadian auto supplier Magna had been in the works.
• Nov. 30, 2009

  • Government figures show that Canada’s economy grew at an annualized rate of 0.4 percent in the third fiscal quarter; the country thus joins those that have officially exited recession.
• Dec. 22, 2009

  • Canada’s Supreme Court issues two rulings that loosen the country’s stringent libel laws, setting guidelines for responsible reporting that would not be construed as libel.
• Dec. 30, 2009

  • For the third time in his administration, Stephen Harper prorogues Parliament, shutting it down until March 3, 2010.

2010

• Feb. 12, 2010

  • The XXI Olympic Winter Games officially open in Vancouver, though the opening ceremony is overshadowed by the accidental death earlier in the day of Georgian athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili during a practice run for the luge competition.
• Feb. 14, 2010

  • Alexandre Bilodeau wins the gold medal in men’s moguls; the freestyle skier thus becomes the first Canadian competitor to win a gold medal at an Olympics hosted by Canada.
• Feb. 28, 2010

  • On the final day of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada defeats the U.S. 3–2 in overtime to win the gold medal in men’s ice hockey.
• June 27, 2010

  • Meeting in Toronto, leaders of the Group of 20 countries with industrialized and emerging economies set a timetable for reducing their deficits and stopping debt growth but agree to be careful not to endanger the weak recovery from the global recession.
• July 8, 2010

  • Striking union members at a nickel mining and processing plant in Sudbury, Ont., agree to a new contract though it gives them less than they had sought, ending a strike that began on July 13, 2009.
• Sept. 10, 2010

  • In a complex deal, the telecommunications company Bell Canada takes control of the television network CTV, which includes several cable channels, while the newspaper The Globe and Mail reverts to the control of Woodbridge, the holding company of the Thomson Reuters group.
• Oct. 21, 2010

  • Col. David Russell Williams, a decorated military pilot and former commander of the largest air base in Canada, pleads guilty to two counts of murder and 84 other sexually related crimes, ranging from the stealing of underwear to sadistic sexual attacks; he is given sentences that will keep him in prison for a minimum of 25 years.

2011

• Jan. 25, 2011

  • Ed Stelmach announces his resignation as premier of the province of Alberta; he cites political attacks as the reason.
• March 21, 2011

  • A parliamentary committee announces its finding that the Harper government is in contempt of Parliament for failing to provide sufficiently detailed documentation of the costs for its proposed corporate tax cuts, anticrime program, and plans to purchase to jet fighters.
• March 22, 2011

  • Even though Conservatives have courted support from the NDP with offers of concessions, all three principal opposition parties—the NDP, the Liberals, and the Bloc Québécois—announce that they will not approve the new budget formally proposed this day by the Harper government. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s own refusal to amend the proposal means a likely defeat for the budget in the House of Commons vote and the promise of federal elections.
• March 25, 2011

  • Holding the Harper government in contempt of Parliament, the House of Commons passes a no-confidence vote 156–145 that brings down the government.
• March 26, 2011

  • Gov.-Gen. David Johnston grants Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s request to dissolve Parliament, initiating the campaign for federal elections to be held on May 2.
• April 12, 2011

  • 

    Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton, and Gilles Duceppe—the leaders of the Liberal, the New Democratic, and the Bloc Québécois parties, respectively—meet in a live televised debate held in Ottawa. The format includes a series of six-minute one-on-one showdowns between the leaders as well as periods of free-for-all discussion in which all the leaders participate. Excluded from the debate, Green Party leader Elizabeth May responds to it in real time in a special Internet broadcast sponsored by The Vancouver Sun.