From the postwar boom to today, modern Canada built record prosperity through trade, a web of social programs, and active engagement abroad during the Cold War and in UN peacekeeping. It also became a more open, diverse society while wrestling with Quebec's place in Confederation and producing world-class artists, athletes, scientists, and inventors.
ProsperityTrade and Economic Growth
Postwar Canada enjoyed record prosperity and material progress. Restrictive Depression-era trading policies were opened up by treaties — among them the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), today the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The discovery of oil in Alberta in 1947 launched Canada's modern energy industry. By 1951, for the first time, a majority of Canadians could afford adequate food, shelter and clothing. Canada drew closer to the United States and other partners between 1945 and 1970, enjoying one of the strongest economies among industrialized nations.
Canadians today enjoy one of the world's highest standards of living, sustained by hard work and by trade with other nations, the United States in particular. Toronto's business district is Canada's financial capital, and publicly funded education is provided by the provinces and territories.
On the world stageInternational Engagement
Canada, like Australia, New Zealand and other countries, gained its autonomy by degrees while acquiring the capacity to make significant international contributions. The Cold War began as several liberated countries of eastern Europe fell into a Communist bloc that the Soviet Union controlled under the dictator Josef Stalin.
In response Canada joined the democratic countries of the West in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military alliance; formed the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) in partnership with the United States; and joined international bodies such as the United Nations (UN).
Remember this
- In the Korean War (1950-53) Canada fought in the UN operation defending South Korea, suffering 500 dead and 1,000 wounded.
- Canadian forces have joined UN peacekeeping missions many times over, in places as varied as Egypt, Cyprus and Haiti.
- It also joined other security operations such as those in the former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan.
A lively questionCanada and Quebec
French-Canadian society and culture flourished in the postwar years, and in the 1960s Quebec went through an era of rapid change known as the Quiet Revolution. A separation from Canada was what many Quebecers sought, and the autonomy of Quebec within Canada remains a lively topic today.
Parliament established the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism.
The Official Languages Act guaranteed French and English services in the federal government across Canada.
Canada was a founding member of La Francophonie, the international association of French-speaking countries.
The movement for Quebec sovereignty was defeated in a provincial referendum.
The Constitution was amended without the agreement of Quebec.
Sovereignty was again defeated in a second referendum.
OpennessA Changing Society
Over more than 50 years of changing social values, Canada became a more flexible and open society. Expanding secondary and postsecondary education drew many, and a growing number of women entered the professional workforce.
Voting rights also broadened. Most Canadians of Asian descent had once been denied the vote; the last of them, the Japanese-Canadians, gained it in 1948, and Aboriginal people in 1960. Any citizen over 18 may vote today.
Thousands of refugees from Communist oppression found a welcome in Canada, among them some 37,000 Hungarians who escaped Soviet tyranny in 1956 and, after the Communist victory in the Vietnam War in 1975, over 50,000 Vietnamese. Fuelled by 19th- and 20th-century immigration, multiculturalism gained new impetus: by the 1960s, one-third of Canadians had origins that were neither British nor French, and that diversity enriches Canadians' lives, particularly in our cities.
ArtsArts and Culture in Canada
Canadian artists from all regions reflect and define the culture, achieving greatness at home and abroad. In literature, in both English and French, men and women of letters included Stephen Leacock, Louis Hemon, Sir Charles G.D. Roberts, Pauline Johnson, Emile Nelligan, Robertson Davies, Margaret Laurence and Mordecai Richler, while writers such as Joy Kogawa, Michael Ondaatje and Rohinton Mistry diversified Canada's literary experience. Musicians including Sir Ernest MacMillan and Healey Willan won renown at home and abroad.
In the visual arts, Canada is perhaps best known for the Group of Seven, founded in 1920, whose paintings captured the rugged wilderness. The forests and Aboriginal artifacts of the West Coast were painted by Emily Carr; Quebec's Les Automatistes pioneered modern abstract art in the 1950s, most notably Jean-Paul Riopelle; Louis-Philippe Hebert was a celebrated Quebec sculptor of historical figures; and modern Inuit art — etchings, prints and soapstone sculptures — was pioneered by Kenojuak Ashevak.
Canada has a long performing arts history, with regional theatres and world-renowned companies, and its television has had a popular following. In film, the works of Denys Arcand have won international awards, and other noteworthy filmmakers include Norman Jewison and Atom Egoyan.
SportsSports and Champions
Every province and territory has produced star athletes and Olympic medallists. Basketball was invented by Canadian James Naismith in 1891, and Canadian teams have dominated the world at ice hockey, the national sport. Canadian football, played for the Grey Cup (donated by Governor General Lord Grey in 1909) in the Canadian Football League (CFL), differs in several ways from the American game.
Paul Henderson scored the winning goal in the Canada-Soviet Summit Series, 'the goal heard around the world.'
Wayne Gretzky, one of the greatest hockey players of all time, played for the Edmonton Oilers.
Terry Fox, a British Columbian who at 18 lost his right leg to cancer, set out on his cross-country 'Marathon of Hope' for cancer research.
Rick Hansen, a fellow British Columbian, wheeled around the globe to raise funds for spinal cord research.
Donovan Bailey became a world record sprinter at the Olympic Summer Games.
Catriona Le May Doan won gold in speed skating at the Olympic Winter Games.
Remember this
- Terry Fox did not finish his run and lost his battle with cancer, but his legacy continues through yearly fundraising events in his name.
- Chantal Petitclerc was a double Olympic gold medallist, world champion wheelchair racer and Paralympic gold medallist.
- Mark Tewksbury was an Olympic gold medallist and prominent activist for gay and lesbian Canadians.
InnovationScience, Technology and Invention
Canada's advances in science and technology are renowned worldwide and have changed the way the world communicates and does business. Pioneer thinkers included Marshall McLuhan and Harold Innis, and since 1989 the Canadian Space Agency and Canadian astronauts have joined space exploration, often using the Canadian-designed Canadarm (built by SPAR Aerospace / National Research Council).
Nobel Prize-winning scientists
- Gerhard Herzberg (a refugee from Nazi Germany)
- John Polanyi, Sidney Altman and Richard E. Taylor
- Michael Smith and Bertram Brockhouse
Canadians also gave the world landmark inventions. The idea of the telephone came to Alexander Graham Bell at his summer house in Canada; Sir Sandford Fleming invented worldwide standard time zones; Joseph-Armand Bombardier invented the snowmobile; and Reginald Fessenden helped invent radio, sending the world's first wireless voice message. Matthew Evans and Henry Woodward invented the first electric light bulb, later selling the patent to Thomas Edison.
Medicine and tech
- Sir Frederick Banting of Toronto and Charles Best discovered insulin, a diabetes treatment that has saved 16 million lives worldwide.
- Dr. Wilder Penfield, a pioneering brain surgeon at McGill University, was known as 'the greatest living Canadian.'
- Dr. John A. Hopps invented the first cardiac pacemaker.
- Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie of Research in Motion (RIM) created the BlackBerry.
Going furtherLearning More
Through artifacts, art, stories, images and documents, museums found in almost every city and town explore the events and accomplishments that formed Canada's history. National historic sites in all provinces and territories include battlefields, archaeological sites, buildings and sacred spaces.
To find one, visit the Virtual Museum of Canada and Parks Canada websites. The prosperity and diversity of the country depend on all Canadians working together to face the challenges of the future.
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