Chapter 4

Modern Canada

How Canada changed after 1945: prosperity, international role, Quebec, the arts, sports and great Canadian inventions.

Trade and economic growth

After the Second World War Canada enjoyed record prosperity. Trade barriers were lowered through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), now the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The discovery of oil in Alberta in 1947 began Canada's modern energy industry.
In 1951, for the first time, most Canadians could afford enough food, shelter and clothing.
From 1945 to 1970 Canada had one of the strongest economies among industrialized countries. Today Canadians enjoy one of the world's highest standards of living.

The federal government introduced unemployment insurance in 1940. It is now called employment insurance.
Old Age Security was first planned in 1927. The Canada and Quebec Pension Plans began in 1965.
The Canada Health Act sets common standards for publicly funded health care.
Provinces and territories provide publicly funded education.

During the Cold War, Canada joined other Western democracies in NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), a military alliance, and joined the United States in NORAD (North American Aerospace Defence Command).
Canada is a member of the United Nations (UN).
Canada fought in the Korean War (1950–53) as part of a UN force defending South Korea; about 500 Canadians died and 1,000 were wounded.
Canada has served in UN peacekeeping missions in Egypt, Cyprus and Haiti, and in other operations in the former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan.

French-Canadian culture flourished after the war. Quebec changed rapidly in the 1960s, a period called the Quiet Revolution.
In 1963 Parliament created the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism.
The Official Languages Act (1969) guarantees French and English services from the federal government across Canada.
In 1970 Canada helped found La Francophonie, an association of French-speaking countries.
Quebec held referendums on sovereignty in 1980 and 1995. Both times, sovereignty was defeated.
In 1982 the Constitution was amended without Quebec's agreement.

More Canadians went to college and university, and more women worked in professional jobs.
Most Canadians of Asian origin were once denied the vote. Japanese Canadians were the last group to gain it, in 1948.
Aboriginal people were granted the vote in 1960. Today every citizen aged 18 or over may vote.
Canada took in about 37,000 Hungarian refugees in 1956 and over 50,000 Vietnamese refugees after the Vietnam War ended in 1975.
By the 1960s, one-third of Canadians had origins that were neither British nor French.

Famous writers include Stephen Leacock, Louis Hémon, Sir Charles G.D. Roberts, Pauline Johnson, Émile Nelligan, Robertson Davies, Margaret Laurence and Mordecai Richler. Joy Kogawa, Michael Ondaatje and Rohinton Mistry added new voices.
Musicians Sir Ernest MacMillan and Healey Willan became known in Canada and abroad.
The Group of Seven, founded in 1920, is Canada's best-known group of painters. They painted the rugged wilderness. Tom Thomson painted 'The Jack Pine'.
Emily Carr painted West Coast forests and Aboriginal artifacts.
Les Automatistes of Quebec pioneered abstract art in the 1950s; Jean-Paul Riopelle is the best known.
Louis-Philippe Hébert was a Quebec sculptor of historical figures. Kenojuak Ashevak pioneered modern Inuit art.
Filmmakers include Denys Arcand, Norman Jewison and Atom Egoyan.

James Naismith, a Canadian, invented basketball in 1891.
Ice hockey is Canada's national winter sport, and Canadian teams have been among the world's best.
Wayne Gretzky, one of the greatest hockey players, played for the Edmonton Oilers from 1979 to 1988.
In 1972 Paul Henderson scored the winning goal in the Canada–Soviet Summit Series: 'the goal heard around the world'.
In 1980 Terry Fox, who lost a leg to cancer at 18, began his Marathon of Hope across Canada to raise money for cancer research. He did not finish and died of cancer; yearly fundraising events in his name continue.
In 1985 Rick Hansen circled the globe in a wheelchair to raise money for spinal cord research.
Donovan Bailey became a world-record sprinter and double Olympic gold medallist in 1996. Chantal Petitclerc is a world champion wheelchair racer and Paralympic gold medallist.
Mark Tewksbury, an Olympic gold medallist, is an activist for gay and lesbian Canadians. Catriona Le May Doan won speed skating gold at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Canadian Football League teams compete for the Grey Cup, donated in 1909 by Lord Grey, then Governor General.

Marshall McLuhan and Harold Innis were pioneering thinkers.
Since 1989 the Canadian Space Agency and Canadian astronauts have taken part in space exploration, often using the Canadarm.
Canadian Nobel Prize winners include Gerhard Herzberg, John Polanyi, Sidney Altman, Richard E. Taylor, Michael Smith and Bertram Brockhouse.
Sir Frederick Banting of Toronto and Charles Best discovered insulin, which has saved about 16 million lives.

Alexander Graham Bell: the telephone, conceived at his summer house in Canada.
Joseph-Armand Bombardier: the snowmobile.
Sir Sandford Fleming: the worldwide system of standard time zones.
Mathew Evans and Henry Woodward: the first electric light bulb. They later sold the patent to Thomas Edison.
Reginald Fessenden: contributed to the invention of radio and sent the world's first wireless voice message.
Dr. Wilder Penfield: a pioneering brain surgeon at McGill University, called 'the greatest living Canadian'.
Dr. John A. Hopps: the first cardiac pacemaker.
SPAR Aerospace and the National Research Council: the Canadarm, a robotic arm used in space.
Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie of Research in Motion: the BlackBerry.

Checked against the official study guide: Discover Canada: Modern Canada. Summarized in our own words.