Modern Canada

Treaties such as GATT (the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), which is now the WTO (World Trade Organization), opened up the world's restrictive trade policies of the Depression years.

Canada's modern energy industry began when oil was discovered in Alberta in 1947.

In 1951, most Canadians could afford adequate food, shelter and clothing for the first time.

The federal government introduced unemployment insurance (now called employment insurance) in 1940.

Old Age Security was planned as early as 1927. The Canada and Quebec Pension Plans came in 1965.

The provinces and territories provide publicly funded education.

Canada joined other Western democracies to form NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization), a military alliance. With the United States it formed NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defence Command).

Canada joined the United Nations (UN). It took part in the UN operation to defend South Korea during the Korean War (1950–53), with 500 killed and 1,000 wounded.

Canada has taken part in many UN peacekeeping missions, in places such as Egypt, Cyprus and Haiti, and in other security operations in the former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan.

In the 1960s, Quebec went through a period of fast change called the Quiet Revolution.

In 1963 Parliament set up the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. It led to the Official Languages Act of 1969, which guarantees federal government services in French and English across Canada.

The Quebec sovereignty movement grew stronger, but lost a referendum held in the province in 1980.

In 1982, after long negotiations, the Constitution was amended without Quebec's agreement.

Sovereignty was defeated again in a second referendum in 1995.

In the past, most Canadians of Asian descent could not vote in federal and provincial elections. The last of these groups, Japanese-Canadians, won the right to vote in 1948.

Aboriginal people were given the right to vote in 1960.

Canada took in thousands of people fleeing Communist oppression, including about 37,000 who escaped from Hungary in 1956.

When the Communists won the Vietnam War in 1975, many Vietnamese fled; over 50,000 of them sought refuge in Canada.

In visual art, Canada is perhaps best known for the Group of Seven, a group founded in 1920 who painted the rugged wilderness.

Emily Carr was a painter of the forests and Aboriginal artifacts of the West Coast.

A Canadian, James Naismith, invented basketball in 1891.

In 1980 Terry Fox, from British Columbia, who had lost his right leg to cancer at 18, started the “Marathon of Hope”, a run across Canada to raise money for cancer research.

In 1985 Rick Hansen, also from British Columbia, went around the world in a wheelchair to raise money for spinal cord research.

Canadian astronauts and the Canadian Space Agency have taken part in space exploration since 1989, often using the Canadarm, which was designed and built in Canada.

Alexander Graham Bell came up with the idea of the telephone at his summer home in Canada.

Joseph-Armand Bombardier invented the snowmobile, a light winter vehicle.

Sir Sandford Fleming invented the worldwide system of standard time zones.

Reginald Fessenden helped invent radio and sent the world's first wireless voice message.

Dr. John A. Hopps invented the first cardiac pacemaker, for people with heart disorders.

Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie were part of Research in Motion (RIM), a wireless communications company best known for inventing the BlackBerry.