Canadian citizenship test · Discover Canada chapter 4 · 5 min read

Postwar trade and prosperity, social programs, NATO, NORAD and peacekeeping, the Quiet Revolution and Quebec referendums, the vote for all citizens, and Canadian arts, sports, science and inventions. Study notes for the Canadian citizenship test.

Why this chapter matters

This section covers Canada after 1945. It mixes dates (1947, 1965, 1969, 1980, 1982, 1995) with famous names in the arts, sport and science. Inventor and athlete questions are common and easy marks if you have read the lists.

Trade and economic growth

• After the war, trade barriers came down under agreements such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which became the World Trade Organization (WTO).
• Canada's modern energy industry began with the discovery of oil in Alberta in 1947.
• By 1951, for the first time, most Canadians could afford adequate food, shelter and clothing.
• Social programs grew with prosperity: Old Age Security (devised as early as 1927), unemployment insurance (1940, now called employment insurance), and the Canada and Quebec Pension Plans (1965). The Canada Health Act sets a basic standard of health coverage. Provinces and territories provide publicly funded education.

International engagement

• In the Cold War, Canada joined Western democracies in NATO, a military alliance, and partnered with the United States in NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defence Command.
• Canada joined the United Nations and fought in the Korean War (1950-53), where 500 Canadians died and 1,000 were wounded.
• Canada has served in many UN peacekeeping missions, in places such as Egypt, Cyprus and Haiti, and in other operations in the former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan.

Canada and Quebec

• In the 1960s Quebec went through rapid change known as the Quiet Revolution.
• In 1963 Parliament set up the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, which led to the Official Languages Act (1969), guaranteeing French and English services in the federal government.
• In 1970 Canada helped found La Francophonie, an association of French-speaking countries.
• Quebec voters rejected sovereignty in referendums in 1980 and 1995. In 1982 the Constitution was amended without Quebec's agreement.

A changing society

• More Canadians went on to higher education, and more women joined the professional workforce.
• 1948: Japanese Canadians, the last Canadians of Asian descent denied the vote, gained it. 1960: Aboriginal people gained the vote. Today every citizen over 18 may vote.
• Canada took in about 37,000 Hungarian refugees in 1956 and more than 50,000 Vietnamese after 1975.
• By the 1960s a third of Canadians had roots that were neither British nor French.

Arts and culture

• Writers: Stephen Leacock, Louis Hemon, Pauline Johnson, Emile Nelligan, Robertson Davies, Margaret Laurence, Mordecai Richler, Joy Kogawa, Michael Ondaatje and Rohinton Mistry.
• Visual arts: the Group of Seven (founded 1920) painted rugged wilderness landscapes; Emily Carr painted West Coast forests and Aboriginal artifacts; Les Automatistes of Quebec, notably Jean-Paul Riopelle, pioneered abstract art in the 1950s; Kenojuak Ashevak pioneered modern Inuit art.
• Film: Denys Arcand, Norman Jewison and Atom Egoyan.

Sports

• James Naismith invented basketball in 1891.
• Donovan Bailey set a sprint world record and won two Olympic golds in 1996; Chantal Petitclerc became a world champion wheelchair racer and Paralympic gold medallist; Wayne Gretzky played for the Edmonton Oilers from 1979 to 1988.
• Terry Fox, who lost a leg to cancer, began the Marathon of Hope across Canada in 1980 to raise money for cancer research. In 1985 Rick Hansen wheeled around the world for spinal cord research.
• Paul Henderson scored the winning goal of the 1972 Canada-Soviet Summit Series.

Discoveries and inventions

Nobel Prize-winning scientists named in the guide include Bertram Brockhouse, Michael Smith, Richard E. Taylor, Sidney Altman, John Polanyi and Gerhard Herzberg. Marshall McLuhan and Harold Innis were pioneer thinkers.

Check yourself

1. What began Canada's modern energy industry, and when?
2. Which two alliances did Canada join with Western partners during the Cold War?
3. What did the Official Languages Act of 1969 guarantee?
4. In what year did Aboriginal people gain the vote?
5. What did Joseph-Armand Bombardier invent?