The Canadian Museum of Civilization presents four stories of how this remarkable historical change occurred.

Making Medicare: The History of Health Care in Canada, 1914-2007

Canadian Labour History, 1850-1999

A History of the Vote in Canada

The History of Canada's Public Pensions

Photo: "The Shame of the City – Neglected Children" (Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1910). From F.J. Billiarde, Report on Neglected Children, 1912. Courtesy of the Manitoba Legislative Library

Social progress is the weight of laws designed to alleviate human suffering. Canada, while slow to start passing national legislation in this regard, rapidly addressed its social needs from the 1940s onwards.

Canada continues to be one of the world's leading countries in overall quality of life.*

(*As reported by the United Nations Human Development Index, 2006)

The information presented in the Social Progress Gallery has been developed through partnerships with individual researchers or organizations which have an expertise in the subject at hand. These partners have provided their information from their own particular perspective.