جدید کینڈا میں، یہ ایک غیر معمولی چیز ہے.

This chapter follows Canada from the end of the Second World War to today. It covers how the country became richer, how it took on a bigger role in the world, how Quebec changed, how society opened up, and the artists, athletes, scientists and inventors that Canadians are proud of. Many test questions here ask you to match a person with what they did, or an event with its year.

Prosperity after the war

• After 1945 Canada enjoyed record growth. Freer trade (GATT, today the World Trade Organization) helped end the closed trade policies of the Depression.
• 1947: oil was discovered in Alberta, the start of the modern energy industry.
• 1951: for the first time, most Canadians could afford enough food, shelter and clothing.
• Social programs grew: Old Age Security was devised as early as 1927; federal unemployment insurance (now Employment Insurance) came in 1940; the Canada and Quebec Pension Plans were created in 1965. The Canada Health Act sets a basic standard of health coverage, and the provinces and territories provide publicly funded education.

Canada in the world

• During the Cold War, Canada helped form NATO, a Western military alliance, and created NORAD with the United States. Canada also joined the United Nations.
• Korean War, 1950–1953: Canada helped defend South Korea; about 500 Canadians were killed and 1,000 wounded.
• Canadians have served in UN peacekeeping in places such as Egypt, Cyprus and Haiti, and in security operations in the former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan.

Canada and Quebec

• The Quiet Revolution of the 1960s rapidly modernized Quebec, and some Quebecers began to seek separation.
• 1963: Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. 1969: the Official Languages Act guaranteed federal services in French and English.
• 1970: Canada helped found La Francophonie.
• 1980 and 1995: two Quebec sovereignty referendums were both defeated.
• 1982: the Constitution was amended without Quebec’s agreement; this is when the Charter of Rights and Freedoms became part of it.

A changing society

• Japanese Canadians were the last Asian Canadians to gain the vote, in 1948. Aboriginal people gained the vote in 1960. Today every citizen 18 or older may vote.
• Canada welcomed about 37,000 Hungarian refugees in 1956 and more than 50,000 Vietnamese refugees after 1975. By the 1960s, about one-third of Canadians were neither British nor French in origin.

Arts, sports and science

Also remember: Wayne Gretzky (Edmonton Oilers, 1979–1988), Donovan Bailey (sprint world record and two golds, 1996), Chantal Petitclerc (wheelchair racing), Catriona Le May Doan (speed skating gold, 2002), Dr. Wilder Penfield (brain surgeon, McGill), Gerhard Herzberg (Nobel Prize winner, refugee from Nazi Germany), and the Grey Cup (Canadian football), donated by Governor General Lord Grey in 1909.

Common mix-ups

• Terry Fox vs Rick Hansen: Fox ran for cancer research and died before finishing; Hansen used a wheelchair for spinal cord research.
• 1969 vs 1982: Official Languages Act vs Constitution and Charter.
• 1980 vs 1995: first and second Quebec referendums; both failed.
• 1948 vs 1960: Japanese Canadians vs Aboriginal people gaining the vote.
• Group of Seven vs Les Automatistes: landscapes from 1920 vs Quebec abstract art in the 1950s.
• Grey Cup vs Stanley Cup: football (Lord Grey) vs hockey (Lord Stanley).
• Light bulb: first invented by Canadians Evans and Woodward, who sold the patent to Edison.