Canada’s changing welfare state

Abstract

In the construction of a modern welfare state system in Canada, the Report on Social Security for Canada prepared by Leonard C. Marsh in 1943 was a landmark.1 But, historically, Canada’s social policy began to evolve following the British North American Act of 1867 which gave provinces authority over social affairs. The two world wars gave the needed impetus to the federal government to pay attention to the problems of those who were injured during the wars, while between the wars, in 1927, Canada enacted the Federal Old Age Pension Act.