The Actions of Three Great Men and How They Made Canada Stronger

Tommy Douglas is considered to be ‘the greatest Canadian,’ considering that he revolutionized the country because of the healthcare system, welfare benefits, and the bill of rights. Without Tommy's effort towards the benefit of Canada, we would be far from where we are today so much as even the little things he affected and changed created the biggest impact.

Looking at Canada and how it is now as a whole, it is not a likely thought that would come to your head everyday and think, where would this country be today if it wasn't for its leaders that started it. Sir John A MacDonald and Sir Wilfred Laurier were two major leaders that contributed their time to build Canada. As they suffered through many conflicts and challenges that they had to over come. As with MacDonald's dispute with the pacific scandal and bringing along colonies under one government, which lead to confederation. Some include Laurier and the Manitoba Act, along with reciprocity with-in Canada and the United States of America.

During his 40 years of public service, he has impacted Canada quite strongly. He had a significant impact on establishing cultural and social identities for Canada through global relationships. Before becoming Prime Minister, Lester Pearson proposed UN peacekeeping to solve the Suez Crisis. His proposal to create ‘UNEF’ resulted in the de-escalation of the crisis, and substantially, armed forces being withdrawn. Pearson’s actions won him a Nobel Peace Prize in 1957; Canada’s first.

Diefenbakers changes to immigration is why he should be remembered as the Canadian Prime Minister who best defended human rights. Upon becoming the Prime Minister of Canada, John diefenbakers intention was to unify and create equality for all Canadians. "I have one love - Canada; one purpose - Canada's greatness; one aim - Canadian unity from the Atlantic to the Pacific." (George par.1). Canada was Diefenbakers main focus, because John diefenbaker had such a great passion to see Canada unified, this made Diefenbaker a good leader.

Lester B Pearson made a positive lasting impact on Canada. When he changed the way Canada fought wars by going into war with a peacekeeping role. Lester B pearson brought a peace keeping role to Canada. Lester B Pearson compromised the major war in the middle east. The war was between mainly the french Britain and egypt and the soviets. over the suez canal, Egypt wanted the british and french to leave or the soviets would use nuclear action. Lester B Pearson requested that the british and french withdrawal and the united nations would send in a peacekeeping group to control the area until an agreement was made. 2 years later an agreement was finally made and Lester looked to be a hero stopping a possible world war. Lester b Pearson ended up winning the nobel peace prize for stoppin an almost world war. What lester B Pearson did to show that that you can bring peace, is still used today in Canada as a peacekeeping country.

Canada has a history of wars and famous people that its citizens can be proud of. In the past one hundred years there have been events or people that have really made an impact on history. For example D-Day, on the first day Canada made more progress up the beach than any other country, it was a massive victory! A person that Canada can be proud of is Frederick Banting. He created insulin which is a medicine that helps control the effects of diabetes.

Mackenzie King was willing to help the Canadian economy by providing more facilities, such as implementing policies like unemployment insurance in response to industrialization, economic distress, and changing social realities.People who didn’t have jobs before get the opportunity to insure their families future. Welfare state gave free healthcare to those who qualified for it. King gave benefits to the people for their life insuring their securities. For example, “He'd enacted measures such as the old-age pension, unemployment insurance, and family allowances that launched the welfare state”(One Man's Mackenzie King). People who didn’t have jobs before get the opportunity to insure their families future. As welfare provided free healthcare,

William Lyon Mackenzie King was Canada's tenth prime minster from 1935-1948. He’s Canada’s longest serving prime minster and during his time as prime minster, he has made valuable contributions to help improve Canada. He steered Canada through industrialization, some of the Great Depression and the second world war. Although he lost the election to the conservatives in 1930 due to the reason that he was known to be indecisive and unable to deal with the depression; he proved to be more than what was said of him and made his way back to office in 1935. King was an effective leader, keeping his liberal party unified as he condemned Bennett for unfulfilled promises and rising unemployment and deficits. In 1935, he managed to clean up the mess

As time goes on, some countries become more relevant in the global sphere while others start to fade away. Canada is a country that only becomes more relevant as time goes on. Since being granted full sovereignty, Canada has had a growing role as a major world player. Much of their international growth has to do with its close ties to the United States and the United Kingdom. However, the country has also undergone huge change and refocusing on a domestic level. With influence from both Europe and the United States, Canada has a very unique system of governing. This paper will focus on a few major areas of Canada. It will look into the history of Canada, the structure of its government, its politics, and many of the major issues it faces today.

Pierre Trudeau is the greatest Canadian of the twentieth century due to the fact that he declared Canada’s independence from Great Britain, he abolished the death penalty, and he created the Official Languages Act, making our nation entirely bilingual.

Pierre Elliot Trudeau was arguably one of the most vivacious and charismatic Prime Ministers Canada has ever seen. He wore capes, dated celebrities and always wore a red rose boutonniere. He looked like a superhero, and often acted like one too. Some of the landmark occurrences in Canadian history all happened during the Trudeau era, such as patriating the constitution, creating the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the 1980 Quebec Referendum. However, it is Trudeau’s 1969 “white paper” and the Calder legal challenge which many consider to be one of his most influential contributions to Canadian history.

We just weren’t a bunch of wheat farmers and Nova Scotia fishermen and lumbermen in BC. We were a nation. A big and tough and strong nation,” (Pearson 128) Canadians seemed to be more united than ever. However, this was not truly the case for those living within its borders. We live in a country that does not forget nor let go if it’s past.

In 2014 Pierre Elliot Trudeau, the 15th Prime Minister of Canada, was listed in CBC’s Top 10 list of Canadian Heroes; but was Trudeau really a hero? (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/top-10-canadian-heroes-list-includes-pierre-trudeau-jack-layton-1.2676398). Pierre Trudeau, born in Montreal in 1919, started out in politics as a layer in Quebec and as an activist in Quebec politics. In the 1960s Trudeau got involved in federal politics with the Liberal party. In 1968 he became the leader of the party and was elected as Prime Minister of Canada. Trudeau remained in office from 1968-1979 and again from 1980-1984 (http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/pierre-elliott-trudeau/). Trudeau was strong willed, charismatic and had a

If you were asked are you against or for the Canadian Welfare State, what would you answer? Prior to all of the research that I have constructed for this assignment, I had little knowledge about the Canadian Welfare State. There is a lot of criticism and support from those who are against and for the Canadian Welfare State, but what exactly is it? Before coming up with my opinion I had to get to know the Welfare State, its history, and the advantages and disadvantages of it.

This gave Canadians a monthly income that they would pay into during their working career and receive it when they become 65 years old. This also put Canada a step forward in defining itself as the great nation that it is today. The Canada Pension Plan is another example of Lester B. Pearson’s edicts that helped improve the social security programs for all in Canada.