The history of social security in Canada is a 20th-century story with much of the action occurring in the century’s second half, having been kick-started by WWII. But more complete understanding requires that attention is paid to the contributions of the first European settlers in the 17th century; the influence of Confederation in 1867 and the BRITISH NORTH AMERICA ACT; the impact of WWI; the experience of the Great Depression (a time when Americans developed their social security systems, while Canadians appointed a Royal Commission to study relations between the 2 senior levels of government); WWII, the cataclysmic event that emboldened governments to think and plan a social security system for an advanced industrial society, plans for which unfolded, somewhat haphazardly, between 1945 and 1971.