Elisabeth Wallace

The Origin of the Social Welfare State in Canada, 1867-1900 *

The welfare state—as a term of abuse or approval, depending on the point of view—is a phrase which has only recently come into common use, although contrasts between the so-called “negative” and “positive” state have been frequently drawn during the past two decades. The idea that the primary function of government is to make a good life possible, is, however, as old as Aristotle, and political theorists in democratic countries have long been agreed that the state exists for the well-being of its citizens, and not vice versa, although their views of what constitutes the welfare of the people have been markedly divergent. The expansion of government activities, which is conveniently summarized under the term “social welfare state,” in this country as in others is usually considered a twentieth-century phenomenon. Its origins in Canada, however, may be traced to the first thirty years after Confederation, when the proper function of government was a matter of general concern and wide debate. During this early period public opinion as to what the state ought to do for the social well-being of its citizens developed rapidly, and underwent a marked transformation. Present-day critics of the British North America Act are given to pointing out that, as a nineteenth-century document drawn up when laissez-faire theories were at their height, it has become increasingly ill-adapted to further social welfare by state action. Yet contemporary historians have shown that in both Great Britain and the United States, during the past century, the classical doctrine of laissez-faire, interpreted as government abstention from interference with individual or group action, was more honoured in theory than in practice. This contention is supported by illustrations of early factory, mines, public health, and education acts in England, and of such American intervention in economic affairs as tariffs and grants to individual industries. There is much evidence that similar developments took place in Canada, which lends support to similar conclusions concerning the mythical nature of laissez-faire.

Old Age Security in Canada: Changing Attitudes

Old age pensions of

The West on Trial. My Fight for Guyana's Freedom

40 a month became available on January 1, 1952, to every Canadian over seventy years of age, who had lived in the country for twenty years. As Canada has now had pensions for old people (subject to a means test) for only a quarter of a century, the idea is usually thought of as relatively new. In point of fact, however, Canadians were interested in old age security as far back as 1889, when the Royal Commission on the Relations of Labour and Capital mentioned with approval a French scheme to provide annuities for elderly workmen and their widows. The need for government action in the matter has been widely discussed in the Dominion ever since. Great Britains example in this, as in so many other matters, had an important influence. As early as 1773 a bill to provide annuities for “the industrious poor” had been passed by the House of Commons at Westminster, only to be rejected by the Lords. During the eighteen-eighties and nineties British enthusiasm for pensions for the aged revived, largely owing to Charles Booth. His monumental study of the Life and Labour of the People of London showed that some thirty per cent of the population of the metropolis lived in conditions of extreme poverty, because their earnings were not high enough to allow a decent standard of living, much less to make feasible any provision against old age. The government, Booth argued, ought under these circumstances to accept some responsibility for its elderly citizens.