History of Canada

🪶c. 24,000 years ago (debated)Bluefish Caves, YukonIndigenous

Bluefish Caves and the debate over the first arrivals

Bluefish Caves in northern Yukon, excavated between 1977 and 1987, hold animal bones that some researchers say were cut by human tools. A 2017 study dated cut-marked bones to as early as 24,000 calibrated years before present, which would make the site the oldest known in North America. Other archaeologists argue the marks and dates may reflect natural processes or disturbed layers, so the claim remains debated.

💡 Fun fact

🪶More than 11,000 years agoDebert, Nova ScotiaIndigenous

Palaeo-Indian hunters camp at Debert

At Debert, in present-day Nova Scotia, archaeologists found tools left by Palaeo-Indian people more than 11,000 years ago, the oldest dated Palaeo-Indian site in Canada. The area lies within Mi'kma'ki, the homeland of the Mi'kmaq, who have lived in the region since time immemorial. The Mi'kmaq have been partners in protecting the site.

🪶c. 10,700 years agoKilgii Gwaay, Gwaii Haanas, Haida GwaiiIndigenous

Ancestral Haida camp at Kilgii Gwaay

Kilgii Gwaay, a waterlogged site now in the intertidal zone of southern Haida Gwaii, preserves wood, bone and stone tools from a camp used about 10,700 years ago. Archaeologists describe it as the work of ancestral Haida people skilled at using both sea and land resources. The site lies within Gwaii Haanas, which the Haida Nation and the Government of Canada manage co-operatively.

🪶c. 7,700 years agoL'Anse Amour, LabradorIndigenous

A burial mound at L'Anse Amour

On the Strait of Belle Isle in southern Labrador, Maritime Archaic people buried a young person under a low mound of boulders about 7,700 years ago, according to Parks Canada. It is described as the oldest known First Nations funerary monument in North America. The site was excavated in 1974 and later restored.

🪶c. 5,800 years ago to 1850Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, AlbertaIndigenous

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump comes into use

For about 5,800 years, Plains peoples drove bison over a sandstone cliff in what is now southern Alberta, a hunting method that required careful co-operation and knowledge of the land. Layers of bison bone beneath the cliff represent nearly 6,000 years of use, which ended around 1850. Its use remains part of the traditional knowledge of Plains nations, and the site is a national historic site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

🪶Late 1000sBaffin Island, NunavutIndigenous

Thule ancestors of the Inuit reach the eastern Arctic

A migration from Alaska brought the Thule people, the ancestors of today's Inuit, into the eastern Arctic around the end of the 11th century. Earlier Arctic peoples known to archaeologists as Pre-Dorset and Dorset, and remembered in Inuit tradition as Tuniit, had lived in the region for thousands of years before them.

🪶Before European contact (date unknown)Haudenosaunee homelands, south of Lake OntarioIndigenous

The Haudenosaunee unite under the Great Law of Peace

The Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca nations formed the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, guided by the Peacemaker and Aionwatha (Hiawatha), under a constitution known as the Great Law of Peace. The Confederacy says the exact date is unknown and places it in time immemorial; scholars' estimates vary widely.

🧭June 24, 1497Atlantic coast (landfall site debated)Exploration

John Cabot reaches North America for England

Giovanni Caboto, an Italian navigator sailing from Bristol for King Henry VII, made landfall on June 24, 1497. The exact place is uncertain; historians have argued for Newfoundland, Cape Breton and other sites. His voyage gave England a claim in the region and drew attention to the rich fishery off Newfoundland.

🧭July 24, 1534Gaspé, QuebecExploration

Jacques Cartier raises a cross at Gaspé

On his first voyage for France, Jacques Cartier met Iroquoians from Stadacona who had come to fish at Gaspé, and on July 24, 1534, he raised a nine-metre cross bearing the arms of France. Their leader, Donnacona, objected, and Cartier took two of Donnacona's sons to France. On his second voyage in 1535, Cartier travelled up the St. Lawrence to Stadacona (Quebec) and Hochelaga (Montreal).

🏘️1605Port-Royal, Nova ScotiaSettlement

French settlers build the Habitation at Port-Royal

French colonists, including Samuel de Champlain, built the Habitation at Port-Royal on the Annapolis Basin in 1605, one of the earliest European settlements in North America. The settlement depended on friendly relations with the Mi'kmaq. Port-Royal became the heart of the French colony of Acadia.

🏘️1608Quebec CitySettlement

Champlain founds Quebec

Samuel de Champlain established a trading post at Quebec in 1608, which became the capital of New France. The colony's fur trade relied on alliances with the Wendat (Huron), Innu (Montagnais) and Algonquin nations, and Champlain joined their wars against the Haudenosaunee from 1609. French missionaries and traders soon travelled deep into the interior.

🏘️1663–1673Quebec CitySettlement

The filles du roi arrive in New France

Between 1663 and 1673, about 800 young women known as the filles du roi (King's Daughters) emigrated to New France with their passage paid by the Crown, to marry and start families in a colony where men greatly outnumbered women. Most married soon after arriving.

💰May 2, 1670Hudson BayEconomy

The Hudson's Bay Company receives its charter

King Charles II granted a charter to the Hudson's Bay Company, giving it a trading monopoly over all lands draining into Hudson Bay, a territory named Rupert's Land after the King's cousin, Prince Rupert. For 200 years the company traded with Indigenous nations through posts on the bay. The land was home to many Indigenous peoples who were not consulted about the grant.

⚖️1725–1779Halifax, Nova ScotiaRights

Peace and Friendship Treaties in the Maritimes

Between 1725 and 1779, Britain signed a series of Peace and Friendship Treaties with the Mi'kmaq, Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) and Passamaquoddy peoples, including treaties in 1752 and 1760–61. Unlike later treaties, they did not involve the surrender of land, and they included promises such as rights to hunt and fish. The Supreme Court of Canada has recognized them as treaties that continue to have legal force.

⚖️June 21, 1734MontrealRights

Marie-Joseph-Angélique is executed in Montreal

Marie-Joseph-Angélique, an enslaved Black woman, was accused of setting a fire on the night of April 10–11, 1734, that spread through part of Montreal; she was convicted and hanged on June 21, 1734. Her case is one of the best-documented records of slavery in New France. Parks Canada estimates that more than 4,000 people of African descent were enslaved in the French and British colonies that became Canada, between about 1629 and 1834; Indigenous people were enslaved as well.

⚖️ Established fact

⚖️1755–1763Grand-Pré, Nova ScotiaRights

The deportation of the Acadians begins

On July 28, 1755, British colonial authorities in Nova Scotia decided to deport the French-speaking Acadians, who had refused an unconditional oath of allegiance. Over the following years thousands were forced from their homes at Grand-Pré and elsewhere and scattered to other British colonies, England and France; many thousands died from disease, in shipwrecks and in exile. Acadians call this the Grand Dérangement, or Great Upheaval.

⚖️ Officially acknowledged

⚖️October 7, 1763Issued in London; applied across British North AmericaRights

The Royal Proclamation of 1763

King George III issued a proclamation organizing Britain's newly acquired territories and reserving lands west of the colonies for Indigenous nations as hunting grounds. Only the Crown could acquire Indigenous land, and only by agreement at a public meeting. The Proclamation became a foundation for later treaty-making and is named in section 25 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

🏛️1774Quebec CityGovernment

The Quebec Act

The British Parliament's Quebec Act set up a new government for the colony of Quebec with an appointed governor and council but no elected assembly. It restored French civil law, recognized the seigneurial system and allowed the free practice of the Roman Catholic faith.

🏘️1783–1784Saint John, New BrunswickSettlement

Loyalists and Six Nations allies resettle after the American Revolution

After the American Revolution, tens of thousands of Loyalists moved north; on May 10, 1783, a fleet carrying more than 2,000 arrived at the mouth of the Saint John River. In 1784, Haudenosaunee allies of the Crown led by Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant) received a large tract along the Grand River in present-day Ontario. The arrivals led to the creation of New Brunswick in 1784 and, later, Upper Canada.

🏛️1791Quebec CityGovernment

Quebec is divided into Upper and Lower Canada

The Constitutional Act divided the Province of Quebec into Upper Canada (now southern Ontario), with English common law and freehold land, and Lower Canada (now southern Quebec), which kept French civil law and the seigneurial system. Each colony received an elected assembly alongside appointed councils. Real power stayed with the governors and their appointed advisers.

⚖️March–July 1793Queenston, OntarioRights

Chloe Cooley's resistance and the Act to Limit Slavery

In March 1793, Chloe Cooley, an enslaved Black woman in Queenston, was forcibly taken across the Niagara River and sold in the United States; she resisted. Testimony about the incident prompted Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe to support a 1793 law that barred bringing enslaved people into Upper Canada. The Act freed no one already enslaved, but children born to enslaved mothers after it passed were to be freed at age 25.

🧭1793Dean Channel, British ColumbiaExploration

Alexander Mackenzie crosses the continent to the Pacific

Fur trader Alexander Mackenzie of the North West Company left Fort Fork on the Peace River on May 9, 1793, and, guided by Indigenous people along the route, reached the Pacific coast that July. He was the first European known to cross North America north of Mexico. His journey helped open the western fur trade.

⚔️1812–1815Queenston Heights, OntarioWar

The War of 1812

The United States declared war on Britain in June 1812 and invaded the Canadas. British regulars, Canadian militia and thousands of First Nations warriors fought at Detroit, Queenston Heights, Châteauguay and other battles; Major-General Isaac Brock died at Queenston Heights on October 13, 1812, and the Shawnee leader Tecumseh at Moraviantown on October 5, 1813. The Treaty of Ghent ended the war in February 1815 with prewar borders but left Britain's Indigenous allies exposed to American expansion.

🏘️1812–1816Seven Oaks, WinnipegSettlement

The Red River Colony and the clash at Seven Oaks

The Earl of Selkirk founded a farming colony at the forks of the Red and Assiniboine rivers in 1812, on land granted by the Hudson's Bay Company. The colony disrupted the North West Company's pemmican trade and the Métis who supplied it. On June 19, 1816, Métis led by Cuthbert Grant clashed with colonists at Seven Oaks, and about 20 of Governor Robert Semple's party, including Semple, and one of Grant's men were killed.

⚖️August 1, 1834Halifax, Nova ScotiaRights

Slavery is abolished across the British Empire

The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 took effect on August 1, 1834, ending slavery in the British colonies, including those that became Canada. At first it freed only children under six; others were required to serve their former owners as apprentices for four to six more years. People of African descent marked the anniversary with Emancipation Day celebrations, and in 2021 the House of Commons voted unanimously to recognize August 1 as Emancipation Day.

⚔️1837–1838Saint-Denis-sur-Richelieu, QuebecWar

Rebellions in Lower and Upper Canada

Frustrated by the power of appointed councils, Patriotes in Lower Canada, associated with Louis-Joseph Papineau, and reformers in Upper Canada led by William Lyon Mackenzie took up arms in 1837. Government forces defeated the Patriotes in battles along the Richelieu River and at Saint-Charles, and Mackenzie's supporters were dispersed near Montgomery's Tavern north of Toronto. Further uprisings in 1838 also failed.

🏛️1839–1841Kingston, Ontario (first capital of the Province of Canada)Government

The Durham Report and the Act of Union

Lord Durham, sent to investigate the rebellions, presented a report in early 1839 recommending that the two Canadas be united and given responsible government; he also proposed assimilating French Canadians. The Union Act took effect on February 10, 1841, creating the Province of Canada with a single legislature.

🔥1847Grosse Île, QuebecDisaster

Famine migrants and epidemic at Grosse Île

Grosse Île, a quarantine station in the St. Lawrence below Quebec City, received large numbers of Irish immigrants in 1847, a year of mass emigration from Ireland. Many died there during an epidemic that year. The island is now a national historic site with an Irish memorial.

🏛️1848Halifax, Nova ScotiaGovernment

Responsible government is won

In early 1848, Nova Scotia became the first colony in the British Empire to gain responsible government, meaning the cabinet had to keep the confidence of the elected assembly; Joseph Howe was a leading advocate. The Province of Canada followed weeks later under Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine, after the British government instructed Governor General Lord Elgin to choose his council from the majority party.

⚖️To 1861North Buxton, OntarioRights

The Underground Railroad and the Buxton settlement

Through a secret network known as the Underground Railroad, people escaping slavery in the United States reached the British colonies; by 1861, some 30,000 freedom-seekers lived in what is now Ontario. In 1849, Reverend William King and 15 formerly enslaved people founded the Elgin (Buxton) settlement near Chatham.

⚖️1850–1854Victoria, British ColumbiaRights

The Robinson and Douglas treaties

In 1850, William Robinson negotiated two treaties with Anishinaabe (Ojibwa) nations on the upper Great Lakes, which set aside reserves and paid annuities while preserving hunting and fishing rights on unoccupied lands. That same year, James Douglas began negotiating the first of 14 treaties with First Nations on Vancouver Island, concluded by 1854. Elsewhere in British Columbia, almost no treaties were made, leaving land questions that are still being negotiated.

💰1858Fort Langley, British ColumbiaEconomy

The Fraser River gold rush and the Colony of British Columbia

The discovery of gold on the Fraser River in 1858 drew about 30,000 miners, many from California, into the territories of First Nations along the river. Fearing an American takeover, Britain created the Colony of British Columbia, proclaimed by Governor James Douglas at Fort Langley on November 19, 1858. The mainland colony merged with Vancouver Island in 1866.

🏛️September–October 1864Charlottetown, Prince Edward IslandGovernment

The Charlottetown and Quebec conferences

Delegates from the Maritime colonies met at Charlottetown in September 1864 to discuss Maritime union and were joined by leaders from the Province of Canada proposing a wider federation. At Quebec that October, they drafted the 72 Resolutions that became the basis of the British North America Act. Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland chose not to join at first.

⚖️1869–1870Upper Fort Garry, WinnipegRights

The Red River Resistance and the Manitoba Act

When the Hudson's Bay Company agreed to transfer Rupert's Land to Canada without consulting its residents, Métis at Red River led by Louis Riel blocked the transfer in 1869 and formed a provisional government. Its List of Rights became the basis for negotiations with Ottawa and for the Manitoba Act of 1870, which created the province of Manitoba with protections for French and English, Catholic and Protestant schools, and Métis land. The provisional government's execution of Thomas Scott in March 1870 inflamed opinion in Ontario, and Canadian troops arrived at Red River in August 1870.

🏛️1871 and 1873Victoria, British ColumbiaGovernment

British Columbia and Prince Edward Island join

British Columbia entered Confederation on July 20, 1871, on terms that included a railway to the Pacific, finally completed in 1885. Prince Edward Island joined in 1873 as the seventh province. The country now stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

🏛️1873Cypress Hills, SaskatchewanGovernment

The Cypress Hills Massacre and the North-West Mounted Police

Parliament passed an act on May 23, 1873, allowing the creation of the North-West Mounted Police. On June 1, 1873, American wolf hunters and whisky traders attacked a Nakoda (Assiniboine) camp in the Cypress Hills and killed many people. The attack hastened the force's organization, and its first members marched west in 1874; the attackers were never convicted.

🏛️1876OttawaGovernment

The Indian Act is passed

Parliament consolidated earlier laws into the Indian Act of 1876, which defined who the government considered an 'Indian', created the system of registered status, and gave federal officials wide control over reserves, band governments and daily life. It included enfranchisement rules that removed status from people who, for example, earned a university degree, and from First Nations women who married non-status men. The Act has been amended many times and remains in force.

⚖️ Established fact

🕊️1884–1951Alert Bay, British ColumbiaFaith

The Indian Act bans the potlatch

An 1884 amendment to the Indian Act made taking part in a potlatch, the gift-giving ceremony central to the governance and culture of Northwest Coast nations, a criminal offence punishable by two to six months in prison; it took effect on April 19, 1884. The ban was later extended to other ceremonies. After a 1921 potlatch at Village Island, 45 Kwakwaka'wakw people were arrested and charged, and ceremonial regalia were confiscated.

⚖️ Established fact

⚖️1885–1923Victoria, British ColumbiaRights

The Chinese head tax

After about 15,000 Chinese workers helped build the Canadian Pacific Railway, the Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 imposed a $50 tax on Chinese people entering Canada. The tax rose to $100 in 1900 and $500 in 1903, about two years' wages. An estimated 80,000 people paid it before it was replaced by near-total exclusion in 1923.

⚖️ Officially acknowledged

⚔️March–November 1885Batoche, SaskatchewanWar

The North-West Resistance

Métis on the South Saskatchewan, joined by some Cree and Assiniboine, took up arms in 1885 after years of unanswered petitions about land and rights, with Louis Riel returning to lead them. Fighting included Duck Lake, Frog Lake, Cut Knife Hill and Batoche, where Canadian troops defeated the Métis in May. Riel was convicted of high treason and hanged in Regina on November 16, 1885; Cree leaders Pītikwahanapiwīyin (Poundmaker) and Mistahimaskwa (Big Bear) were imprisoned for treason-felony.

⚖️ Officially acknowledged

⚖️1885 to the 1940sBattleford, SaskatchewanRights

The pass system confines First Nations to reserves

After the 1885 resistance, the Department of Indian Affairs introduced a pass system on the Prairies: First Nations people needed written permission from an Indian agent to leave their reserves. It restricted travel for work, trade, ceremonies and family visits. The policy was enforced in places until the 1940s.

⚖️ Established fact

🚂November 7, 1885Craigellachie, British ColumbiaTransport

The last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway

Company director Donald Smith drove the ceremonial last spike at Craigellachie, British Columbia, on November 7, 1885, completing the transcontinental line promised to British Columbia. Thousands of Chinese labourers did much of the most dangerous construction in the mountains, and hundreds died. The railway opened the Prairies to large-scale settlement.

🏒1891Springfield, MassachusettsSport

James Naismith invents basketball

James Naismith, raised near Almonte, Ontario, invented basketball in 1891 while teaching at a YMCA training school in Springfield, Massachusetts. He wrote its first rules and used peach baskets as goals. He later directed physical education at the University of Kansas.

💰August 16, 1896Bonanza Creek, YukonEconomy

Gold on Bonanza Creek sets off the Klondike rush

Gold was found on Bonanza Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River, on August 16, 1896; Parks Canada says it is generally held that Keish (Skookum Jim Mason) of the Tagish First Nation made the discovery, with Dawson Charlie, Kate Carmack and George Carmack. Tens of thousands of prospectors headed north, and Dawson City grew almost overnight. The rush led Ottawa to create the Yukon Territory in 1898.

🏛️September 1, 1905Regina, SaskatchewanGovernment

Alberta and Saskatchewan become provinces

The Alberta Act and the Saskatchewan Act created two new provinces from the North-West Territories on September 1, 1905, with Alexander Rutherford as Alberta's first premier. Settlers were arriving rapidly on the Prairies.

⚖️May 23 – July 23, 1914VancouverRights

The Komagata Maru is turned away at Vancouver

The steamship Komagata Maru arrived in Burrard Inlet on May 23, 1914, carrying 376 passengers of Sikh, Muslim and Hindu origin. Under immigration rules designed to keep out South Asians, nearly all were refused entry, and the ship was held in the harbour for two months. It was escorted out on July 23 and forced to return to India, where 19 passengers were killed in a clash with British forces.

⚖️ Officially acknowledged

⚖️1914–1920Cave and Basin, Banff, AlbertaRights

First World War internment of 'enemy aliens'

Between 1914 and 1920, the federal government interned 8,579 people as 'enemy aliens' in camps across the country, most of them civilian immigrants from countries at war with Britain. Many were Ukrainians from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Others were required to register and report to authorities.

⚖️ Officially acknowledged

⚔️April 22–25, 1915Ypres, BelgiumWar

Canadians face poison gas at Ypres

On April 22, 1915, German forces released chlorine gas near Ypres, Belgium, the first large-scale lethal gas attack of the war. The 1st Canadian Division held its line beside the gap left by retreating French colonial troops and faced a second gas attack on April 24. About 6,000 Canadians were killed, wounded or captured.

⚖️1916–1918WinnipegRights

Women win the vote

In January 1916, Manitoba became the first province to give women the right to vote and run in provincial elections, followed by Saskatchewan and Alberta. The Wartime Elections Act of 1917 gave the federal vote to some women with relatives in the forces, and in 1918 women gained the same federal voting rights as men. Other barriers, including some based on race and ethnicity, kept certain women and men from voting for decades longer.

⚔️April 9–12, 1917Vimy Ridge, FranceWar

The Battle of Vimy Ridge

On Easter Monday, April 9, 1917, all four divisions of the Canadian Corps attacked together for the first time and captured Vimy Ridge in northern France, a position earlier Allied attacks had failed to take. About 100,000 Canadians served in the battle, which caused more than 10,600 Canadian casualties, nearly 3,600 of them fatal. The victory became a lasting symbol of Canadian national identity.

🏛️1917–1918Quebec CityGovernment

The conscription crisis

With volunteers falling short, Prime Minister Robert Borden's government passed the Military Service Act in 1917 and won the bitter December 1917 election as a Union government of Conservatives and pro-conscription Liberals. French-speaking Quebec, farmers and many others strongly opposed the draft. Several days of anti-conscription rioting broke out in Quebec City at Easter 1918.

🔥December 6, 1917Halifax, Nova ScotiaDisaster

The Halifax Explosion

On December 6, 1917, the French munitions ship Mont-Blanc collided with the Belgian relief ship Imo in Halifax harbour, caught fire and exploded. The blast all but wiped out the Richmond district in Halifax's North End and much of the Dartmouth shore. The official death toll was 1,963, with about 9,000 injured and 6,000 left homeless.

💡 Fun fact

🔥1918–1920Victoriaville, Quebec (early civilian outbreak)Disaster

The Spanish flu pandemic

A new and deadly form of influenza reached Canada in 1918, carried in part by returning soldiers and wartime travel, and killed about 50,000 people in Canada by 1920, most of them young adults aged 20 to 40. Schools, churches and theatres were closed in many places, and the lack of national co-ordination hampered the response. The pandemic led to the creation of the federal Department of Health in 1919.

💰May 15 – June 26, 1919WinnipegEconomy

The Winnipeg General Strike

About 30,000 union and non-union workers walked off the job in Winnipeg in May 1919 in support of building and metal workers seeking higher wages. On June 21, known as Bloody Saturday, police charged a crowd of protesters and fired into it, killing two men and injuring many others. Strike leaders were arrested and several were jailed, but the strike shaped Canadian labour politics for decades.

🎭1920TorontoCulture

The Group of Seven's first exhibition

A group of Toronto-based landscape painters, including Lawren Harris and J.E.H. MacDonald, first exhibited together as the Group of Seven in 1920. Their bold paintings of the Canadian Shield and northern landscapes drew criticism at first but came to define a national style. The Group was designated a national historic event in 1974.

🔬1921–1923University of TorontoScience

Insulin is discovered in Toronto

In the summer of 1921, Frederick Banting and Charles Best began experiments at the University of Toronto in the laboratory of J.J.R. Macleod, and with biochemist James Collip they produced insulin that could treat diabetes. The first patients were treated in early 1922. Banting and Macleod received the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

⚖️July 1, 1923 – 1947OttawaRights

The Chinese Immigration Act bars Chinese newcomers

A new Chinese Immigration Act came into force on July 1, 1923, Dominion Day, which Chinese Canadians came to call Humiliation Day. It ended the head tax but admitted only narrow categories such as diplomats, merchants and students, and it required Chinese people already in Canada to register. Very few Chinese immigrants were admitted before the Act was repealed in 1947.

⚖️ Officially acknowledged

⚖️October 18, 1929Edmonton, AlbertaRights

The Persons Case

Five Alberta women, Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby and Henrietta Muir Edwards, asked whether women were 'persons' eligible to sit in the Senate. After the Supreme Court of Canada said no, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London ruled on October 18, 1929, that they were. Cairine Wilson became the first woman appointed to the Senate on February 15, 1930.

🏛️December 11, 1931London, United KingdomGovernment

The Statute of Westminster

The British Parliament's Statute of Westminster removed its authority to make laws for Canada and other dominions, confirming their legislative independence. The power to amend the British North America Act stayed with the British Parliament because Canadians had not agreed on an amending formula, a link that was not cut until 1982.

💰June–July 1935Regina, SaskatchewanEconomy

The On-to-Ottawa Trek and the Regina Riot

During the Great Depression, unemployed single men in federal relief camps, paid 20 cents a day, went on strike in British Columbia and in June 1935 rode freight trains east to take their complaints to Ottawa. The trekkers were stopped in Regina, and on July 1 police moved in to arrest their leaders at a public meeting, setting off a riot that spread through downtown Regina. The Bennett government was defeated that October, and the relief camps were closed in 1936.

⚖️June 1939Halifax, Nova ScotiaRights

Canada refuses the Jewish refugees of the MS St. Louis

In May 1939, the MS St. Louis left Germany with 907 Jewish passengers seeking refuge from Nazi persecution. After Cuba and the United States refused them, Canadian supporters urged Ottawa to admit them, but the government declined under immigration policies that admitted very few Jewish refugees. The ship returned to Europe, and 254 of its passengers were later killed in the Holocaust.

⚖️ Officially acknowledged

⚔️December 8–25, 1941Hong KongWar

The defence of Hong Kong

Canada sent 1,975 soldiers to reinforce the British garrison at Hong Kong in late 1941. Japanese forces attacked on December 8, and the colony fell on December 25. The Canadian survivors spent more than three years as prisoners of war, and hundreds died in battle or in captivity.

⚖️1942–1949Hastings Park, VancouverRights

Japanese Canadians are uprooted and dispossessed

After Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the federal government ordered people of Japanese origin removed from the British Columbia coast in 1942; about 22,000 people, most of them Canadian-born or naturalized citizens, were sent to camps in the interior, work sites and farms. The federal government confiscated and sold their homes, businesses and other property. Unlike prisoners of war, they had no protection under the Geneva Convention.

⚖️ Officially acknowledged

⚔️August 19, 1942Dieppe, FranceWar

The Dieppe Raid

At dawn on August 19, 1942, nearly 5,000 Canadian soldiers, with British commandos, attacked the German-held port of Dieppe in France. The raid failed within hours. The Canadian War Museum counts 807 Canadians killed and 1,946 captured, with about 100 more dying in captivity, making it Canada's worst single day of the war.

⚔️June 6, 1944Juno Beach, Normandy, FranceWar

Canadians land at Juno Beach

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, about 14,000 Canadians of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade landed at Juno Beach in Normandy. The often-cited toll is 359 Canadians killed that day; the Juno Beach Centre says a fuller count including airmen is 381. Canadian forces then fought through the Battle of Normandy.

🏛️January 1, 1947OttawaGovernment

Canadian citizenship is created

The Canadian Citizenship Act came into effect on January 1, 1947. Before then, people born in Canada and naturalized immigrants were legally British subjects rather than Canadian citizens. The Act set out how citizenship could be acquired and lost.

💰February 13, 1947Leduc, AlbertaEconomy

Oil gushes at Leduc No. 1

After years of dry holes, Imperial Oil's Leduc No. 1 well came in on February 13, 1947, in front of about 500 spectators. The discovery set off Alberta's modern oil industry and drew large investment into wells, refineries and pipelines. Oil and gas became central to the economies of Alberta and the country.

🏛️March 31, 1949St. John's, Newfoundland and LabradorGovernment

Newfoundland becomes the tenth province

Newfoundland had been governed by an appointed commission since the 1930s. In 1948, a campaign led by Joseph R. Smallwood persuaded a small majority of voters to choose union with Canada over a return to responsible government. It entered Confederation on March 31, 1949.

⚔️1950–1953Kapyong, South KoreaWar

Canadians serve in the Korean War

After North Korean forces invaded the south on June 25, 1950, Canada contributed to the United Nations force. More than 26,000 Canadians served on land, at sea and in the air, and 516 died. An armistice was signed on July 27, 1953.

⚖️c. 1951–1991Across CanadaRights

The Sixties Scoop

From the 1950s to the 1980s, child welfare authorities removed thousands of First Nations and Métis children from their families and placed them with mostly non-Indigenous foster or adoptive families, in Canada and abroad. Many lost their language, culture and status. The federal settlement covers about 20,000 survivors removed between 1951 and 1991.

⚖️ Officially acknowledged

⚖️1953 and 1955Grise Fiord, NunavutRights

The High Arctic relocation

In 1953 and 1955, the federal government moved Inuit families from Inukjuak in northern Quebec, along with a few families from Pond Inlet, to Grise Fiord and Resolute Bay in the High Arctic. They were promised good hunting and a return home if they wished, but arrived with inadequate shelter and supplies in an unfamiliar environment. The government later acknowledged it did not keep its promise to return those who wished to go home.

⚖️ Officially acknowledged

👤1957OttawaPeople

Lester Pearson wins the Nobel Peace Prize

During the 1956 Suez Crisis, External Affairs Minister Lester B. Pearson proposed a United Nations force to supervise a ceasefire, leading to the deployment of the UN Emergency Force. Pearson received the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution. He later served as prime minister from 1963 to 1968.

🚂June 26, 1959Saint-Lambert, QuebecTransport

The St. Lawrence Seaway opens

Built jointly by Canada and the United States, the St. Lawrence Seaway opened a deep-draft route from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes; the first through transit began on April 25, 1959. Queen Elizabeth II and President Dwight D. Eisenhower officially opened it on June 26, 1959.

⚖️1960OttawaRights

First Nations gain the federal vote

Before 1960, most First Nations people could vote federally only by giving up their Indian status. Parliament extended the federal vote to status First Nations people without conditions in 1960. Inuit had gained the federal vote in 1950, though ballot boxes did not reach all Inuit communities until 1962.

🏛️1960sQuebec CityGovernment

Quebec's Quiet Revolution

In 1960, Quebecers elected the Liberal government of Jean Lesage, ending the long Union Nationale era of Maurice Duplessis. The new government nationalized hydroelectric utilities, overhauled the church-based education system, created the Quebec Pension Plan and new ministries. The rapid changes, known as the Quiet Revolution, also fed a rising Quebec nationalism.

🔬September 29, 1962Vandenberg, CaliforniaScience

Alouette 1 puts Canada in space

Canada's first satellite, Alouette 1, was launched from California on September 29, 1962, to study the ionosphere. It made Canada the third nation, after the Soviet Union and the United States, to design and build its own satellite. Designed to last about a year, it sent back data for 10 years.

🏛️1962–1968Regina, SaskatchewanGovernment

Medicare begins in Saskatchewan and goes national

Saskatchewan's medical care insurance plan, a project of Tommy Douglas's CCF government, took effect on July 1, 1962, and most of the province's doctors went on a three-week strike in protest. After the Hall Royal Commission recommended national medical insurance, Parliament passed the Medical Care Act in 1966, sharing costs with provinces from July 1, 1968. All provinces and territories joined within four years.

🎭February 15, 1965Parliament Hill, OttawaCulture

The maple leaf flag is raised

After Prime Minister Lester Pearson brought the question to Parliament in 1964, a long debate ended with the choice of the red-and-white maple leaf design. The National Flag of Canada came into force and was raised on Parliament Hill on February 15, 1965, replacing the Red Ensign. February 15 has been National Flag of Canada Day since 1996.

🎭April 28 – October 27, 1967MontrealCulture

Expo 67 and the centennial

Montreal hosted Expo 67, a world's fair marking the centennial of Confederation, on islands in the St. Lawrence. It drew more than 50 million visitors from Canada and around the world. A controversial visit by French President Charles de Gaulle exposed tensions between English and French Canada.

🏛️1969OttawaGovernment

The Official Languages Act

Following the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, created in 1963, Parliament passed the Official Languages Act in 1969. It made English and French Canada's official languages with equal status in Parliament, federal laws and courts, and gave Canadians the right to be served by federal institutions in either language. It also created the Commissioner of Official Languages.

⚖️1969–1971OttawaRights

The White Paper and the 'Red Paper' response

In 1969, the government of Pierre Trudeau tabled a policy paper proposing to repeal the Indian Act, end the legal status of 'Indians' and move toward ending treaties. First Nations organizations rejected it; the Indian Association of Alberta, led by Harold Cardinal, answered with Citizens Plus, known as the Red Paper, in 1970. The government withdrew the White Paper in 1971.

⚖️1969OttawaRights

Homosexuality is partially decriminalized

A 1969 Criminal Code amendment partly decriminalized sexual acts between consenting adults of the same sex in private. Discrimination continued: from the 1950s to the 1990s, federal agencies investigated and dismissed LGBTQ public servants, military members and RCMP officers in what became known as the LGBT Purge. Unequal age-of-consent rules remained in the law until 1988.

⚖️ Officially acknowledged

🏛️October 1970MontrealGovernment

The October Crisis and the War Measures Act

In October 1970, cells of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped British trade commissioner James Cross and Quebec labour minister Pierre Laporte. On October 16, the federal government invoked the War Measures Act, the first time in peacetime, suspending civil liberties and sending troops into the streets. Laporte was found dead the next day.

⚖️ Established fact

🎭October 8, 1971OttawaCulture

Multiculturalism becomes federal policy

On October 8, 1971, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced a policy of multiculturalism within a bilingual framework. The policy aimed to support cultural groups and help them take part fully in Canadian society. It was written into law as the Canadian Multiculturalism Act in 1988.

🏒September 28, 1972MoscowSport

Henderson's goal wins the Summit Series

In September 1972, Canada's best professional hockey players faced the Soviet national team in an eight-game series played in Canada and Moscow. In Game 8 in Moscow, Paul Henderson scored with 34 seconds left to win the game 6–5 and the series. Millions of Canadians followed the games on television.

⚖️1973Nass Valley, British ColumbiaRights

The Calder case recognizes Aboriginal title

The Nisga'a Nation, led by Frank Calder, went to court to establish that their title to their lands in northwestern British Columbia had never been extinguished. In 1973, the Supreme Court of Canada recognized that Aboriginal title existed in Canadian law, though the judges split on whether Nisga'a title survived. The ruling led Ottawa to adopt a policy for negotiating comprehensive land claims; the Nisga'a Final Agreement was reached in 1998.

⚖️November 11, 1975James Bay region, QuebecRights

The James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement

As large hydroelectric development began in the James Bay region, the Cree and Inuit of northern Quebec negotiated the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement. Settled on November 11, 1975, and in effect from January 27, 1977, it was one of Canada's first modern treaties. It set out land categories, harvesting rights, compensation and regional governments for about 18,000 Cree and 11,700 Inuit beneficiaries.

🏒July 1976Olympic Stadium, MontrealSport

Montreal hosts the Summer Olympics

Montreal hosted the 1976 Summer Olympic Games, the first Olympics held in Canada. Canada won 11 medals, five silver and six bronze, more than at the two previous Games combined. It remains the only time a Summer Games host has not won a gold medal.

🏘️1976–1978OttawaSettlement

A new Immigration Act

Parliament passed a new Immigration Act in 1976, which came into effect on April 1, 1978. It set out the goals of immigration policy for the first time, including family reunification and non-discrimination, defined refugees as a distinct class of immigrants, and required the federal government to consult the provinces on planning.

🎭August 26, 1977Quebec CityCulture

Quebec adopts the Charter of the French Language

After René Lévesque's Parti Québécois won power on November 15, 1976, its government passed the Charter of the French Language, known as Bill 101, which became law on August 26, 1977. It made French the language of government, work and commerce in Quebec, required commercial signs in French and limited access to English-language schools.

🏛️May 20, 1980Quebec CityGovernment

Quebec's first referendum on sovereignty-association

René Lévesque's Parti Québécois government asked Quebecers for a mandate to negotiate sovereignty-association, political sovereignty with an economic association with Canada. On May 20, 1980, the No side won 59.56 per cent of the vote, with turnout of 85.61 per cent. Federal-provincial talks on a new constitution followed.

👤April 12 – September 1, 1980Thunder Bay, OntarioPeople

Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope

Terry Fox, who had lost his right leg to cancer, began running across Canada from St. John's on April 12, 1980, to raise money for cancer research. He ran 5,373 kilometres in 143 days, nearly a marathon a day, before cancer in his lungs forced him to stop near Thunder Bay. He died in 1981.

🔬October 5, 1984Kennedy Space Center, FloridaScience

Marc Garneau becomes the first Canadian in space

Canada's contribution of the Canadarm robotic arm, first flown on the Space Shuttle in November 1981, led NASA to invite a Canadian astronaut to fly. Marc Garneau launched aboard Challenger on mission STS-41G on October 5, 1984, becoming the first Canadian in space.

⚖️1985OttawaRights

Bill C-31 ends loss of status through marriage

Amendments to the Indian Act in 1985, known as Bill C-31, ended the rule under which First Nations women who married non-status men lost their Indian status, and allowed those women and their children to apply for reinstatement. Non-Indigenous women could no longer gain status by marriage.

🔥June 23, 1985Off the southwest coast of IrelandDisaster

The bombing of Air India Flight 182

A bomb destroyed Air India Flight 182 off the coast of Ireland on June 23, 1985, killing all 329 people aboard, 280 of them Canadians. A second bomb exploded the same day at Narita airport in Japan, killing two baggage handlers. It remains the deadliest terrorist attack in Canadian history.

⚖️ Officially acknowledged

💰1989 and 1994OttawaEconomy

Free trade with the United States and Mexico

The Canada–U.S. Free Trade Agreement, negotiated from 1986, came into force on January 1, 1989. It was extended to include Mexico as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on January 1, 1994. NAFTA was replaced by the Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) on July 1, 2020.

🔥December 6, 1989École Polytechnique, MontrealDisaster

The École Polytechnique massacre

On December 6, 1989, a gunman driven by hatred of women murdered 14 young women and wounded others at the École Polytechnique engineering school in Montreal. Parliament later designated December 6 as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

🏛️June 1990Manitoba Legislative Building, WinnipegGovernment

Elijah Harper and the end of the Meech Lake Accord

The Meech Lake Accord, negotiated in 1987 to win Quebec's agreement to the Constitution, needed every province's approval by June 23, 1990. Elijah Harper, the First Nations member for Rupertsland in Manitoba's legislature, holding an eagle feather, refused the consent needed to bypass normal procedure, saying First Nations had not been adequately consulted. Manitoba could not ratify the accord before the deadline, and it died.

⚖️July 11 – September 26, 1990Kanehsatà:ke, QuebecRights

The Oka Crisis at Kanehsatà:ke

Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) people at Kanehsatà:ke blocked a road to stop the municipality of Oka from expanding a golf course into a pine forest they claimed as their land. On July 11, 1990, Quebec provincial police raided the barricade and Corporal Marcel Lemay was killed in an exchange of gunfire, starting a 78-day standoff, and Mohawks at Kahnawà:ke blocked the Mercier Bridge into Montreal in support. The Canadian Armed Forces replaced the police in August, and the standoff ended in late September; the underlying land claim remains unresolved.

🏒October 24, 1992Atlanta, GeorgiaSport

The Blue Jays win the World Series

The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Atlanta Braves in six games, winning the final game in Atlanta in 11 innings, to become the first team based outside the United States to win baseball's World Series. They won again in 1993.

🏛️October 26, 1992Charlottetown, Prince Edward IslandGovernment

Voters reject the Charlottetown Accord

After Meech Lake failed, federal, provincial, territorial and Indigenous leaders agreed in August 1992 on the Charlottetown Accord, which included recognition of Quebec as a distinct society, Senate reform and the inherent right of Aboriginal self-government. In a national referendum on October 26, 1992, it was rejected by a majority of voters and in a majority of provinces, including Quebec.

⚖️September 6, 1995Ipperwash, OntarioRights

Dudley George is killed at Ipperwash

Stoney Point (Kettle and Stony Point) protesters occupied Ipperwash Provincial Park in 1995, seeking the return of land the federal government had taken for a military camp in 1942. During an Ontario Provincial Police operation on the night of September 6, an officer shot and killed Anthony (Dudley) George, an unarmed protester.

⚖️ Established fact

🏛️October 30, 1995Quebec CityGovernment

Quebec's second referendum is decided by a hair

Quebec voters were asked whether Quebec should become sovereign after offering Canada a new economic and political partnership. On October 30, 1995, the No side won with 50.58 per cent to 49.42 per cent, a margin of about 54,000 votes, with a record turnout of 93.52 per cent. The federal government later introduced the Clarity Bill to set conditions for recognizing any future referendum on secession.

⚖️1996Punnichy, SaskatchewanRights

The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples reports; the last federal residential school closes

The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, set up in 1991, released its five-volume, 4,000-page final report in November 1996 with 440 recommendations for a new relationship. It drew wide attention to the harm done by residential schools. The same year, Gordon's Indian Residential School in Punnichy, Saskatchewan, the last federally run residential school, closed.

🏛️April 1, 1999Iqaluit, NunavutGovernment

Nunavut is created

The Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, signed by Inuit and the Crown on May 25, 1993, was the largest Aboriginal land claims settlement in Canadian history and committed Canada to create a new territory. Nunavut was carved out of the eastern Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, with Iqaluit as its capital. Its government is a public government open to all residents.

⚔️September 11–14, 2001Gander, Newfoundland and LabradorWar

Operation Yellow Ribbon and the war in Afghanistan

When U.S. airspace closed after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Canada directed 224 flights carrying more than 33,000 passengers to Canadian airports; the town of Gander, Newfoundland, took in thousands of stranded travellers. Canada then joined the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan. More than 40,000 Canadians served there before the military mission ended in March 2014.

⚖️July 20, 2005OttawaRights

Same-sex marriage becomes law across Canada

After courts in several provinces ruled that excluding same-sex couples from marriage violated the Charter, Parliament passed the Civil Marriage Act, which received royal assent on July 20, 2005. Canada became the fourth country to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide. The Act also protected religious officials who decline to perform marriages that conflict with their beliefs.

⚖️2006–2007OttawaRights

The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement

The federal government, churches and survivors' representatives reached the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, approved by all parties in May 2006. Its implementation began in September 2007. It included Common Experience Payments for former students, an Independent Assessment Process for abuse claims, funding for healing and commemoration, and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

⚖️June 11, 2008House of Commons, OttawaRights

The federal apology for residential schools

On June 11, 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper rose in the House of Commons to apologize to former students of Indian Residential Schools on behalf of the Government of Canada, saying the policy of assimilation was wrong.

🏒February 12–28, 2010VancouverSport

Vancouver hosts the Winter Olympics

At the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games Canada won 14 gold medals, then a record for any country at a Winter Olympics. It was the first time Canada won Olympic gold on home soil. Sidney Crosby's overtime goal against the United States won the men's hockey final on the last day.

🔥July 6, 2013Lac-Mégantic, QuebecDisaster

The Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

Overnight on July 5–6, 2013, an unattended train carrying crude oil ran away down a grade and derailed in the centre of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, spilling about six million litres of oil that exploded and burned. Forty-seven people were killed. The Transportation Safety Board found 18 contributing factors, including the railway's weak safety culture and inadequate federal oversight.

⚖️December 15, 2015OttawaRights

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission's final report

Created under the residential schools settlement, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission gathered statements from survivors, families, school staff, officials and others and held national events across Canada. It released its final report, including 94 Calls to Action, and its full six-volume report on December 15, 2015. Its records were transferred to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in Winnipeg.

🏛️October 17, 2018OttawaGovernment

Recreational cannabis becomes legal

The Cannabis Act came into force on October 17, 2018, legalizing the possession, production and sale of cannabis for adults under federal and provincial rules. Canada became the second country, after Uruguay, to legalize non-medical cannabis nationally. Provinces and territories set their own rules for sales.

⚖️June 3, 2019Gatineau, QuebecRights

The MMIWG inquiry's final report

The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls delivered its final report on June 3, 2019, at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau. It made 231 Calls for Justice to governments, institutions and all Canadians. Chief Commissioner Marion Buller described the violence as a genocide.

⚖️ Officially acknowledged

🔥2020–2022TorontoDisaster

The COVID-19 pandemic

Canada's first presumptive case of COVID-19 was announced in Toronto on January 25, 2020, and the first death, at a seniors' facility in British Columbia, occurred on March 8. Governments closed borders, schools and businesses and introduced emergency income supports. Long-term care homes were hit especially hard during the early waves.

⚖️May 27, 2021Kamloops, British ColumbiaRights

Potential unmarked graves at the former Kamloops school

On May 27, 2021, Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc announced that a ground-penetrating radar survey at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School had found what it believed were the remains of 215 children. In July 2021, the specialist's report described about 200 potential burial sites. Ground-penetrating radar detects soil disturbances, not remains; as of 2026, the Nation had not decided whether to excavate.

⚖️ Officially acknowledged

⚖️September 30, 2021OttawaRights

The first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Parliament fast-tracked Bill C-5 after the Kamloops announcement, and it received royal assent in June 2021, making September 30 a federal statutory holiday in response to the TRC's Call to Action 80. The date coincides with Orange Shirt Day, which honours residential school survivors. The first national day was marked on September 30, 2021.

👤July 26, 2021OttawaPeople

Mary Simon becomes the first Indigenous Governor General

Mary Simon, an Inuk from Kuujjuaq in Nunavik and a former Inuit leader and diplomat, was installed as Canada's 30th Governor General on July 26, 2021. She was the first Indigenous person to hold the office. Her installation ceremony in the Senate chamber included the lighting of a qulliq, a traditional Inuit lamp.

🏛️February 14, 2022Wellington Street, OttawaGovernment

The Emergencies Act is invoked against the convoy protests

After weeks of convoy protests against pandemic measures occupied downtown Ottawa and blocked border crossings, the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act on February 14, 2022, for the first time since it replaced the War Measures Act in 1988. The orders gave police extra powers and allowed banks to freeze accounts linked to the protests.

⚖️ Disputed

🕊️July 25, 2022Maskwacis, AlbertaFaith

Pope Francis apologizes at Maskwacis

Speaking at the site of the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School in Maskwacis, Alberta, on July 25, 2022, Pope Francis apologized for the role of many members of the Catholic Church in the residential school system and the cultural destruction and forced assimilation it caused. He called it a first step.

🔥2023Across CanadaDisaster

Canada's worst wildfire season on record

Wildfires burned across Canada in 2023, forcing many communities to evacuate and sending thick smoke far beyond the fire zones. By autumn, more than 18 million hectares had burned, about two and a half times the previous record set in 1995.

⚖️October 24, 2023OttawaRights

A $23 billion settlement for First Nations child welfare

The Federal Court approved a $23 billion compensation agreement for First Nations children and families harmed by the federal government's chronic underfunding of on-reserve foster care and family services. It is the largest settlement in Canadian history. It followed a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruling that Ottawa had discriminated against First Nations children, and class actions including one launched by the Assembly of First Nations.

⚖️ Officially acknowledged

💰March 4, 2025OttawaEconomy

A trade war with the United States

On March 4, 2025, the United States imposed 25 per cent tariffs on most imports from Canada and 10 per cent on Canadian energy. Canada responded the same day with tariffs on $30 billion of American goods, and later on steel, aluminum and other products. Most Canadian counter-tariffs were removed in September 2025, except those on steel, aluminum and autos.

🏛️March–April 2025OttawaGovernment

Mark Carney becomes prime minister and wins an election

Former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor Mark Carney won the Liberal Party leadership on March 9, 2025, with more than 85 per cent of the points, and was sworn in as prime minister later that month, succeeding Justin Trudeau. He called an election dominated by relations with the United States. On April 28, 2025, the Liberals were returned to government.

🏒June 12, 2026TorontoSport

Canada co-hosts the FIFA World Cup

Canada co-hosted the 2026 FIFA World Cup with the United States and Mexico, with matches in Toronto and Vancouver. On June 12, 2026, Canada played the first men's World Cup match ever held on Canadian soil, drawing 1–1 with Bosnia and Herzegovina in Toronto with a goal by Cyle Larin.