Video Archive

Your all-access pass to the people and events shaping Canada’s democracy

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The Fifties

One Canada

Episode 9: One Canada It was an era of civil rights. For nearly a century Canadians, in a free country, saw no need to spell out what freedom really meant. That changed in the ‘50s.
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The Fifties

The New Society

Episode 8: The New Society The role of government was turned upside down. For the first time, in the ‘50s, Canadians looked to Ottawa to resolve the inequities of everyday life.
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The Fifties

The Big Picture

Episode 7: The Big Picture In the 1950s the government set out to influence Canadians using a new medium called television. The country tuned in, but not without controversy.
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The Fifties

The Good Life

Episode 5: The Good Life In 1950s most Canadians did not own a car, a TV, or a washing machine. By the end of the decade people made more, spent more, and dreamed bigger dreams than the country had ever seen.
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The Fifties

True North

Episode 6: True North Canada looked north for the first time. In the 1950s the region became a romantic frontier of vast wealth that needed to be managed. It would never be the same again.
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The Fifties

The Suburbs

Episode 3: The Suburbs The government said almost every family should own its own home, even if one house looked much like another. Canadians ever since have debated whether it meant comfort or conformity.
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The Fifties

The Bomb

Episode 4: The Bomb The country feared war. Canadians were told every home in every city was at risk. It meant the biggest campaign of military preparedness in the nation’s history.
The Fifties

Documenting the remarkable post-war decade that gave birth to modern Canada, this nine-part series features extraordinary interviews and never-before-seen archival film. Experience the decade that was shaped by an explosion of teenagers, scarred by Cold War fears and espionage, marked by an exodus to the suburbs and captured by a new medium called television. Relive the era that changed Canada forever.
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The Fifties

Spies

Episode 2: Spies It was a time of fear and betrayal. Canadians believed enemy agents were among us. Was it a crisis or merely a witch-hunt?
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The Fifties

The Young

Episode 1: The Young Canada never had as many teenagers as it did in the 1950’s. They influenced what the nation read and watched. And they made Canadians anxious over where the country was headed.