by Michelle Greysen

Created on: February 05, 2010   Last Updated: February 06, 2010

On a world scale Canada as a nation has a very young history with that of the 20th century being the greatest. It was during this period that Canada gained true political independence from Great Britain and became a sovereign country unto itself, fought in two world wars and struggled with its own crisis over the now official two languages and cultures of Canada, the English and the French.

One of the most decorated war heroes was decorated Canadian World War I flying ace, Billy Bishop credited with the highest number of victories of all British Empire pilots. He came home from the war a decorated and celebrated Canadian Hero, wrote an autobiography entitled Winged warfare and eventually signed on to the renowned British War Mission in Washington DC to help the Americans develop their air force.

Post war in the 1920’s two scientist in Toronto collaborated their research and studies and led to the discovery of insulin and changed the face of diabetes. After trial on dogs the confident doctors tried their insulin on a young boy dying of the fatal sugar disease and successfully lowered his blood sugar and offered him a control over the deadly disease and a hope at life. The discovery lead to earning a Nobel Prize shared among the researchers on the project and one of the most revolutionary discoveries in modern medicine.

The first half of the century the government fought to assimilate the two Canadian voices and the second half of the century was spent developing policy and law to allow the two sides to live together as equal Canadians. The most influential leader of the century is often names as Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau serving from 1968 to 1984 and creating what all Canadians came to know as Trudeau-mania. He not only worked to resolve the French English conflict he had to step up to face a Quebec terrorist organization, the FLQ (French Liberation du Quebec) arriving in the 60’s to establish a sovereign state through violence. In the height of what became the October Crisis key leaders were kidnapped, murdered and Prime Minister Trudeau evoked the War Measures Act to gain control of the situation and calm the struggle. Becoming a Canadian hero Trudeau went on to pressure the British government to allow the forming of a Canadian independent Constitution revising the British North American Act and creating a Charter of Canadian Rights and Freedoms.

A modern day positive influential role models of the 20th century was Terry Fox who put a face to cancer in his Marathon of Hope as he set out to run across the country to raise funds for Cancer research. His 143 days on the road in 1980 running on his metal artificial leg after losing his leg to cancer is a vision etched in the history of Canada and is a testament to the power of a dream and that one person really can make a difference. Although not able to complete his run and succumbing to the disease his dream lives on and almost 30 years later all across the country each fall Canadian run and fundraise in honor of Canadian hero, Terry Fox.

These are just a few of the many influential people who influenced greatness among Canadians and offered this young nation hope and inspiration through the changes of the 20th century.

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