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.
It was a time of fear and betrayal. Canadians believed enemy agents were among us. Was it a crisis or merely a witch-hunt?
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.
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.
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.
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.
In the 1950s the government set out to influence Canadians using a new medium called television. The country tuned in, but not without controversy.
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.
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.