Table of Contents

• Social Policy and Practice in Canada: A History by Alvin Finkel
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Studying Social Policy
• PART 1
• Non-State Provision (The Pre-Confederation Period)
• First Peoples and Social Needs
• New France: The Church, the State, and Feudal Obligations
• British North America and the Poor Law
• PART 2
• Beyond the Poor Law: Canada, 1867-1950
• Early Canada: Continuity and Change, 1867-1914
• War, Depression, and Social Policy: 1914-39
• Paradise Postponed, 1939-50: The Second World War and Its Aftermath
• PART 3
• The Welfare State, 1950-80
• Social Policy and the Elderly, 1950-80
• The Medicare Debate, 1945-80
• The Child Care Debate, 1945-80
• Housing and State Policy, 1945-80
• Anti-Poverty Struggles, 1945-80
• PART 4
• Neo-Liberalism
• The Welfare State since 1980
• The New Millennium and Social Policy Directions
• Bibliography
• Index

About the Author

Alvin Finkel is a professor of history at Athabasca University, Alberta. His publications include leading texts in Canadian history, as well as monographs on social policy, western Canadian political history, and inter-war European politics. He has published widely on social policy issues. Current book review editor of Labour/Le Travail, Alvin Finkel is also the past editor of Prairie Forum.

Reviews

``A must read for anyone interested in social policy.... Highly recommended.'' -- D.A. Chekki, University of Winnipeg -- CHOICE, March 2007, 200701

``This study provides a good synthesis of a wide array of primary and secondary material covering a host of temporal and spatial locations. It deserves the attention of those interested in the history of social policy and the history of the welfare state -- student and specialist alike.'' -- Kurt Korneski, Memorial University of Newfoundland -- Labour/Le Travail, Volume 60, Winter 2007, 200801

``This book is a useful synthesis of a great many, mostly secondary sources about the ideas and process behind social policy in Canada.... Canada is far from having a social policy that creates an integrated society in which all citizens live at a decent standard without regard to class, gender, race, or level of income. Today there is a growing gap between rich and poor and our social system still reflects substantial gender inequities. This book helps explain why.'' -- Laurel Sefton Macdowell -- University of Toronto Quarterly, Letters in Canada 2006, Volume 77, Number 1, Winter 2008, 200807