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The financial sources and social mandates of hospitals have varied widely over the past 400 years. The earliest hospitals included military and marine hospitals, as well as Roman Catholic and then Protestant benevolent institutions.

The Canada Aviation and Space Museum has the most extensive aviation collection in Canada. Located in Ottawa, the museum focuses on the history of Canadian aviation in an international context. Its collection includes more than 130 aircraft and artifacts.

The de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver, successor to the Noorduyn Norseman, was the all-purpose bush plane of the Canadian North. (See also Bush Flying in Canada.) The Beaver was sturdy, reliable and able to take off and land on short lengths of land, water and snow. It has been called the best bush plane ever built. While de Havilland Canada produced it for only 20 years — from 1947 to 1967 — many Beaver planes still fly today. The Beaver helped connect communities in remote areas of Canada, in addition to serving across the globe.

Rideau Canal (or Waterway), 202 km long, links the Ottawa River at Ottawa with Lake Ontario at Kingston.

The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow (the Arrow) was a supersonic interceptor jet aircraft designed and built in the 1950s by A.V. Roe Canada (Avro). The Arrow was one of the most advanced aircraft of its era, helping to establish Canada as a world leader in scientific research and development.

Though the Arrow was widely praised for its power and beauty, the program was cancelled in February 1959 by the government of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker. This resulted in the loss of at least 25,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Many believe that the Arrow’s cancellation was a betrayal of Canada’s aerospace industry. Others assert that the jet was extravagant and had little chance of competing with impending innovations. At best, Avro and the Arrow were historic examples of Canadian ingenuity and intriguing case studies of unrealized potential.

Media convergence is a term for two things: 1) It is when different media merge through technology. This is also known as technological convergence. 2) It is also when companies own different media outlets as part of a business strategy. This is also called media consolidation, media concentration or economic convergence.

An astronaut is an individual involved in flight beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. Since the National Research Council of Canada held its first recruitment campaign in 1983, 14 Canadians have completed astronaut training and nine have participated in 17 missions to space. Specifically, they have flown as payload specialists, mission specialists, and flight engineers on NASA shuttle flights and expeditions to the International Space Station (ISS). Canadian astronauts have played key roles in repairing satellites and building the ISS using the Canadarm and Canadarm2 robotic technologies, and have advanced scientific knowledge by conducting a variety of experiments in space. (See also Robotics in Canada; Space Technology.)

The Tracker was a twin-engine fixed-wing aircraft acquired by the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) to be flown off aircraft carriers for antisubmarine warfare (ASW) as a replacement for the Grumman Avenger. Originally developed for the United States Navy (USN), a Canadian version was manufactured under licence by de Havilland Canada as the CS2F. After unification the plane was redesignated as the CP-121; the Trackers became shore-based aircraft after the aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure was decommissioned. The Trackers became fully operational in 1959 and were withdrawn from service in 1989.

COVID-19 is a severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by a new type of coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, that emerged in 2019. The virus caused the first cases in China and then quickly spread around the world. As of early March 2023, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused more than 759 million confirmed cases and 6.87 million deaths globally, including over 4.6 million cases and 51,447 deaths in Canada. It is one of the deadliest pandemics in world history and among the most disruptive and transformative on many levels, especially economically and socially.

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This is the full-length entry about the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada. For a plain-language summary, please see COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada (Plain-Language Summary).

A pandemic is an outbreak of an infectious disease that affects a large proportion of the population in multiple countries or worldwide. Human populations have been affected by pandemics since ancient times. These include widespread outbreaks of plague, cholera, influenza and, more recently, HIV/AIDS and COVID-19. In order to slow or stop the spread of disease, governments implement public health measures that include testing, isolation and quarantine. In Canada, public health agencies at the federal, provincial and municipal levels play an important role in monitoring disease, advising governments and communicating to the public.

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Canada experienced an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003. Most of the infections originated in Toronto hospitals. The outbreak led to the quarantine of thousands, killed 44 people and took an economic toll on Toronto. It also exposed the country’s ill-prepared health-care system. Confusion around SARS fuelled an uptick in anti-Asian racism and anti-immigrant sentiment.

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COVID-19 has a negative affect on respiration. Respiration means breathing. COVID-19 is a new type of coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. It appeared in 2019. In approximately three years about 759 million people around the world had COVID-19. In Canada, about 4.6 million people had COVID-19. Around 51,447 died in Canada. The COVID-19 pandemic was one of the most dangerous pandemics in world history.

This article is a plain-language summary of COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada. If you are interested in reading about this topic in more depth, please see our full-length entry, COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada.

Vaccination is the introduction of a vaccine into the body to produce immunity to a disease. Vaccine hesitancy is the refusal or delayed acceptance of vaccination due to fears or anxiety about vaccines. It includes a range of concerns such as uncertainty about the contents of vaccines, their safety and the belief that vaccines are responsible for causing other medical conditions (e.g., autism). Other factors include opposition to state control and infringement on individual liberty, suspicions about the pharmaceutical industry and a declining faith in science and medicine. In Canada, as in other wealthy countries, vaccine hesitancy has increased in recent years, including resistance to vaccination among some Canadians during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is the full-length entry about Vaccination and Vaccine Hesitancy in Canada. For a plain-language summary, please see Vaccination and Vaccine Hesitancy in Canada (Plain-Language Summary).

A vaccine is put into the body (usually through injection) to make people immune from a disease. Another word for immune is “protect.” Vaccine hesitancy occurs when people will not take a vaccine, or they wait to take a vaccine. Vaccines prevent millions of deaths each year. But many individuals still do not want to take vaccines. As a consequence, some diseases have reappeared. And it can stop herd immunity. Herd immunity happens when most people are immune from a disease. Herd immunity stops the spread of disease. The World Health Organization says that vaccine hesitancy is a serious threat. In fact, it stated that it is one of the “Top Ten Threats to Global Health.”

This article is a plain-language summary of Vaccination and Vaccine Hesitancy in Canada. If you are interested in reading about this topic in more depth, please see our full-length entry, Vaccination and Vaccine Hesitance in Canada.

Illness and disease affect everyone. Individuals alone cannot prevent illness and disease. To do so it is important to focus on communities, not just individuals. The purpose of public health is to protect communities against illness and disease. This, in turn, helps individuals.

This article is a plain-language summary of Public Health in Canada. If you are interested in reading about this topic in more depth, please see our full-length entry, Public Health in Canada.

Pablum is a multi-grain processed cereal developed as a nutritious, precooked digestible food for infants. The cereal was first developed at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto in 1930 by pediatric doctors Theodore Drake and Frederick Tisdall under the supervision of physician-in-chief Alan Brown. Pablum became commercially available in 1934 through an agreement with the Mead Johnson & Company and was used as a brand name through the early 21st century.

Established in 1994, the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame (CMHF) is a national charitable organization. The mission of the CMHF is to “recognize and celebrate Canadian health leaders whose work has advanced health and inspires the pursuit of careers in the health sciences.” As of 2006, up to six individuals are inducted into the CMHF annually. Laureates are featured at the CMHF’s Exhibit Hall in London, Ontario, and online through the CMHF’s official website.

Lizards are reptiles that belong to several suborders within the order Squamata (which also includes snakes). They are the most diverse group of living reptiles and are found on all continents except Antarctica. There are six species of lizard currently found in Canada. In addition, one species, the pygmy short-horned lizard, is extirpated. This means that, while it continues to live in other parts of its range, it is no longer found in Canada. Five of the six lizard species in Canada are native, while the sixth, the common wall lizard, is introduced from Europe.

Disability is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the temporary, prolonged or permanent reduction or absence of the ability to perform certain commonplace activities or roles, sometimes referred to as activities of daily living.