Canadian Unity Council : The Canadian Unity Council was formed in 1964 against the backdrop of the Quiet Revolution by a group of Quebecers, led by Thomas Ross Anthony Malcolm, who were alarmed by growing tensions between French and English Canadians. It was first known as The Voices of Moderation, but in 1965 changed its name to the Committee for the Survival of Canada, and then again in 1966 to The Canada Committee, under which it was incorporated in 1968. The purpose of the original Committee, which defined itself as an apolitical consortium, was to prepare a declaration on the question of Canada's economic, cultural, and political future and the necessity of preserving Canadian Unity. By building bridges in every region of Canada, the Committee attempted to forge a broad coalition of federalists from all political parties to defend and promote national unity. In 1975, it changed its name to The Council for Canadian Unity (becoming the Canadian Unity Council only in 2002). In anticipation of the 1980 Quebec referendum, in 1977 the Council brought various other Canadian unity groups together under an umbrella organization, the Quebec-Canada Pre-Referendum Committee (later the Pro-Canada Committee), to coordinate activities promoting the federalist cause. The Council played an active role in both Quebec referendums, attempting to educate, inform, and get Canadians involved in the public debate about Canada's future. To keep Canadians regularly informed about issues vital to national unity, it produced studies and shared information about Canadian institutions and the federal system. After the second referendum, in 1996 the Council created the Centre for Research and Information on Canada (CRIC) to coordinate the its research and communications activities, with regional offices in Toronto, Calgary, and Quebec. CRIC kept abreast of Canadians' thinking about national unity by constantly tracking public opinion through polling and other means, and analyzing and disseminating its findings. It organized seminars, conferences, and regional roundtables bringing together decision-makers in politics, business, labour, and academia; and it published a weekly newsletter, Opinion Canada, and an annual summary, Portraits of Canada, to share information on its activities and events and the results of its polling and opinion tracking.
The Council's other major activity was its youth programs, which offered young Canadians an opportunity to learn about Canada's political, social, and cultural diversity. Encounters with Canada, founded in 1980, brought 100 to 150 high school students every week from across the country to Ottawa for one week to visit Parliament and other national institutions, listen to guest speakers, study various aspects of Canadian culture, and meet students from other parts of the country. The Department of Canadian Heritage and provincial governments contributed funding for the travel costs of this project, whose focal point was the Terry Fox Canadian Youth Centre, opened in 1982 as a home for these activities. The Summer Work-Student Exchange program allowed youth from French and English-speaking federal ridings to trade places, staying with the families of their exchange counterparts, working in jobs provided by local non-profit organizations, participating in the life of their adopted communities, and improving their second-language skills. Members of Parliament had originally started the program but turned to the expertise of the Council in 1998 to administer the program as demand for its services and its size grew. Another youth program, Experience Canada, built bridges between young people of Canada and abroad by bringing youth from fifteen nations to Canada for three weeks to meet with other youth and learn about Canadian society and culture.
The federal government withdrew its funding from the Council in March 2006, leading the Council to suspend its operations in spring 2006 and close its office in November 2006. Responsibility for its popular Encounters with Canada program was transferred to the Historica Foundation.