Canada emerged as a nation through a confederation of provinces beginning in 1867. Since that time, responsibility for educational endeavors at all levels (elementary, secondary, and tertiary) has been assigned to the provincial governments, a responsibility they zealously guard. The federal government's role is to provide monies or transfer grants to the provinces, which decide how these funds will be spent. These decisions determine the shape of education within each province. A range of educational endeavors, emerging as a result of various social movements, lies between the formal educational programs offered by publicly funded educational institutions and the vast array of informal learning activities conducted by individuals. The late 19th and early 20th centuries provided fertile ground in which social movements were born in response to social and economic needs; developed and spread; and then became a stable organization with reliable funding, metamorphosed into a more flexible organization, or faded into history. In the 19th century, many Canadian social movements were imported from Great Britain or the United States: the Mechanics Institutes (precursors of public libraries and museums), the YMCA and YWCA, the Workers' Education Association, the cooperative movement, agricultural extension, and labor unions. This chapter briefly describes four social movements that evolved as Canadian endeavors in the early 20th century: Frontier College, the Women's Institutes, the Antigonish movement, and the United Farmers of Canada (Saskatchewan). These social movements are still part of the ethos of Canadian adult education. Social movements are described by Budd Hall (2006) as having four characteristics: informal interaction networks, shared beliefs and solidarity, collective action focusing on conflict, and the use of protest. He discusses the learning that evolves from and within social movements as affecting both individuals within the movement and those outside it who are influenced by its actions. This chapter first describes the four social movements and then discusses them in relation to these characteristics.