In 1904, Wilfred Laurier, the Prime Minister of Canada at the time, stated, “I think we can claim that Canada will fill the twentieth century.” Throughout the previous century, the United States of America had grown from a young, newly independent nation with a population of just over five million, to a modern, economic power with over seventy-five million citizens. Similar to the United States at the turn of the previous century, Canada was a very young nation in 1904. Taking note of America’s growth in the nineteenth century, Laurier predicted that Canada would flourish throughout the twentieth century in a similar fashion, through its growing agricultural economy and increasing significance in world affairs. Even though Canada’s agricultural industry may not have had the significance Laurier had expected, Canada has in fact played a larger role in the world militarily and has also grown its economy in ways Laurier could never have anticipated, allowing it to truly “fill the twentieth century”.