By Alex Usher. The period roughly from 1959 to the oil crisis of 1973-74 is rightly thought of as a Golden Age for higher education in Canada, much as it is in the United States.  Universities ballooned in size and gradually became more research-intensive.  A new class of institutions, community colleges, were added to the system.  Provinces finally got around to thinking systemically about higher education, and electorates were broadly tolerant about spending any amount of money to expand and improve the system. More...