Sun Ascendant: A History of Sun Life of Canada

Twentieth-century Canadians have achieved a peculiar kind of notoriety as the world's most enthusiastic buyers of life insurance. From modest mid-nineteenth century beginnings, by the early 1900s the Canadian life insurance industry had established an international expertise that extended its business to most of the world's major markets. In "Sun Ascendant", Laurence Mussio brings us the extraordinary history of one of Canada's most prominent financial institutions, the Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada. Mussio draws on vast public and private archival sources in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. He examines Sun Life and the Canadian financial sector in the context of international markets, government-industry relations, managerial strategy and corporate culture, and provides a wealth of new information about Canadian economic and political life along the way. He shows how, by the early twentieth century, the company's dramatic national and international expansion had made it one of the largest life insurance companies in the world. Mussio puts issues such as regulation, foreign ownership, social insurance, and national unity into a fresh perspective across the span of over a century. "Sun Ascendant" offers extensive insights into the Canadian financial sector and its relationships, uncovering the many ways in which Sun Life managers were both shaped by their environment and exerted control over their company's destiny. Mussio's examination of this major international life insurance company fills a conspicuous gap in our understanding of Canada's economic and business development.