This is a story of how a group of largely provincial civil servants and politicians came together in the face of neoliberal hegemony to advance the national child Benefit, national children’s Agenda and Social Union Framework Agreement. This study peers behind the ideology of media-speak to show how canadian federalism was made to work and where it failed to work. It peers deeply into the canadian political economy to understand the role of these social programs in the context of globalization. Students of social policy will find it most informative as they contemplate the structures and processes needed for implementing social programs in a federalist system.