In 1847, Hugh Baker founded the country’s first life insurance business: Canada Life Assurance Company. The Hamilton-based firm moved to Toronto in 1900. This Beaux Arts building was commissioned at the start of the Great Depression and became their headquarters in 1931. In 2019, three companies – Great-West Life Assurance Company, London Life Insurance Company and The Canada Life Assurance Company – merged under the Canada Life brand name.
