In this text, the author asserts that Canada does not have one social assistance system but rather ten variants that reflect the particular policy goals of each province. He argues that provincial assistance regimes have followed significantly distinct paths in their historical development even though they have been funded under the same federal cost-sharing arrangments. To examine patterns of social assistance provision specific to particular provinces, the author develops a five-fold typology consisting of "residual", "market/family enforcement", "market performance", "conservative", and "redistributive" models. He uses this typology to compare development of assistance of provision in the provinces, provincial responses to federal initiatives and trajectories of assistance regimes. He concludes by surveying some of the broader implications of his findings for issues such as the development of national standards and the impact of globalization on social assistance provision in Canada.