On the afternoon of October 12, 1908, Mary Agnes Snively was talking with a colleague about the difficulty of the process of giving life to a new national organization. She encouraged her friend, saying, “Do not forget that we are making history.” Representatives of 16 organized nursing bodies then met in Ottawa to form the Canadian National Association of Trained Nurses (CNATN). By 1911, CNATN comprised 28 affiliated member societies, including alumni associations of hospital schools of nursing as well as local and regional groups of nurses. By 1924, each of the nine provinces had a provincial nurse’s organization with membership in CNATN, and in that year, the national group changed its name to the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA).