Abstract: Health policies have played a significant role in attaining good achievements in population health improvement. This paper systematically reviews and analyzes health-related parliamentary actions and law enactments. It is found that the salient feature of the Canadian health system is publicly financed with a single-payer but privately run and that the five founding principles of universality, portability, comprehensiveness, accessibility, and public administration are the key to a successful Canadian health system. This paper pays special attention to what and how China can learn from Canada and what should be avoided against the failures during the current health reform as well.