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Ahealthy, nurturing and stimulating environment dur-ing a child’s early years can make a difference in hisor her later life.1 Early childhood development is one of the determinants of health being studied by the Can-adian Senate Subcommittee on Population Health to identify approaches to reduce health disparities in coordinated ways. The subcommittee members recently issued 4 interim reports about the approaches tried in Canada and other countries. The reports included findings from a mission to Cuba to see first-hand how this country has had remarkable success with its focus on maternal health and early child development. This success appears to have been achieved by focusing on 3 major initiatives: primary care through polyclinics, a col-laborative approach at the community level and science with direct feedback to the community. In this article, I discuss some of the lessons Canada can learn from Cuba’s efforts. International comparisons show that, despite a per capit