Lifelong Learning (LLL) has become a pliable term in educational discourse running the risk of meaning both everything and nothing, making it necessary to look at how the notion of LLL has been taken up in different contexts, especially within the context of policy development. Because of the inconsistent ways LLL has been peppered throughout national legislation in North America, the aim of the presentation is to characterize LLL policy development in Canada and the United States using broad brush strokes, and to provide an overview of the evolution of the concept and its contemporary applications. An overview of LLL policy development in Canada and the US is provided. While there have been promising policy developments in recent years in both countries, LLL has been narrowly conceived and only tenuously supported. [For the full proceedings, see ED665621.]