Related: WHAT IS THE CANADIAN STORY?
How would you tell the story of Canada? Would you use a timeline? How else?
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We travelled across Canada with stops in the cities listed below. Thank you to everyone who shared their ideas with us during our kiosk activities and our roundtable discussions.
| Province | City | Date | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| British Columbia | Vancouver | November 9 | Vancouver Public Library |
| British Columbia | Vancouver | November 10 | Vancouver Flea Market |
| Newfoundland | St. John's | November 20 | Memorial University of Newfoundland |
| Newfoundland | St. John's | November 20 | Centre scolaire et communautaire des Grands-Vents |
| Nova Scotia | Halifax | November 21 | Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 |
| Nova Scotia | Halifax | November 22 | Halifax Stanfield International Airport |
| New Brunswick | Fredericton | November 23 | Crowne Plaza Fredericton Lord Beaverbrook Hotel |
| Alberta | Edmonton | December 4 | Prince of Wales Armouries |
| Alberta | Edmonton | December 5 | University of Alberta |
| Ontario | Toronto | December 11 | Toronto Reference Library |
| Ontario | Toronto | December 12 | Centennial College |
| Saskatchewan | Saskatoon | January 15 | Radisson Hotel Saskatoon |
| Saskatchewan | Saskatoon | January 16 | The Mall at Lawson Heights |
| Quebec | Montréal | January 24 | Promenades Cathédrale |
| Quebec | Montréal | January 24 | Salon Cartier 1, Centre Mont-Royal |
| Quebec | Gatineau | January 31 | Canadian Museum of Civilization |
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Sorry, but i’ve given up on this… first, because the webpage is excruciatingly slow. More important, because the exercise is absurd. We’re voting on which historical events we think are ‘important’??? pooling our ignorance?! what a waste.
i’m shocked that so many of the options you’re offering are relatively recent! How can this help us get an understanding of where we come from, and of the wider sweep of our history?
Missing first powered aircraft flight in 1909-Alexander Graham Bell’s Silver Dart.
I am from Cupids. It is an important part of Canadian History for sure.
This is an interesting iidea. My own community of Placentia, NL which goes back to the 1500 and was both a French and English capital will have a few dates to.offer. There should be links at each timeline to take us to more information on the subject.
However I would like to set better colour design in the site.Because colours react different for seniors I find it difficult to read some parts. I can hardly see the number of likes for instance.
Significant Newfoundland history before 1949. In my experience, Canadian history tends to miss some events that happened here before we became part of Canada. The transatlantic cable, or the extinction of the Beothuk, are two examples.
The death of Shawnadithit, last of her race (Beothuk) in June 1829,
In general, I would like to see Newfoundland history incorporated into Canadian history. In my experience, significant historical events in our history are sometimes missed because we were not part of Canada when it happened. Remember there was no Canada before 1867. A lot of things happened here before 1867 and even before we were officially “discovered” by Europeans in 1497. You need to ensure significant things in Newfoundland history are covered.
I would tell the story of Canada by discussing the lived experience of ordinary people who came before us. What was it like to live in Huronia in the 1600s, what about a worker in an 1890s factory? What do these stories tell us about Canada? What was it like, how has it changed, and why?
I would also focus on what’s important not just what’s well known. The museum should tell less known stories and not just rehash what people learned decades ago in high school textbooks.
Would be wonderful to revive the archives of the former Portrait Gallery to illustrate the personalities along this timeline.
[continued from email 4] the French would be interesting and give a broader view of the early years.
Finally, I think that asking for feedback with a low character limit is a bit disingenuous. It’s probably also irritating for the poor person stuck connecting these all together, so why have it? Either you want public feedback, or you don’t.
[end of final email]
[continued from email 2]
Finally, I would like to see further examination of the other groups who built this country. The French and English and First Nations are, of course, amply covered, but what about the heavily marginalized Irish or Scots (particularly the Gaelic speakers placed here after the clearances). Gaelic was the third most commonly spoken language at the time of Confederation. Today, it is all but none existent. A word about the forced Anglicization of groups other than [con't]
[continued from previous email]
To the best of my knowledge, the Canadian War Museum will not be changing, so why add additional emphasis on the military?
I like the frank inclusion of some of the darker elements of our history, such as the Chinese Head Tax or the Grande Dérangement (though wonder about the new exclusion of the Beothuk extinction). However, I do wonder if this might make the exhibits too dark.
[to be continued in email 3]
Judging from the events placed here, there’s not much coherence to be found in the new museum. There’s social history, military history, Aboriginal history, and political history all mashed together. I think it will be difficult to create any sort of narrative from so many disparate pieces and that the future exhibits will suffer greatly for it. In particular, I’m concerned about the inclusion of military history, as that is quite amply represented by the Canadian War Museum.
I like the timeline however, there is not enough early Canadian history the really shaped our country i.e. Capt. Cook and Vancouver discovering and exploring the west coast, Champlain voyage and routes, the inland exploration of what are the prairie provinces.
The new exhibitions should focus less on the object itself and more on the moment in history that it came from and the meaning to Canada’s history.
The space allotted is not great enough. Five subjects missing: Wendat-Huron history; Responsible government (Lafontaine-Baldwin-Howe); Catholic Church, Canada East; Communism; Refus Global. I am willing to present in Montreal or Gatineau.
This is a commendable initiative. Please include more insight and analysis into the history of the Prairies prior to World War II. To understand the social, political and economic transformation of the West, the trials and tribulations endured by homesteaders on the frontier, particularly in the drought-ridden southern plains of Alberta and Saskatchewan, must be understood.
The Selkirk Treaty, the fur trade, including the 1821 merger of the NWCo and HBC, the 1870 Resistance, any history that is not big men doing big things. The Residential Schools system, immigration, significant events in Indigenous history that do not necessarily involve Euro-Canadians, but may have significant wider implications such as alliances and social structures…. This is terribly monolithically Euro-centric, right down to the timeline structure.
Transportation: Why did Europeans come to the Western Hemisphere?
What was trans-Atlantic like? How did it develop from the times of the Vikings to now? Where did they encounter the original residents / inhabitants? How did they get along – initially and later? What were the routes to access the interior? How did they travel? Where did they explore? Establish trading posts? Forts? From water travel (rivers, lakes, portages, canals) to land routes (trails, roads, railroads) to air travel.