Heritage Minister Melanie Joly has announced some new projects for the 2017 sesquicentennial of confederation: more music, more arts, more young people, seems to be the message. Less said, but can be assumed: less military history, maybe less of combining Vimy 1917 with confederation 1867, maybe even less monarchy, than was in the Harper government's planning. CBC sez:
In April 2015, the previous Conservative government set up a $210 million Canada 150 Fund for the sesquicentennial celebrations.
Joly told Rosemary Barton, host of CBC TV's Power and Politics, the government is working within that financial framework as it plans more events, such as holding citizenship ceremonies in "iconic places" across the country.Except for the awkward spectacle of how partisan historical commemoration becomes, I'm mostly kinda sympathetic to these initiatives.
Update: Also on the 2017 theme, the French Association for Canadian Studies (Afec) seeks, via H-Canada, paper proposals for a 2017 conference: Defining Canada 1867-2017.
This conference intends to favor the historical perspective of the longue durée, by examining not only what defines Canada in 2017, but by comparing this with the way it was defined in 1867, at the time of Confederation, as well as in 1967, at the time of the centennial.Did we mention the conference is in Paris, in June? Deets here from H-Canada.
