If you are in Toronto and vicinity this weekend, I'm talking Canada Day with radio guy Taylor Parnaby on CFRB, 1010 AM, at 6.05 pm tonight, Saturday night. Then I'm off to a beach by a northern lake for a few days.
Speaking of Canada Day, my friends at the Dominion Institute have released their annual poll proving once again that Canadians don't know dick about Canadian history.
Now I hugely admire what Rudyard Griffiths and the DomInst have done the last ten years. And they have invited me to some great parties over the years (not something you expect as a historian!). But as I have said elsewhere, if you asked Canadians the poll question, "What month did the October Crisis happen?" eighty percent would be socialized to say, "I don't know; we don't have enough Canadian history in our schools."
If Canadians were not interested in Canadian history, I'd have to find some other line of work, is my bottom line on this. I'm damn grateful to all those of you who do share my interest, and not much inclined to ram Canadiana down the throats of the others.
