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| To be politically corrected? |
Rumours that the Liberal government was planning a rewrite of the citizenship orientation book Discover Canada provoked Van Loan to denounce a "Liberal war on history." To fight it, he launched what has become a daily tweeting of Canadian historical events, Tory-slanted (heavy on John A. and the monarchy) but mostly just random historical moments and anniversaries. Such as:
October 13 1921: The McCord Museum in Montreal opens its doors, housing one of the finest collections of Canadian history.— Peter Van Loan (@PeterVanLoan) October 13, 2016
Sadly, Van Loan may be sort of right about Liberal history. Sources suggest that politicos in the Immigration Ministry are working on tweaks to the Discover Canada text -- as written some years ago by political types in the previous government's Immigration Ministry.
I'm not against edits and tweaks to the material in the booklet that is intended to orient immigrants preparing to seek Canadian citizenship. But the government has historians and researchers capable of doing this. Canadian history, particularly official history, ought to be depoliticized as much as possible. Historians being asked for input on the latest rewrite should not cooperate without assurances that professional rather than political standards are being maintained in the process
