Viola Desmond on the money

Fresh from Halifax, where she witnessed the fulfillment of the long campaign to see an non-royal, non-British woman on some Canadian money, Merna Forster of heroincs.ca sends news of a recent poll by Ipsos (commissioned by Historica) about Canadians' lack of knowledge of women's history:

Canadians are largely unfamiliar with the achievements of notable women throughout Canadian history. As a measure of that lack of awareness, only a minority of respondents say they could identify the achievements of such accomplished Canadian women as artist Emily Carr (37%), author Lucy Maud Montgomery (27%), and suffragette Nellie McClung (16%).

I'm delighted to see Viola Desmond on the ten, and full of admiration for the campaign that put her there. And this is one of a long line of polls on historical knowledge, started by Historica's ancestor The Dominion Institute, which have often been fun and provocative.

But on any subject in Canadian history anyone can run a poll to prove that too little is known by too many Canadians. Every November 11 we are all abused for not knowing Canadian military history, and so on. Here's another well-meaning example from the current Literary Review of Canada:

At an event for her book at Montreal’s Grande Bibliothèque late last year, Robyn Maynard asked the audience of about five hundred to raise their hands if they had been taught in school about the two hundred years of Black enslavement in Canada. One man raised his hand. One out of five hundred.

By now everyone is trained; they know the answer they are supposed to give. Do you know the joke about the survey that asked Canadians what month the October Crisis occurred?  Six out of ten responded they did not know -- the schools don't teach enough Canadian history.

 Oh well.  Salute, Viola Desmond.  Merna Forster too.

History... still not dead yet

Grumpy old men of all ages and sexes are going to be left with nothing to say for a while.   A new study shows they actually do teach Canadian history in school.  Quite well sometimes.

The Historica Foundation -- long famed for the twice-yearly polls of its predecessor, the Dominion Institute, which invariably found no one knew anything about Canadian history and we had to start ramming it down the throats of schoolkids -- has released a new study that actually looked at the evidence.  It suggests there is quite a lot of Canadian history in the Ontario curriculum and it's often well designed and well taught.

Take a bow while you can, history teachers.  I'm sure someone is still going to be telling you don't exist -- and to get off their lawn.

Is Canadian history boring or is it just the names?

You're gone, you're history, you're in the archives

The name Historica-Dominion Institute always sounded like a temporary offshoot of the merger of the two organizations. Now they are renaming.

Stephen Smith, Chairman of the Board of The Historica-Dominion Institute, announced today that effective September 3, 2013 , the organization will change its name to Historica Canada.

But I can't say the new name sets my pulse aflutter.  Quick: between "Historica Canada," "Canada's History," "Heritage Canada," and "Canadian Heritage," how many Canadians could quickly explain what differentiates each one? Or keep their audience awake while they tried? Which one is a government department, now?

We are in a time of great identifiers.  Think of Apple, Google, Amazon: distinct, quirky, unforgettable. Why do the organizations pitching Canadian history and civics as lively and dynamic opt for bland when they name themselves?

I know that internet porn filters made "The Beaver" unsustainable. But would not any of these organizations have been more distinct and more top-of-mind as, I don't know, something like Orca, or Matapedia Foundation, or the Lightfoot Institute, or McClung? (Kudos to The Dorchester Review -- more vivid, more rooted than, say, The Canadian Review of Right-Wing Stuff.)

Have to say, though, it isn't just the history/heritage world. The Canadian Auto Workers and the Paperworkers are about to ask us to call them "Unifor."

Well, good luck to Historica Canada, anyway. We may spend time explaining it is not a government department, but it will still do good work.

Samara on parliament, continued

I'm very grateful to Alison Loat of Samara for a long and thoughtful comment my post of yesterday about their latest report.  Her entire response follows.

Thank you for reading and writing on Samara’s last report.  I’m always glad when people read and talk about our work, even if they don’t like it! 

I’m writing in hopes you can both acknowledge and correct errors in the post.  In particular: Samara is not a foundation.  We are a charitable organization.  These are two different legal structures with different purposes. 

 Samara’s annual spend is about $700,000 and we have a national mandate.  While this is still real money, it’s notable that we are one of the smaller organizations doing the sort of work we do (e.g. we’re significantly smaller than nearly every nationally-known think tank and other civically-minded organizations such as the Historica-Dominion Institute or Maytree).   So to characterize us as having “tons of money” requires clarification and context.

 “Funding half the political scientists in the country.”  We do share our work and data with political scientists, graduate and undergraduate students at about 15 universities (there are about 25-30 academics involved; far from half of the country’s stock – although we welcome hearing from any others who are interested).  We do this because our goal is to advance greater understanding of and participation in our democratic system, and universities are one place where this can happen.  Our reports are on syllabuses, our data have been used by academics to advance their own research and teaching, and a few graduate students are building on our findings in their own dissertations.  We are also working on a book with UBC Press and many of our academic collaborators are involved. Most would say these are good things!

[CM: Indeed they are!]

We do provide small stipends from time-to-time to professors or research assistants to help us with our work (e.g., coding of data).  This helps ensure we are methodologically sound. Most think tanks work closely with the academy in different ways (e.g., IRPP, CD Howe); this is not unusual. It is, however, very different from “funding” them.

We also hire an outside public opinion research firm as we do not have this expertise in house.  Again, this is normal practice for many firms and organizations.

 The absence of discussion on accountability: Accountability is a theme Samara has raised numerous times, including in our MP exit interview reports, in regular op-eds and blogs and in many media interviews.  Perhaps we should have placed greater emphasis on it in this report; however, as you likely read, we are hosting a month-long series called “Redesigning Parliament” where contributors, including MPs and others, are asked to suggest ways that Parliament could be made more relevant to the public.  You can follow that project here and you will see discussion of restoring greater accountability.  As well, we’re inviting additional submissions and there is open commenting available, so please feel free to add anything you’d like.

While accountability is certainly central, it’s not always easily understood, particularly for people who aren’t political scientist or experts on Parliament. As such, we do provide space for discussion on other ways that Parliament can be made more relevant, as, in our views, there are many other small, easily-implementable ideas that are also worthy of discussion and may ultimately help get more people interested in the very important topic of our Parliament and democratic life. 

Thank you again for taking the time to read and comment on Samara’s work.

War of 1812 commemoration: anyone listening?

Canadian Press recently ran a snarky story reporting that the most commonly visited page on the government's website on the War of 1812 bicentennial was the home page -- closely followed by the "exit" page.

Ha ha.

But deep in the story, it is noted that the "exit" page actually refers to users clinking on links to other War of 1812 sites, noted on but not run by the government site.  Many of the 'exits," indeed, were to eighteentwelve.ca, a bicentennial site run by the Historica-Dominion Institute.

The report also shows that marketing works. During an ad blitz run by the government of Canada during the London summer Olympics, visits to the government's site -- and exits to other War of 1812 sites -- increased by about seven times.

the 150th Anniversary of Confederation

Yes, it's a bit away yet but the CBC/Radio - Canada, VIA, and Community Foundations of Canada are starting the planning for how we'll celebrate Canada's 150th in 2017. Conferences will be held across the country this spring from April through to June with a summary event in Ottawa of all the highlights of the planning ideas.

        OTTAWA, Jan. 28, 2013 /CNW/ - Today, CBC/Radio-Canada, VIA Rail Canada and Community Foundations of Canada, in collaboration with a number of leading organizations across the country, announced cities and dates for its CANADA 150/2017 STARTS NOW initiative, a conference series that will spark a national conversation about Canada's upcoming 150^th anniversary.

 Read more here   and   from CBC here

    (I hope they're planning on a updated song and images - though I do admit to loving Bobby Gimby's Ca na da song- I was 7 in 1967 and lived close to Montreal and I'm sure we were there for the original. Fun re-mix and good video with all the Pied Piper esqueness of it here .)

    PEI is starting now as they count down to 2014, the 150 th anniversary of the Confederation conferences in Charlottetown and Quebec in 1864. They've got lots of fun pieces and information on community grants - next deadline Feb 15.

And if you like your history more educational - try out the Confederation History Quiz that the Historica Dominion Institute put together for the Postmedia News. It's good and thorough!

And here's a good article about the history of Confederation by Mark Kennedy for Postmedia News from Jan 3, 2013 that I just saw. I love the line "Nearly 150 years later, after Prime Minister Stephen Harper campaigned vociferously in a recent election against the dangers of a Liberal-NDP coalition, the irony of how Canada was born is striking."

The Minutes are back

Robert Harris's "School Trustees" -- memorably riffed on in a Heritage Minute

Pity!  I couldn't make it to the launch of the new Heritage Minutes at the Royal in Toronto the other night -- hey, that historybloggers' social circuit gets busy! But the minutes are up on the Historica-Dominion website. (The Minutes were originally an initiative of Charles Bronfman's CRB Foundation, which morphed in Historica, which merged with the Dominion Institute, so it all fits.)

Maybe there'll be a Minute about inventing the Minutes one day.It would feature an actor playing the broadcaster Patrick Watson, who transforms a dull meeting by saying "mini-movies!" -- and then gets his way, damn the expense. I profiled Watson and the Minutes in the mid-1990s

The secret was finding how to leave things out. Or, as Watson puts it, "finding the dramatic nucleus." Where an historical documentary like the beautiful, much-admired American film "The Civil War" explains everything it knows, a Heritage Minute leaves a thousand things unexplained, undiscussed, barely evoked.  Its allusions just flicker by, and may not even make sense on a first viewing.  But like commercials or music videos, the Minutes appear over and over. The Foundation offers them free to TV stations, and since they confer valuable Canadian-content points, their total exposure nationwide now runs at more than thirteen hours of airtime every month. To your pleasure or fury, you may already know some of them by heart.

I wasn't in school, either as student or teacher, during the Minutes' heyday, and I probably wasn't a big watcher of the TV channels that needed to run them endlessly to score enough CanCon credits for their automatic licence renewals. I liked and admired the minutes, still do, but I actually did not see them that often. It was only in retrospect that I learned how many people had really been bathed in them during their youth.

HDI on 1812

Historica-Dominion Institute, with a new poll of attitudes to history and historical commemoration here and across the border, thinks about the significance of the War of 1812 and its bicentennial here.

Photo from Toronto Star

From HistoryWire to TCEBlog

There used to be a CanHist blog called History Wire, with a mixed group of contributors somewhat associated with the Canadian Encylopedia and the Historica-Dominion Institute.  It used to mix substantial Canadian history pieces, HDI promotional pieces, and odd personal rants and prejudices. One never quite knew what to expect.

'Tseems HistoryWire is no more. In its place, as of June 30 (at least that's the earliest post found) there is TCE Blog, the blog of The Canadian Encyclopedia.  At a glance it seems to have a strengthened list of contributors, a clearer purpose, and a more ambitious posting schedule.  Notable right now is a series of excerpts from publisher Doug Gibson's about-to-be-published memoir of the Canadian authors he worked with, Stories about Storytellers.

Blogger goes all you-ey tubey

I' m taking some R&R for the next ten days or so.  Blogging will be slim to none from me until August 30 or so.  Meanwhile Jordan, Kim, and Anne may fill in the gap as moves them.

But my video presence is newly available!  Historica-Dominion Institute is creating some teachable moments around John A. Macdonald's birthday, January 11. The package of materials includes some video chat about the first prime minister from, well, me.  Click on Video Lectures here at Sir John A Day  or try the "Français" tab at top right for my young handsome francophone alter ego.

Happy Canada Day

I'm outta here for a few days, and I hope you are too.

I hear Michelle McQuigge is running a Canada Day story in the Toronto Star this weekend, based on conversations with some historians about Canadian history.  Canada.com has a Canada Day package, including a link to one of those Historica-Dominion Institute history quizzes that all serious historian types can ace.

If you really want to spend the day indoors reading historical journals online, Routledge offers a free look--  just until noon on July 2.  Y'know, I might miss that one..

H-Canada reports the journals included in the celebration are:

American Review of Canadian Studies - www.tandfonline.com/RARC Canadian Foreign Policy Journal - www.tandfonline.com/RCFP Canadian Journal of Development Studies - www.tandfonline.com/RCJD Leisure - www.tandfonline.com/RLOI Atmosphere-Ocean - www.tandfonline.com/TATO Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology - www.tandfonline.com/TCJP

John A birthday parties: there are prizes

If your school happens to be holding a John A. Macdonald birthday party tomorrow. the Historica-Dominion institute invites you to send a photo of the party for a chance at prizes. Email here or tweet @HDInstitute or seek out Historica-Dominion Institute on Facebook -- by noon on Tuesday, it says.

Does history make better citizens than astronomy?

Where is the evidence for the often repeated, but never demonstrated, claim that compulsory Canadian history courses will make “good citizens of the present and future” (Laying Foundations for Citizenship – editorial, Dec. 21)?

Ramsay Cook argues that subjects from astronomy to zoology would do as well.

Over to you, Historica-Dominion.

What's next for Historica-Dominion?

Toronto entertainment lawyer and producer Michael Levine will take the helm at the Historica-Dominion Institute.  Historica-Dominion has grown enormously since Rudyard Griffith's little idea factory merged with the larger Historica Foundation a couple of years ago. The appointment of Levine, dealmaker and entertainment entrepreneur extraordinaire, suggests some blockbuster events may well be part of the institute's future. I'm looking forward to it.

Levine succeeds journalist and scholar Andrew Cohen, the first head of the merged institute, who goes back to writing and teaching in Ottawa

From a kiss to the courts

Constance Backhouse is giving the 2010 Avie Bennett Historica-Dominion Institute Lecture on "From a Kiss to the Courts: Canada's First Capital L Lesbian Sexual Assault Trial."

Date: Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Where: Robert R. McEwen Auditorium, Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto
When: 7:30pm, followed by a Q and A and reception
RSVP

This picture is from the promotion for the lecture, not my private collection, I swear. A bit lurid perhaps, but it gets one's attention.

I have heard Constance Backhouse speak on this case before. It's a doozy.
She is described by the announcement as Distinguished University Professor and University Research Chair at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa and she's all of that. She's also the first non-American to head up the American Society for Legal History, a multiple-prize winning author for her three alliteratively titled legal histories: Petticoats and Prejudice, Colour-Coded, and Carnal Crimes and one of the movers and shakers of the Feminist History Society. And an exceptionally nice person. But more to the point, she is a heck of a story teller, and this is one she tells very well.

Willimae Moore was charged with “indecent assault on a female” in the winter of 1955, when she attempted to kiss a fellow stenographer working in Yellowknife.
It was a romantic overture that was unreciprocated and resulted in what appears to be Canada’s first prosecution of a woman for sexually assaulting another woman.

Renowned legal scholar Constance Backhouse will bring this fascinating historical case to life as part of this year’s Backhouse will provide a glimpse into sexual norms and gender roles at the time in the unusual context of Canada’s far north in the Cold War era. She’ll explore some of the most pressing questions about the case, such as: What forces came together in the Northwest Territories in the 1950s to make this possible? How did the police, the courts and the community respond? How did this case differ from the usual prosecution for sexual assault historically?

One for Remembrance

I missed Historica-Dominion's recent launch of We Were Freedom, an anthology of oral histories from the institute's Second World War oral history project. But I saw its director Andrew Cohen at one of those Toronto galas we literati spend all our time at when it's this time of year, and he promised me a copy.

Well, no copy yet, but around here we don't need to be bought. It looks like an impressive addition to the substantial shelf of Canadian military history that is out there.

Update, November 16: Book arrives at the door, and handsome it is. Thanks, HDI.

Call ourselves an institute

What's most striking about the tempest in a teapot over the possible renaming of Ottawa's Wellington Street "Macdonald Avenue" -- is how much the discussion relies on non-academic historians. In coverage I've seen, the debate is led, quite ably, by writer Rob Plamondon (yes, make the change), the Macdonald-Cartier Institute Society(no, don't), Andrew Cohen of Historica-Dominion (yes), and Rudyard Griffiths of the former Dominion Institute (no). Here's a well-sourced story on a matter of historical meaning, and the press doesn't see the need to consult a single professor of history, not even the regular quotables (I'm thinking of you, Des).

I find this a good thing, mostly. We benefit from an engaged, informed historical "public sector" drawing the links between historical meaning and public policy choices. 

But it also reflects what we might call "the silence of the academy" these days. Among the army of Canadianists in our university history departments, there are many busy, dedicated and hardworking scholars, but vanishingly few, it seems, who are writing big books or otherwise disseminating ideas that resonate with broader ideas about Canadian history.  I try to cover the waterfront, looking for big, serious, important contributions about the history of this country... and some days the gleanings seem pretty thin, compared to the historical resources we have.

So I'm starting to read In the Province of History: The Making of the Public Past in Twentieth Century Nova Scotia (by Ian McKay and Robin Bates) with added interest. At first glance, it seems to be a professorial attack on history done by people who are not professors. I'm eager to know more, but I wonder if the simple fact that so much history is done by people who are not history professors is going to be a subtext here. 

As for the controversy itself, I like the point of view of Professor Andrew. particularly on the problems in the trend to pedestalizing our prime ministers.

Update, July 13: Petition to save the Wellington Street name is here.

HIstorica-Dominion goes global

The Dominion Institute used to be renowned for its annual Canada Day poll proving that Canadians knew diddly about Canada. Historica-Dominion still polls -- and still promotes its poll results brilliantly -- but its ambitions have gone global. Its enormous new poll is less about what we know of ourselves than what the world thinks of us. It's done in conjunction with Ipsos, the Globe and Mail, the Monk Centre, and other partners, and it's getting tons of coverage in the Globe & Mail. The Institute's own summary here.

Today in History, and in Ottawa: Vimy Ridge

April 9, 1917. The Battle of Vimy Ridge. April 9, 2010: Day of commemoration at the National War Memorial, Ottawa.

Historica-Dominion Institute, initiators of the Day of Commemoration, has related material.

The Vimy Foundation wants Canadians to wear a Vimy Pin, called "April's poppy." The poppy does not suffice?

Ancestry.ca is temporarily offering open (i.e. free) access to its searchable database of World War One names, Canadian Soldiers of the First World War. [Disclosure: I did a bit of work for Ancestry.ca this year, and currently enjoy access to its collections.]

Veterans' Commemoration Day

Last year I was in Vancouver for a Dominion Institute event. When it ended, I headed home but the indefatigable DI warriors Marc and Jeremy jumped in a rental car for the (longer than they thought) drive to Spokane, Washington, to pay their respects to John Babcock, then the last surviving Canadian veteran of the First World War, who had been a supporter of and donor to their Memory Project initiatives. When I heard of Mr Babcock's death last week, I felt I was at one (or is that two) degrees of separation from him

John Babcock and his family having declined the proposal of a state funeral, his bereaved friends at the Historica-Dominion Institute are advocating a national day of commemoration for all who served in that war. Their Facebook campaign page is here.