Canada: The Story of Us

Don't bother watching this badly scripted FICTION, Too many omissions and inaccurate "history." Should have been titled "Canada: The Story of THEM" instead. This is by far a big waste of tax payers' money and time. May I suggest, CBC, next time you want to make a documentary on Canadian history you should hire real historians and forget the reality shows pseudo-experts.

Any series about Canadian history that identifies the War of 1812 as "Canada's War of Independence" does not know much about history. Who did Canadians become independent from? The invaders from the United States, who were defeated, (and their capital burned in 1814)? Wasn't Canada, (or, the several colonies, of British North America, including Upper Canada and Lower Canada), still comprised of a few British colonies, after the Treaty of Ghent? Not until the Statute of Westminster, in 1931, did the Dominion of Canada achieve independence as a nation, (no longer a British colony); and, the Canada Act, in 1982, made Canada entirely independent of the British Parliament, (full legal sovereignty, including constitutional legislation). Whoever wrote, directed, and produced this series probably flunked their Canadian history tests.

I'm not wasting a minute watching this series. Real Canadians are not interested in this "alt-history"!

As a teacher of Canadian history, I often use "Canada: a People's History" to supplement my lessons. I was hoping this would be another useful resource to use in my class. Boy, was a wrong! "Canada: The Story of Us" is shallow, badly written, filled with inaccuracies, and leaves huge gaps in our history. TV celebrities and sports figures stating such gems as, "the Rockies are huge. Really, really big" replace historians who actually know something about our history. Anglophone actors mispronounce their French lines. Platitudes fill every episode. We were so excited about this coming out for the 150th. We sat down to watch it and within 10 minutes, we knew it was a bomb. This is SO bad on SO many levels. DO NOT WATCH.

I too was disappointed by this series. I found there was a lot of emphasis on the indigenous peoples, but not on contributions from other groups, like the Scots, Irish, Japanese, Germans, and even the Americans that had profound influences on our nation and the ways in which it developed. Even the French (aside from Champlain and the FLQ) had only occasional mention. It seems to me that the makers of this series placed a higher value on style, rather than substance.

I think it was enjoying to watch and I hope we get another series because they missed very important cultures and nations that also made Canada what it is. What I saw I enjoyed, but it is missing enough to make another series! If it's the story of us, let's not leave anyone or anything else out!