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.

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!

It seems Acadians who settled as pioneers in Port Royal in 1604 and later at Fort Louisbourg, also in Nova Scotia are not included at all in what was Lower Canada. It's a major shame how they who developed the beaver trade with Europe is not mentioned. They were from Seigneurie D'Aulnay in Poitou France, north of Bordeaux. The were cultivators for Seigneur Charles D'Aulnay. In 1632, 300 Elite French men came from Seigneurie Isaac Razilly. Between 1635-1650 D'Aulnay brought 20 French families and started populating this country. Both my parents families are from this group. In the 1671 census, there are 53 French family names, all from Lord Charles Menou D'Aulnay. I have pictures of an Abenaquis tribe chief considered King and daughters who were princesses and can affirm they did not look richer then the poorer of the poor French claimed in this mini series. Acadians taught them how to culture the land in return learned how to hunt, build canoes. Lived in harmony fairly well. I can see how Quebecquers would feel offended as well. Obviously no French historians were consulted. Genealogy is one of my hobbies and have many books with facts from archives. I hope Justin Trudeau will acknowledge Acadians and the Maritmes as part of Canada somewhere in the near future. Big disappointment!

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.