A7

PETER T. SMITH
COMMENTARY

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With Canada Day comes the annual spate of news stories about how little Canadians know about our own country, especially our history. The complaints are as predicable as the phases of the moon, but people - even pollsters - express shock at the yearly revelation only 42 per cent of Canadians know there are three territories in this country, as a Canadian Press Harris Decima showed last week.

Enlarge Photo

The Canadian Press

Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean arrives at the Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on July 1.

I have to admit being shocked myself that tourists in Ottawa assumed the flags on Parliament Hill were at half mast not for one of our great statesmen, but for a half-baked has-been American pop star. And though I would hope these comments were made by American tourists who thought they were visiting a nation mourning the passing of one of their most bizarre and inexplicably popular celebrities, I have to accept that some of them may have been made by Canadians visiting their own capital.

"It's depressing," said one of the tour guides. Well said.

So, rather than being depressed, or waiting to be shocked next July 1st, or wondering if Rick Mercer should be planning a Talking to Canadians special, I'm just going to present a quick primer on Canada. Nothing fancy, just 10 quick points - perfect for students off for the summer, anyone dazzled and dizzied by incessant and insipid Michael Jackson coverage, and all those who had bland or uninspired Canadian history teachers.

1. July 1st, 1867. This is where it all began. You need to know this one date. It was called Confederation.

2. There were only four provinces in 1867, and New Brunswick was one of them, along with Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec. Newfoundland was the last to join, in 1949. The others came in between.

3. The governor general is the head of state. The prime minister is the head of government. In the U.S. the president performs both these roles, but here in Canada, as in most of the world, they are two different jobs. Michaëlle Jean is the current governor general; Romeo LeBlanc used to be, which is why the flags were at half mast when he died.

4. OK, the Queen is technically the head of state, but since she's not here, the governor general performs all the head of state duties on her behalf. The GG is even technically appointed by the Queen as her representative, though Her Majesty makes that appointment on the prime minister's recommendation.

5. The provincial counterparts are the lieutenant-governor and the premier. Herménégilde Chiasson is our lieutenant-governor; he's also a world famous poet and playwright, and quite the gentleman to boot.

6. Canada played tremendously important roles in the two world wars and in the Korean War. You should recognize the names Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele, and Kapyong as important Canadian battles. Not only were the Battle of Britain and D-Day important battles for Canadians, they changed the course of the war and, consequently, history. This is why Europe is free, fascism is a bad word, and we don't have to speak German.

7. Canadians developed peacekeeping, initially under Minister of External Affairs Lester Pearson, who took on the imperial interests of Britain and France to end the Suez Crisis. Blue berets are now an international symbol of peacekeeping.

8. Superman is not Canadian, no matter what the old heritage commercial tells you. He's from Krypton. The artist who designed him, Joe Shuster, was born in Toronto, but emigrated to the U.S. at age 10.

9. Canada is ranked third of 179 countries on the 2008 United Nations Human Development Index. This means we have a good thing going here. By comparison, the U.S.A. ranked 15th.

10. Those little piles of rocks are called inukshuks. They come from our Inuit heritage, and in recent years have become a symbol of Canada in general.

Some follow up assignments:

Watch a Canadian movie sometime, or at least a Canadian TV show. The country has a lot more to offer than just Corner Gas.

Read something by a Canadian author. You don't have to dig into the dense writing of giants like Margaret Atwood or Michael Ondaatje. Try sticking closer to home and picking up something by David Adams Richards, Beth Powning, or Kathy Diane Leveille.

Match the prime minister with the dollar bill he's on: Macdonald, Laurier, King, and Borden.

Try to get to a Remembrance Day ceremony on Nov. 11th. It only takes an hour.

That's all until next year, or at least until New Brunswick Day.

Peter T. Smith is a teacher and writer. He can be reached by email at ptsmith_tj@hotmail.com. His column appears on Tuesday.