TORONTO – Tomorrow, 11 November, would be Remembrance Day, the day we remember the people who fought and died to protect Canada in past wars. That would be, because there’s a… problem: a lot of Canadians don’t have the faintest idea what these wars are. In fact, there is a new survey by Ipsos – conducted on behalf of Historica Canada, an educational charity known above all for its “Heritage Minutes” educational initiative – which highlights… the ignorance of many Canadians regarding the history of their own country (and history in general). 

As the CBC reports in an article about this survey, of the thirty true-false questions on identifying certain moments or facts in Canadian history, fewer than one in five respondents (18%) managed to pass the quiz with fifteen or more correct answers, and 82% of people surveyed got a failing grade.

Even when identifying key figures in Canadian history, respondents showed great difficulty: for example, for more than half of the 1,001 Canadians interviewed for the survey, Viola Desmond – civil rights icon, who was on the 10-dollar bill for the last six years – is an unknown figure. Indeed, 71% of those interviewed said they were unable to identify Rosemary Brown, the first black candidate for the leadership of a major Canadian party. And, speaking of politics, nearly 30% of respondents couldn’t remember the year Canada became a country through Confederation (1867), and a similar percentage couldn’t identify Sir John A. Macdonald as Canada’s 1st Prime Minister.

Experts say there is a reason for these findings. In some provinces and territories, it is not mandatory for high school students to take a course on Canadian history. While there are “social studies” and “global studies” courses that can cover aspects of the Canadian experience, some provinces – including Alberta, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador – have decided that students do not need to take a course focused on Canadian history before graduating from high school. In other provinces, such as Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan, students can take courses on African-Canadians or Mi’kmaw or Native people to fulfill their Canadian history requirements. Other provinces, such as British Columbia and Ontario, have a more solid curriculum, but still very far from – for example – European standards.

In short: the fault of such ignorance certainly does not lie with the (former) students…

Photo by StockSnap from Pixabay