Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Selling Canada To Canadians: Collective Memory, National Identity, And Popular Culture, Emily West

Emily E. West

Two media endeavours, the Heritage Minutes and the CBC documentary Canada: A People’s History, hope to serve as a corrective to Canadians’ lack of interest in their history and to bolster national identity. However, the producers do not want to appear propagandistic in a country where there is conflict about what the shape of the nation should be. They accomplish this by appealing to the “on the spot” authority of journalistic representation and the emotional immediacy of dramatic story-telling. They also emphasize the multi-cultural and multi-perspectival nature of Canada’s past. However, ultimately these efforts exist within a larger narrative about …