Canadian Heritage committee  That's a very important question. The centennial responded to some very real needs that this country had. It was the Royal Bank that identified housing as one of them. It wasn't part of the centennial program, but of course the 1970s was an era of substantial federal investment

Canadian Heritage committee  It should be a great relief to every member of this committee that you don't need to come up with the single big idea that's going to please everyone. I think your job is to create a sense of urgency about this and to develop a framework. Whether your thing is the arts, public ed

Canadian Heritage committee  One of the organizations that could be very helpful is the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, the former Governor General's legacy, run by Gillian Hewitt Smith. They've created a cultural access program for all new Canadians so that they automatically get free admittance to the

Canadian Heritage committee  I think you're right on the money with that one. You know, sending out badges and things like that, and Expo printing up its passports--how much did that really cost? Very, very little, and look what a mark it made on a generation of Canadians. Since I started following the cente

Canadian Heritage committee  We did some polling around the conference centre. I know Keith Neuman was here, and he probably told you that among francophones and anglophones, it's actually allophones who are most excited to celebrate. We often talk a lot about civic apathy. I'm in the public engagement gam

Canadian Heritage committee  Well, I think, actually, Colin, who is the head of the Confederation Centre of the Arts, and the Epcor Centre for the arts in Calgary may have more suggestions about that.

Canadian Heritage committee  All right, good. I think the arts are still important, because they convey a kind of vitality, right? They are a place for experimentation and a place for public imagination. It's arts high and low. You look to Toronto, where we have the incredible Manifesto urban arts festival

Canadian Heritage committee  Money that can be put toward convening is really important. This may be a broader point about the sesquicentennial, but no one has asked about how well we are going to use Facebook and Twitter and technology to make this all great. Of course, it's going to play an important role

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for the question. The report we published from the conference identified seven or eight principles that the conference thought should inform the design of 2017. The first is the idea that diversity is Canada's pride; that it's part of our character and it's our streng

Canadian Heritage committee  I don't have a technical view on the financing of 2017, but I would suggest that it's no surprise that government already has a very big footprint in this country. One of the very simple things the federal government did was to insist that the centennial logo be printed on every

Canadian Heritage committee  You have some immediate assets at hand. The first is the work I've already mentioned by David MacKenzie, with P.E.I. 2014. That's a great opportunity, and I know there is the possibility of federal government commitment to and participation in that exercise. What I have tried to

Canadian Heritage committee  Each province was given one major gift. That's how Ontario got the archives and Alberta got a performing arts centre. There was one big flagship build, and then there were all the municipal projects.

Canadian Heritage committee  I would suggest that just doing an inventory of every centennial and memorial project in this country would be a very good place to start, because how many kids go to a centennial school or play hockey in a centennial rink or memorial arena or kick around a ball in a centennial p

Canadian Heritage committee  Let me just offer a very brief response. I don't think it's for any of us at this end of the table to offer an opinion on that. It really is for Canadians to decide. I think that's why an occasion like a sesquicentennial major milestone can be such an important opportunity to tak

Canadian Heritage committee  I think it's two things. It's about looking back, and it's also about looking forward. We should use 2017 as a pivot point to look in both directions at the same time. I take your point that young Canadians probably don't know enough about the history of the country. Because of