Canadian Heritage committee  I would like to say that your reference to the Vancouver Olympics was excellent, because that was another example of a clear strategic vision with a brand, a personality, and a program that was then developed to make sure that we all shared in a certain circle of understanding an

Canadian Heritage committee  First of all, I noted with amazement yesterday that the federal government gave $122 million to help fund the new Royal Alberta Museum. It's astonishing. I heard about it on the plane coming down, because the guy sitting beside me was coming here with the Premier of Alberta, who

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you. I'm a great fan of the smaller museums. I am a member of them in my own province. They tell stories that are intimate and personal in a way that the big ROMs don't. They are more artistically oriented, in large part. I don't think we have what is known as a national

Canadian Heritage committee  That's a good question. I think we can be overly portentous about these things. As I said in that paper, there's nothing wrong with having a great party just to have a party, even if it doesn't have any consequences. Of course, Expo and the centennial did have consequences in te

Canadian Heritage committee  You mean the El Sistema thing? It's another one of those things that sound like they would qualify really well under this rigorous filter. The growth of these kinds of programs would qualify really well. There was an earlier question on how this is done. In 1967 we had a centen

Canadian Heritage committee  I think that is a perfect example of what you could do. To go to your earlier example, this is where I think you need some discipline. For example, why would the 150th birthday focus a lot on things like the Halifax explosion or Vimy Ridge, which happened a hundred years ago or

Canadian Heritage committee  Then instead of having islands with buildings that were built to be torn down six months later, as at Expo, where only a few buildings were saved.... Instead of that impermanence being built in, what you would see with the digital media is everybody who went out on their two-week

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, absolutely, and what I'm suggesting here is that you don't have to come up with all of these programs. All you have to come up with is the principle for all of the people who want to do programs. Mr. Levine's proposal, which I heard only this morning, couldn't be a more per

Canadian Heritage committee  That part comes out of my longer paper that you've obviously read. It's not in this one. First of all, with respect to the legacy of relationships, there are these programs where you get people together. The Governor General has one and does something every year. Various groups

Canadian Heritage committee  —by funding people and mixing them up and moving them around.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you. History is bound to be a major topic during a birthday party for a country. Certainly, some of the projects that would come forward under “Mix-Up and Move Around” would have to do with history. Of course, all of these new immigrants from different worlds—in very large

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank you for the opportunity to come here and think about Canada 2017. My remarks today are taken from a paper that I gave in July to the annual meeting of Canada's federal and provincial ministers of culture and heritage in Whitehorse. This is a much a