Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for coming. I have two lines of questioning. One has to do with the stories that you tell in the context of our own history that we all share. I like your suggestion about a theme, by the way. That was very good. As the chair pointed out, we haven't heard a lot of that so far, so it's good to hear that.
The second part is the dissemination of the story. I agree with my colleagues about the education aspect. I think Mr. Brown has an incredibly valid point about how we teach history and how much history we do teach.
Two things. I remember one of the best stories I've ever seen that was produced in this country was the vignette or small film about the underground railroad. I can tell you that when I first saw it, it was in the context of all this negativity that I had seen, all that was bad about race relations in the United States, and all the movies that were being produced at the time focused on just how bad it was. All of sudden out of nowhere this great story came out from Canada, and I felt it was my own story. I didn't know about that, and I was out of school then. That's the unfortunate part about it.
I think the message that was in it punched through all the negativity that surrounded race relations, not just in Canada but in North America. And the story that was there...it was such a powerful little piece of film.
Now, in the context of today and the stories you tell...the acting mayor of Toronto, great story; the construction unit out of New Brunswick, another fantastic story. These stories punch through, but how do you punch at a level that penetrates and brings us the message that this country is worth celebrating 150 years.
The question then is—and I'd like both of you to weigh in on this, but, Mr. Sherwood, you're in the business—when we put these stories out there, what is the best vehicle that we have technically? We have the Canada Media Fund. We have the National Film Board. We have these little vignettes, the Historica things.
I believe in the classroom concept, but I certainly buy into, with all my heart and soul, the media that we have here and the talent that we have to produce it. And the stories we have to tell, matched with that, are not just going to be a gift to Canada, but I think they're going to be a gift to the world.