Evidence of meeting #8 for Canadian Heritage in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was centennial.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
Thank you.
Mr. Neuman, you said the importance to the allophone community was 90%. What did they say they were most proud of? Can you break this down?
9:50 a.m.
Group Vice-President, Public Affairs, Environics Research Group Ltd.
Yes, I can. If we compare allophones to the national total, “beliefs and values” was 49% nationally, 50% among allophones. Multiculturalism was higher than the national average. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms was a little lower. “People in history” was almost the same as the national average. “Achievement”, such as peaceful country, arts and literature, and so forth, was just above the national average, 19% versus 17%. “Resources and institutions” came out basically the same, as did “position in the world”. So on these broad themes, the responses from the allophone segment of the population were pretty much on the national average.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
Dr. Davies, how important was a central celebration in 1967? How important was Expo? Should a central celebration be a focus of 150?
9:50 a.m.
Independent Scholar, As an Individual
Certainly when I have spoken to people, or when I have read literature from the period, Expo 67 figures prominently in people's recollection of the period. For some, 1967 is synonymous with centennial.
Having said that, it's a different time now, and I think it's important to recognize, or at least take into consideration, what Canadians may be prepared to entertain. I don't think we should necessarily read 1967 as a model that needs to be replicated hook, line, and sinker.
Having said that, it was an anchor event. It was something people could rally around. It was something that got global coverage and national coverage and local coverage. I think there was value, recognizing that we are in different times.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
I think for most of us the torch relay was a spectacular event. For those of us who weren't at Expo 67 or weren't born at that time, Expo 67 is a source of irritation, because I constantly hear about it and I wasn't able to attend. I wasn't even being contemplated at the time. But for very real reasons, the torch relay has become a kind of expo for a lot of us.
I know in my hometown we had four events on one day. I have four different communities that I represent. I remember waking up that morning at 5:30, and it was minus 25. It was the coldest day, and I was thinking, “Oh, gosh, nobody's going to show up for this.” I put on layers and layers and layers, and I was about two kilometres from the downtown—Stouffville is a town of about 35,000 people—and the lineup had already started. I barely made it to where I was supposed to be to try to fight my way through the crowds.
Two hours later, in Markham, at the regional celebration, there were over 10,000 people there.
It was just a frigid, frigid day. We have one of the torches from that day on display at our city hall. The one thing that people always remember is that the entire town showed up for it. They remember everything that led up to it and just how cold it was on the day, and still, 30,000 people showed up in the downtown.
I wonder if you could tell me something. You've raised an awful lot of money through partnerships. Obviously when you go to a partner, one of the things that's important to them is the exposure they get out of doing something. What were some of the other challenges you faced? What were some of the other things your partners were looking for before they would commit to this type of an investment?
9:55 a.m.
Founder and Managing Partner, Twentyten Group
It's a great question.
In today's world, companies have a stronger accountability requirement, if you will, to the board of directors, so they're scrutinizing dollars that they spend, investments that they make. They need to understand the return on investments.
Our approach with our partners was always about how can you help us and how can we help you? It wasn't a one-way communication. Historically, if you look back into sponsorships in Canada, it was many times a one-way relationship. It's got to be a two-way relationship.
Now let me go to the torch relay on the specifics of your question. All our sponsors were engaged, and you had to be a current game sponsor to be a torch-relay sponsor.
As you know, we had to fund the entire torch relay by sponsorship, which had a budget of about $40 million. That's a lot of incremental money, if you will, for sponsors who had already invested in the games to add. We had the opportunity, as stipulated by the IOC, to have two presenting partners. That was what we were able to do, so the lion's share of the funding had to come from them.
Our strategy, which I think is relevant to what's going on in terms of where you're headed with the 150th anniversary, was that we brought in a couple of companies that we thought would make the investment in the early days to help us sculpt what this thing would look like. Why? Because if our vision and their vision and values were like-minded we knew that incremental investment would be that much greater. When we did that, they helped sculpt the programs. We understood what their needs were, they understood what our needs were—and I'll be clear that they needed something—but we didn't want to be an over-commercialized torch relay. They understood that was part of the game plan.
By bringing partners into the strategy and the sculpting of some of your programming features, this allows you.... When you go to them to say we need $10 million more, there's not a thought; they're there, and they're committed. It was a strategy that worked for us, both in the torch relay as well as the Cultural Olympiad, because that too was funded, again, separately by games partners. So it was very strategic.
When we talk about timelines and the need to be well ahead in your planning to get corporate sponsors, they don't want to come on at the eleventh hour. The longer they have time to be part of what's going on, the more value and therefore the higher the return on the investment there is.
9:55 a.m.
NDP
Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet NDP Hochelaga, QC
Thank you very much.
I'm sorry, Mr. Calandra, but I also went to Expo 67. We came down from Abitibi, and for us it was something special. My parents had passports, and in my naivety I had a pavilion hostess sign mine. My brothers still laugh at me for that, but what can you do!
Within the NDP—I am an NDP member of Parliament—we seek to create links between communities; our motto being "Together, we can do this."
A few moments ago, we heard that Quebeckers were less interested in festivities than were people from other regions of the country. In what you heard from the people you spoke with, were there any specific ideas as to how to bring people together across Canada? I'm referring to ideas for Quebec, of course, but also for other groups such as Francophones inside and outside of Quebec, the founding nations or First Nations, in contrast to other groups.
Perhaps Ms. Davies or Mr. Neuman can answer my question.
9:55 a.m.
Independent Scholar, As an Individual
Thank you for the question.
With respect to how a range of groups were involved in the centennial, there was certainly an interest on the part of the centennial commission to involve francophone communities outside of Quebec. In fact, one of the pieces that I study in my dissertation is an NFB documentary that was done on a francophone community in northern Alberta, St. Paul, Alberta. It was really in the spirit of wanting to demonstrate that francophone culture was across the country and wanting to share that experience with Canadians. Similarly, there was a real interest in involving Canada's aboriginal people in the centennial event. So looking at ways to involve at the local level, there was not just an interest, there was action to involve a whole range of communities. Certainly that's something that can be built on as we move to the 150th.
10 a.m.
NDP
Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet NDP Hochelaga, QC
The film you're referring to was produced in 1967, wasn't it?
10 a.m.
Independent Scholar, As an Individual
Yes, it was, by the National Film Board of Canada.
10 a.m.
NDP
Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet NDP Hochelaga, QC
I'll ask Mr. Neuman then.
From what you've recently heard, do people have any ideas as to how to promote what I was speaking about in my initial question?
10 a.m.
Group Vice-President, Public Affairs, Environics Research Group Ltd.
In the context of the survey I reported on, there really wasn't much scope for us to try to poll ideas in that context, because when we were doing the survey we hadn't given people much preparation to think about this. The survey really was trying to capture some initial reaction and response to the event, what had happened, and what they might like to see. I think this is really where further research would need to be done, for which you could give people some background and then probe ideas.
My only comment or perhaps recommendation to this committee with regard to planning and speaking to the question just a bit is that I think it would probably be important to focus the celebration and the vision on what Canada is today and on looking forward in terms of the legacy rather than focusing so much on history and looking back 150 years and saying we're celebrating the history of Canada and everything that has come up to this point. Obviously there are different viewpoints and different experiences and divisions in this country if you look at it historically. I suppose there might be some danger that people would look at this and interpret it as though we were celebrating the history of what's happened. That may reflect to some extent why people in Quebec might be less enthusiastic about the prospect of this sesquicentennial than others would be.
The talk about legacy is about the future. And according to this survey and other surveys that we have done, the things people are proud about in Canada are not historical and old but really reflect Canada's reality today--multiculturalism, tolerance of others--things like that really reflect the current Canada. I suspect that if the focus is on the current reality and the future, then the inclusion of other groups across the country might be easier to accomplish.
10 a.m.
NDP
Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet NDP Hochelaga, QC
Nevertheless, the Canada of today was built on the Canada of yesterday. I think it might be a mistake to completely leave out Canada's past. I'm not sure if you see it the same way I do. I don't think that that is the case.
10 a.m.
Group Vice-President, Public Affairs, Environics Research Group Ltd.
I don't mean to suggest that history should be avoided, but I think there perhaps might be a danger if this celebration were overly focused simply on the past. I think that has to be one of several elements.
10 a.m.
NDP
Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet NDP Hochelaga, QC
In your statistics, there was the question of community activities and programs to celebrate local culture. I'd like to get back to my question about specific ideas. In that respect, were any specific ideas brought up? Yes or no?
10 a.m.
Group Vice-President, Public Affairs, Environics Research Group Ltd.
Again, we presented some of these concepts in the survey to get people's initial reaction to them. People did respond. In some there was more enthusiasm than in others, and that shows in the numbers. We did not attempt in this survey to get their own ideas, because given the lack of background people had before the survey, it would have been a very difficult question to ask on the survey. My guess is that if we had tried to do that, most people would have drawn a blank, because they wouldn't have had time to think about it. Because people had not thought about it before and because probably many of the people we spoke to didn't even realize it was the 150th coming up, I'm not sure it would have been very meaningful in the context of this survey to ask that question. Certainly there is future research that could do a very good job of that.
10:05 a.m.
Conservative
Parm Gill Conservative Brampton—Springdale, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to start off with a question for Dr. Davies. How would you say Canada of today is different from Canada of 50 years ago, roughly?
10:05 a.m.
Independent Scholar, As an Individual
My mind turns almost immediately to technology. While the organizers of the 1967 centennial and Expo were certainly adept at using the technology at hand then, and there were some fairly sophisticated exhibits that travelled across the country, today I think of Twitter, social media, and Facebook. How we engage the Canadian community is probably quite different from the coffee klatsches around a kitchen table. Mind you, there is benefit to that as well. So as far as technology, communications, and the kinds of tools we use today to engage people, it is quite different.
There may also be differences in tolerance around expenditure of public dollars. I think that's something we are cognizant of as a country.
So there's a range of differences. I also believe there's an overarching sense of pride, and that's demonstrated in the Environics survey. It shows that Canadians are proud, and welcome the opportunity to celebrate accomplishments and join together in moving forward into the future.
10:05 a.m.
Conservative
Parm Gill Conservative Brampton—Springdale, ON
On the demographics change, we've had a huge number of new Canadians come into the country since then. What sort of impact could that have?
10:05 a.m.
Independent Scholar, As an Individual
I think Dr. Neuman's survey points to that, in the sense that I note from the survey findings that there is a tremendous appetite to celebrate the 150th. So I'm not sure that's a barrier to a celebration, and I think it presents a tremendous opportunity.
10:05 a.m.
Conservative
Parm Gill Conservative Brampton—Springdale, ON
Do you have any practical suggestions on how the Canadian government can generate interest in the 150th celebrations, based on efforts around the centennial?
10:05 a.m.
Independent Scholar, As an Individual
It was interesting to listen to Ms. Shaw and her remarks on the focus groups and engaging early and speaking to Canadians about what they envision for this centennial year. I think that's key, from the spirit of inclusivity, getting a sense, and not being prescriptive.
I believe Minister Moore spoke to this committee last week. I heard some remarks about not walking into a community and saying “We're the federal government and this is how we envision the celebration”. In order to engender that sense of collaboration and engagement, we have to talk to Canadians. So something like focus group surveys are oral tools or mechanisms to get a sense or a read.
