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.
Conservative
Jim Hillyer Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Thank you.
Dr. Davies, I didn't get to ask you a question, and I want to.
You've talked a lot about the importance of guarding against being prescriptive in planning Canada 150, and I appreciate that. I wonder if you can just comment on the same idea. Going beyond the planning, how can we guard against being too prescriptive in promoting Canadian values, so that we actually reflect them, rather than telling people what their values should be?
Independent Scholar, As an Individual
Thank you for the question.
My mind turns to open-ended questions. I know that when the survey was conducted you said the survey asked a series of open-ended questions that allowed respondents to fill in the blanks, if you will, something like “I'm proud to be Canadian because...”. You're affording people an opportunity to share that vision with you of what their values are. I hope that's helpful.
Conservative
NDP
Andrew Cash NDP Davenport, ON
I thought we're at the ground floor in this committee of discussing this celebration, and yet twice now Mr. Brown has said that we are not going to have a focus like the one at Expo. I'm not sure if there have already been consultations that have allowed the government to arrive at that position. That's a comment I wanted to make.
I wanted to ask a couple of quick follow-up questions about Expo 67. You've all talked about how it would be a little dicey to be adding a historical element to our celebrations of Canada 150, or that it would be tricky. That's not to say we shouldn't do it, but it would be tricky.
I am wondering what happened in 1967. What were the themes? Was there some backward-looking? Was there some historical dimension? Because my sense of it.... I was a child, and I want to say to Mr. Calandra that I didn't go either, buddy. My parents went and my older siblings went, but I was too young.
Was there a historical element, or was it looking forward? I know that we were at a different point in our history.
Independent Scholar, As an Individual
I would suggest that we consider Expo and the centennial somewhat distinctly and that Expo was very much a future-forward experience.
With respect to the centennial, certainly history and the stories of the nation were woven into many of the programs and much of what was presented, whether it was arts and culture and featuring great Canadian painters and artists or even the performers, the publication program. There was a series on the Fathers of Confederation. I think the history and the stories of the country were woven in throughout the exercise. It was an element. It was a lens through which we looked at a hundred years. It wasn't, as I say, this didactic lesson of these are the four things you have to remember about our past.
NDP
Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet NDP Hochelaga, QC
My question is for Mr. Neuman.
In your statistics regarding the importance of celebrating the 150th anniversary, you have data concerning anglophones, francophones, and allophones. I was wondering if you have something more specific regarding first nations, or whether they were included in the other groups.
Group Vice-President, Public Affairs, Environics Research Group Ltd.
On first nations, no questions were specifically focused on aboriginal peoples. We did ask the question, and I'm pulling up the numbers now, about what about Canada most deserves to be celebrated. This was one of the open-ended questions.
I'm looking at the numbers here.
NDP
Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet NDP Hochelaga, QC
I'm not sure if you understood what I meant. I was referring to questions asked to first nations peoples, and not about first nations peoples.
I'm asking about questions asked of the first nations, not about them.
Group Vice-President, Public Affairs, Environics Research Group Ltd.
From first nations respondents?
Group Vice-President, Public Affairs, Environics Research Group Ltd.
There were aboriginal peoples in our survey. But as a national survey of a thousand, a fairly small number of individuals would self-identify as first nations, Métis, or Inuit. There would be too few to be able to analyze that research separately here, so we were unable to do that.
On many of our surveys where it's possible we do make a very strong effort to include them and look at that, and this speaks to the question about doing larger surveys and other samples and making sure we hear from particular segments of the population.
We know there were some aboriginal respondents to this particular survey, but too few to be able to look at those results.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
Mr. Chairman, I wonder if we might leave 15 minutes at the end of the next committee meeting for committee business. Out of respect, I know that the opposition had mentioned that once in a while they'd like to double-check that there's nothing of extreme importance that has come out before us. Could we perhaps at the next meeting just leave 15 minutes?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Moore
At the next committee meeting we'll have 15 minutes for committee business.
I want to thank our panel: Ms. Shaw, Dr. Neuman, and Dr. Davies. I can't think of a better panel to start our study on our 150th anniversary. Your comments and your research have been very informative to our work. Thank you for your time.
The meeting is adjourned.