I have to respectfully disagree with some of that. You say these themes weren't there before. I'm looking at the news release when the previous government announced it, and under themes and vision it talks about an open, diverse, and pluralistic society, for example, bringing Canadians together. That sounds like diversity and inclusion to me. I think you will find that some of those themes were being emphasized.
My concern is that Confederation and history are perhaps being missed when it comes to things like the micro-grants and so on, that we aren't really focusing on encouraging communities to focus on that the way you are in your terminology of the 150th anniversary of Confederation.
Historica Canada has done some good research over time. In 2007 they told us that only 16% of Canadians could name the four provinces of Confederation. The same year, only 46% of young Canadians could name the first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald. In 2008, when they looked at the population as a whole, they did a little better: 61% knew Sir John A. as the first Prime Minister. By 2013 that had gone up to 74%, which was good. A similar improvement happened over knowing that 1867 was the year of Confederation: in 2008 only 61% knew; by 2015 that was up to 72%.
I think what that tells us is Canadians do want to know more about their country and they do want to know more about Confederation. Do you agree that we need to focus on getting more of that knowledge of Confederation to the public?