Daniel Francis

Reading the National Narrative

Was Canada Really Born on the Battlefield?

Aug 10, 2014

There has been some comment about the relatively modest way that our federal government commemorated the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War One last week, especially given the prime minister's penchant for the militarization of our history.

Let me recommend a commentary by my friend Christopher Moore at his website. Chris speculates that the feds are planning to delay our real commemoration fireworks for the Vimy Ridge centenary and he thinks a bit about what this means for the interpretation (or should I say reinterpretation) of Confederation.

Is Canada a political or a military achievement? That is the issue that Chris addresses in his excellent piece.