Canadian Histroy

This post is for people who want to either discuss Canadian history, or want to ask questions about it which I, or others, can answer.

Something neat I've noticed in Alberta's electoral history: the province always votes in blocks of priemers from one party consistently, but then moves on to a different party.

First it was the Liberals from 1905-21 (Rutherford, Sifton, Stewart)

Then the United Farmers to 1935 (Greenfield, Brownlee, Reid)

Then the Social Credit Party to 1971 (Aberhart, Manning, Storm)

Then the PCs up until 2015 (Lougheed, Getty, Klein, Stelmach, Redford, Hancock, Prentice)

and now NDP with Notley

It'll be interesting to see if this pattern continues next election, there's nowhere else in Canada, maybe even the world, that has a history like this of solid blocks of party control.

Yea now that you mention that it is pretty odd, didn't notice it till now. But next election I don't think we're gonna go NDP, there's about as much hate for Notley as there is hate for Merkley from the US.

It certainly is looking that way, but we'll see if the NDP can pull itself together in time.

Oh boy Canadian history. So much stuff to talk about (especially when you had to take it in school for nearly 7 years). I'm actually curious how the history classes are like in each province. I know in Quebec it's basically just propaganda to make the Francophones look like poor victims and increase support for nationalism and seperatism, but not sure how the other provinces are.

Mr Trolldemort wrote:Oh boy Canadian history.  So much stuff to talk about (especially when you had to take it in school for nearly 7 years).  I'm actually curious how the history classes are like in each province.  I know in Quebec it's basically just propaganda to make the Francophones look like poor victims and increase support for nationalism and seperatism, but not sure how the other provinces are.  

Here in Alberta they basically cover everything (and by everything I mean up to confederation, everything after 1867 is ignored) by grade 4, and spend the next three years just repeating it (however, 6th grade might be different, I was in a special class for that year and things were crazy different than regular schooling for me).

After 7th grade, they tend to have a more global (but still pretty bare IMO) curriculum, with the only Canadian events I remember from those years being the WWI and WWII internment of Ukrainians, Germans, Austrians, and Japanese, and Tommy Douglas' work in establishing universal healthcare.

Also, outside of Social Studies classes, we always got a brief overview of Terry Fox's story every October/November when we did all the fundraising and stuff.

Well sounds a lot more than what I learned. We pretty much ignored the rest of Canada past confederation. We didn't even cover WW1 or WW2 besides the fact that there was a conscription crisis because Quebec (who would have thought) didn't want to support the UK while the rest of Canada did.

We dealt with a few modern stuff, notably the quiet revolution (basically when Quebec stopped being a backward socially conservative province and nationalized a ton of things and started becoming more vocal about it's heritage that we've all grown to love/hate) and the 1980 and 1995 referendums

And this was from grades 2 till 10. Very boring but on the bright side by that time it was a garanteed perfect grade since you already knew what they were gonna talk about

I'm from Southern Alberta in the Livingstone range division and yeah a lot of it was spent about the natives and pre confederation until grade 7. In grade 7 it was a full history, from the foundation of Quebec until like the Halifax harbour explosion spread out through a year. Grade 8 we focused on the rennaisance, then Aztecs, then Japanese (from the sengoku jidiai period until the end of the Russo Japanese war). For a year. In grade 9 we focused on the structure of our government, like the house of commons and passing a bill to the legal system like the YCJA. In grade 10 we kind of shyed away from Canada, and focused on globalization. The grade 11 it was split between national identity, nationalism (and ultranationalism) internationalism (and stuff like the Nuremberg trials, Geneva convention, and other international organizations), then Canadian identity and nationalism (involving the Quebec crisis and the world wars). Idk about grade 12 since I'm doing that next year.

Mr Trolldemort wrote:Oh boy Canadian history.  So much stuff to talk about (especially when you had to take it in school for nearly 7 years).  I'm actually curious how the history classes are like in each province.  I know in Quebec it's basically just propaganda to make the Francophones look like poor victims and increase support for nationalism and seperatism, but not sure how the other provinces are.  

I don't know where you got the idea that they teach propaganda in Quebec, but it's completely false. Believe it or not, not all French Canadians want to separate from Canada (as shown in the votes for the referendums). But if you really want to know, in grade 7 and grade 8 (Secondary grades 1 and 2) we study the history of the world (not in detail, just some information). In grade 9 and 10,(Secondary grades 3 and 4), we study a little bit about the aboriginals (Iroquois, Algonquins and Inuits) then we study the French regime and the British regime. In grade 9, it's up until 1840 (Act of Union). In grade 10, it's from 1840 until "our days". In grade 11, (Last year of Secondary school), we study the contemporary world.

OreoMerlin wrote:
I don't know where you got the idea that they teach propaganda in Quebec, but it's completely false. Believe it or not, not all French Canadians want to separate from Canada (as shown in the votes for the referendums). But if you really want to know, in grade 7 and grade 8 (Secondary grades 1 and 2) we study the history of the world (not in detail, just some information). In grade 9 and 10,(Secondary grades 3 and 4), we study a little bit about the aboriginals (Iroquois, Algonquins and Inuits) then we study the French regime and the British regime. In grade 9, it's up until 1840 (Act of Union). In grade 10, it's from 1840 until "our days". In grade 11, (Last year of Secondary school), we study the contemporary world.

I live in Quebec, so that was my personal experience with history class, if you think I just made that up. Of course I know not all French Canadians want to separate, and it's been less popular now than its been in decades. I know many Francophones that I'm good friends with. But it's still a significant size and remains a major factor in Quebec politics. I guess if you want the full details of what I learned in History class, I'l do that

Grade 1 unfortunately was too long ago and I forgot what I did back then :/

Grade 2-3 we talked about the pre-columbian age and the Algonquin and Iroquois and the similarities and differences between them.

Grades 4-5 we covered more about the First Nations and the explorations of Jacques Cartier and New France until 1763 and the treaty of Paris.

Grade 6 we talked more about the history of Quebec past 1900 including le Grand Noirceur (the great darkness) under Maurice Duplessis, la Revolution Tranquille (Quiet Revolution) in the 60s, and the October Crisis and the rise of the Parti Quebecois, and the 2 referendums.

Sec 1 we did a very (and I mean very) broad history of the world from ancient Egypt up to the medieval era.

Sec 2 we continued the history from the renaissance up to modern times.

Sec 3 we covered pretty much every what I learned in elementary school, except more detailed. We learned more about the Rebellions of 1837, Louis Riel's rebellion and execution and the controversy it caused in Quebec, the conscription crises of WW1 and WW2 (but ironically nothing about the war itself) and the Oka Crisis

Sec 4 was basically sec 3 all over again, except much more biased, with a ton of emphasis on how much conflict there was between French and English was under the British until the Quiet Revolution and all the laws that were passed were so good and useful in preserving French culture. The final exam for my year I literally had to write how the Patriotes in 1837 were justified in writing the 92 resolutions and become independent (Also if you think I'm just bitter I got over 90 in nearly all my history classes and got 97 on that Final)

And yes, Sec 5 I also did contemporary world, which is basically just a mixture of politics, current present day issues and some economics.

So no, I am hardly exaggerating when I say that there is some bias, especially when I took it in sec 4, which my teacher literally took the official curriculum and textbook issued by the government and translated it to English. That is just my experience of course, so perhaps it is different between high schools and years. I heard they were planning on changing the history classes so it is split during sec 3 and sec 4 when I was graduating high school, so perhaps that's why what you learned during those years were different than for mine.

I've bee wanting to learn more Canadian history lately, since the boredom with it thanks to the repetitiveness of schooling has finally worn off, anyone know any good websites and stuff?

I don't really have any sources save for a few books I got when I was a kid, and some old "Canada: A People's History" tapes that I can't watch because my house hasn't had a working VHS since around around 2009.

Crazy Boris wrote:I've bee wanting to learn more Canadian history lately, since the boredom with it thanks to the repetitiveness of schooling has finally worn off, anyone know any good websites and stuff?

I don't really have any sources save for a few books I got when I was a kid, and some old "Canada: A People's History" tapes that I can't watch because my house hasn't had a working VHS since around around 2009.

I don't actually know anything that I would recommend, almost all of my knowledge about Canada other than in the world wars was learnt in school.

I live in the US, and it's interesting to see how other countries learn about their history. I'm surprised that none of you have mentioned the War of 1812, it's really one of the only times that (British) Canada is mentioned in history classes here.

_Dewey wrote:Grade 8 we focused on the rennaisance, then Aztecs, then Japanese (from the sengoku jidiai period until the end of the Russo Japanese war).

Wut. Well that's a weird combination.
In the US we only learn about how Japan was "closed," then the US "opened" it, and like a Pandora's box it grew so powerful that we had to nuke 'em. (most of my Japanese history knowledge comes from bill wurtz anyway lol)

Winston Churchill wrote:I live in the US, and it's interesting to see how other countries learn about their history. I'm surprised that none of you have mentioned the War of 1812, it's really one of the only times that (British) Canada is mentioned in history classes here.

_Dewey wrote:Grade 8 we focused on the rennaisance, then Aztecs, then Japanese (from the sengoku jidiai period until the end of the Russo Japanese war).

Wut. Well that's a weird combination.
In the US we only learn about how Japan was "closed," then the US "opened" it, and like a Pandora's box it grew so powerful that we had to nuke 'em. (most of my Japanese history knowledge comes from bill wurtz anyway lol)

The part about 1812 would have been included in the grade 7 year about all of Canadian history. But we pretty much glanced over it, the only thing we focused on were 4 people. I can only remember learning about General Isaac Brock, and Tecumseh, one of the guys who lead the natives on the British/Canadian side. 

I also find it weird how we barely learned about the US, not even from a revolutionary war or 1812 perspective. The only time I remember learning about them was before WW2 in the Great Depression.

_Dewey wrote:
The part about 1812 would have been included in the grade 7 year about all of Canadian history. But we pretty much glanced over it, the only thing we focused on were 4 people. I can only remember learning about General Isaac Brock, and Tecumseh, one of the guys who lead the natives on the British/Canadian side. 

I also find it weird how we barely learned about the US, not even from a revolutionary war or 1812 perspective. The only time I remember learning about them was before WW2 in the Great Depression.

Yeah, we barely covered the war in 1812 in my history classes. We only discussed a few battles that happened and the White House burning down.

I only learned about American topics if they directly impacted Canada. For the revolutionary war, I only learned about that time the US tried to invade Canada hoping the population would support them, but they didn't and chased them out. And how Upper Canada (modern day Ontario) was formed after the huge amount of loyalists leaving the USA to British colonies. I also learned how the threat of another American invasion was a major factor in the creation of the Dominion of Canada.

Mr Trolldemort wrote:

_Dewey wrote:
The part about 1812 would have been included in the grade 7 year about all of Canadian history. But we pretty much glanced over it, the only thing we focused on were 4 people. I can only remember learning about General Isaac Brock, and Tecumseh, one of the guys who lead the natives on the British/Canadian side. 

I also find it weird how we barely learned about the US, not even from a revolutionary war or 1812 perspective. The only time I remember learning about them was before WW2 in the Great Depression.

Yeah, we barely covered the war in 1812 in my history classes.  We only discussed a few battles that happened and the White House burning down.  

I only learned about American topics if they directly impacted Canada.  For the revolutionary war, I only learned about that time the US tried to invade Canada hoping the population would support them, but they didn't and chased them out.  And how Upper Canada (modern day Ontario) was formed after the huge amount of loyalists leaving the USA to British colonies.  I also learned how the threat of another American invasion was a major factor in the creation of the Dominion of Canada.

Pretty much same thing for me, just the first real immigrant wave to Canada being loyalists, and the fact that this beefed up USA with a massive army made of veterans after the civil war threatened the colonies. Then the depression, and then some bits and pieces involving them in the cold war. Mainly Vietnam and Afghanistan.