The Canadians: Biographies of a Nation

Erin Millions teaches in the Department of History at the University of
Saskatchewan.

Canadians are vociferous consumers of popular history. Initiatives by
the CRB Foundation and its successor, HISTOR!CA, have attempted to
educate Canadians about their past in an entertaining manner. HISTOR!CA
is involved in History Television’s The Canadians: Biographies of a
Nation, a program that chronicles the lives of Canadians from various
backgrounds, time periods, and regions. Patrick Watson, creative
director of HISTOR!CA, has adapted the scripts from various episodes of
The Canadians and collected them in a two-volume series bearing the
show’s name. The set examines everyone from cosmetics mogul Elizabeth
Arden, to journalist Bob Edwards, to slain architect Frances Rattenbury.

The books are a blatant advertisement for the television series, with
Watson instructing readers on how to order video copies of the show.
Like the television series, the books pull from obscurity many
intriguing Canadians who have passed from our collective memory. The
quality of the writing, however, is questionable. Because Watson has
adapted the text version from television scripts, the result is a
somewhat uneven, and sometimes confusing, conglomeration. Quotes are
often not clearly marked, verb tenses are inconsistent, and the
overdramatization often characteristic of popular history abounds. Flaws
aside, the set offers readable history and demonstrates that Canadians
do, in fact, have an interesting past.