Canada: A People's History is a 17-episode, 32-hour documentary television series on the history of Canada. It first aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from October 2000 to November 2001. The production was an unusually large project for the national network, especially during budget cutbacks. The unexpected success of the series actually led to increased government funding for the CBC. It was also an unusual collaboration with the French arm of the network, which traditionally had autonomous production. The full run of the episodes was produced in English and French. The series title in French was Le Canada: Une histoire populaire. In 2004, OMNI.1 and OMNI.2 began airing multicultural versions, in Chinese, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Russian.
| Canada: A People's History | |
|---|---|
| Starring | Various |
| Narrated by | Maggie Huculak |
| Theme music composer | Claude Desjardins and Eric Robertson |
| Country of origin |  Canada |
| Original languages | English, French (original); later dubbed to multiple foreign languages |
| No. of episodes | 17 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Mark Starowicz |
| Camera setup | Single-camera |
| Running time | 120 min/60 min |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBC |
The series was truly a people's history; as much as possible, the story was told through the words of the people involved, from great leaders and explorers to everyday people of the land at the time. In the first season, these words were spoken by actors representing historical figures. In the second season, photographic images and film were shown while words were read by actors, or spoken by the figures themselves wherever archival recordings could be used.
Episodes
Series 1
| # | Title | Time span | Chapters | Personalities | Opening Vignette |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | When the World Began... | 15,000 BC–1800 AD | First Nations and Inuit history; first European contact | John Cabot, Jacques Cartier, Chief Donnacona, Henry Hudson, John Jewitt | |
| 2 | Adventurers and Mystics | 1540–1670 | European exploration, hunt for Northwest Passage, founding of New France, start of fur trade | Samuel de Champlain, François le Mercier, Jean Talon | |
| 3 | Claiming the Wilderness | 1670–1755 | Expansion of New France and its fur trade, conflict with British colonies, Acadian deportation | Louis de Buade de Frontenac, Marquis de Sallières, William Shirley | |
| 4 | Battle for a Continent | 1754–1775 |
|
Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, James Wolfe, Benjamin Franklin, Guy Carleton | “A war is coming that will change the world. It will be fought on every ocean on earth with the five greatest navies that ever set sail and the largest armies in the history of mankind. The Seven Years War will change the destiny of Canada. Large imperial armies will march on her soil, bombard her capital and burn her villages and towns. Empires will fight each other for possession of the continent. Indian nations will go to war for their homelands. In one decade of destruction, the future of everyone on this continent will be transformed forever.” |
| 5 | A Question of Loyalties | 1775–1815 |
|
Isaac Brock, Charles-Michel de Salaberry, Tecumseh, Joseph Brant, Benedict Arnold | “In the next 40 years, the question of loyalties will twice turn North America into a battleground and trigger the greatest mass migration in its history. It will first divide, then uproot the Indian nations making them refugees in their own land and it will change the face of the continent, creating one country and planting the seeds of another.” |
Series 2
| # | Title | Time span | Chapters | Personalities | Opening Vignette |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | The Pathfinders | 1670–1850 |
|
Alexander Mackenzie, Pierre-Esprit Radisson, David Thompson, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes | “His destiny will be in the Canadian northwest in the footsteps of coureurs de bois whose grand schemes created competing fur trade empires and trailblazers who trekked across the barrens and dreamed of reaching a great sea to the west. Voyageurs, business tycoons and their native trading partners. It was an age of adventure of great daring and enterprise, of pioneers and pathfinders. The story of the fur trade and the opening of a continent.” |
| 7 | Rebellion and Reform | 1815–1850 |
|
Joseph Howe, Louis-Joseph Papineau, William Lyon Mackenzie, Robert Baldwin | “In the 1830s, Canada lives through some of its darkest and most desperate hours. ‘Moi aussi, je prétends que le temps des descours est passé. C’est du plomb qu’il faut envoyer maintenant à nos ennemis!’ Demands for political freedom lead to armed rebellion, violent confrontation with one of the world’s most powerful armies. Shouts of victory from the great revolutions in France and America still echo around the world. The mightiest empires of Europe and Latin America are shaken to their foundations. In Canada, the currents of revolution exact a terrible cost. Hundreds die on the battlefields and dozens more are hanged as traitors. But from the ashes of this failed revolution, something new is born- an alliance of democrats that brings Canada a new political future.” |
| 8 | The Great Enterprise | 1850–1867 |
|
John A. Macdonald, Agnes Macdonald George Brown, George-Étienne Cartier, Harriet Tubman | “Against a terrifying backdrop of civil war, 33 men must settle the fate of the queen’s colonies in British North America. It is a story of powerful personalities and a bitter political stalemate. One man, accused of treason in his youth has become a passionate defender of the British crown. Another risks his life as he preaches peace. They know half a continent is theirs if they can overcome deep mutual suspicion and resist dangerous forces gathering on the border. This is a time of secret deals and back-room interventions by the powerful. A story of risk and seduction. A gamble to build a country from sea to sea.” |
| 9 | From Sea–Sea | 1867–1873 |
|
John A. Macdonald, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, George-Étienne Cartier, Louis Riel | “A new dominion is scarcely born when old hatreds test its fragile bonds. A ringing call for tolerance is silenced by a cold-blooded assassin. This is a story of a people who refuse to submit to the laws of another and a prairie province born of an armed uprising. A story of great personal triumph and bitter defeat, the completion of a dream to build a railway and a country from sea to sea.” |
Series 3
| # | Title | Time span | Chapters | Personalities | Opening Vignette |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Taking the West | 1873–1896 |
|
Alexander Mackenzie, John A. Macdonald, Louis Riel, Crowfoot, Big Bear | “Tonight, the English and French networks of the CBC continue the first history of Canada for the television age. It is a story which has seen a vast continent of first nations become the battlefield of rival empires ‘Fire!’ whose descendants would forge a new country. A country which will become the shores of hope for millions. All the events portrayed in this series actually happened. All the people you see actually lived. All the words they speak were spoken or written by them. ‘Wish us well on our long journey and do not forget us. Pray for us so that we may arrive safely at the promised land.’ This is the story of one of the great human migrations in history of the landless and the dispossessed driven by hunger and by hope to a turbulent adventure in a landscape of terrifying beauty. This is the story of how their children will return to the old world and in the crucible of war, take their place among nations ‘A wonderful success. Every line was captured on time, every battalion doing equally well. The grandest day the corps has ever had. The attack was carried out exactly as planned.’ It’s a story of dreamers and prophets, reformers and revolutionaries, of ordinary people facing physical calamity, economic collapse and political persecution. It’s the story of the lust for gold, the battle for human dignity and the shaping of a new century. A new century in which Quebecers will ask if they have a place in Canada ‘Je n'ai jamais pensé que je pourrais être aussi fier d'être Québécois que ce soir.’ and new champions will emerge who will transform the country ‘The place for Quebec is in Canada, nowhere else.’ It is a human drama which begins 120 years ago when the west was still young and the Indian nations controlled the great frontier, where an infant dominion is finally tied by a ribbon of steel from sea to sea and where two worlds will collide in rebellion in the last battle on Canadian soil ‘Oh my god, grant us the favour so that we beat them one after another.’” |
| 11 | The Great Transformation | 1896–1915 |
|
Wilfrid Laurier, Clifford Sifton, Guglielmo Marconi, Nellie McClung, Henri Bourassa, Robert Borden, Won Alexander Cumyow | “It is a story of dreams and dreamers, of a place where almost anything is possible. A country of bustling factories, great cities, all the marvels of a new age, fields of gold and a western empire built on wheat. This is the story of a great migration drawn by the lure of free land, work and hope. A new Canada shaped by the clamour of new voices, by a bitter clash of visions between a political master and his one time protégé. As Canada makes its way in the world, it pays a terrible price for its new-found strength.” |
| 12 | Ordeal by Fire | 1915–1929 |
|
Robert Borden, Nellie McClung Sam Hughes, Lionel Groulx, Wilfrid Laurier, Arthur Meighen | “At the dawn of Canada’s century, the young country is plunged into the greatest war the world has ever seen. It will exact an inconceivable toll of death and destruction. It will be a time of horrific defeats and spectacular victories, of bitter conflict over who will fight. Every part of Canada, every person, every town and city will be transformed in the crucible of war. This is Canada’s ordeal by fire.” |
| 13 | Hard Times | 1929–1940 |
|
William Aberhart, Maurice Duplessis, R.B. Bennett, Mitchell Hepburn, William Lyon Mackenzie King, Carine Wilson, Adolf Hitler | “Canada is between two wars but it is not at peace. There are personal tragedies on every corner, riots in the streets, revolution in the air. The old guard has no solutions but the extremists have many. The country is in chaos. Poets, painters, farmers and factory girls. The depression will remain with them all forever.” |
Series 4
| # | Title | Time span | Chapters | Personalities | Opening Vignette |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | The Crucible | 1940–1946 |
|
William Lyon Mackenzie King, Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, Tommy Douglas, C. D. Howe | “The war will transform Canada and its people. It will divide a country and unite a continent. It will spark brutal intolerance and momentous change. It is a story of triumph over tyranny, of unimaginable death and dislocation. For those who survive, it will bring unexpected promise and prosperity. A new Canada will be forged out of the fires of war and a proud and confident nation will take its place on the world stage.” |
| 15 | Comfort and Fear | 1946–1964 |
|
Louis St. Laurent, John Diefenbaker, Joey Smallwood, Maurice Duplessis, Tommy Douglas, Lester Pearson, René Lévesque | “This is the story of a nation reborn through the dreams of a generation who sacrificed everything on the battlefields of the world, of the dispossessed who come seeking freedom and fortune, of a colony that becomes a province and completes a country. A time of plenty, not shared by all and a peace burdened with dread. Out of the fires of one war, Canada will be caught in the icy grasp of another. It is a story of a nation caught between comfort and fear.” |
| 16 | Years of Hope and Anger | 1964–1976 |
|
Lester Pearson, Pierre Trudeau, Jean Lesage, Patrick Moore, René Lévesque, André Laurendeau, Gerald Pelletier | “This is the story of a time when anything seems possible, when progress has become a religion, when people believe there are no bounds to the inventiveness of human beings. A time when the young do their own thing and want to save the world, when women right for equal rights and first nations claim their ancestral heritage. This is the moment when Canada asserts its identity to the world, just as it slides into one of the worst crisis in its history. A time when Canadians must choose between conflicting visions of their future and when excess of all kinds leads to a sobering awakening.” |
| 17 | In an Uncertain World | 1976–1990 |
|
Pierre Trudeau, René Lévesque, Brian Mulroney, John Turner, Jean Chrétien, Robert Bourassa | “This is a time of revolutionary change, of winners and losers. Old enemies and fresh longings threaten to divide the country and soaring global visions promise dramatic change. ‘The future of Canada is at stake, I need your help’ Canadians will launch a rights revolution. Mary Eberts will help transform the place of women ‘If governments do not see our place and our voices in their assemblies, then it is up to women to bring the point home.’, Elizabeth May will begin a national crusade from her kitchen table ‘It was their job and it was our life.’ and Baltej Singh Dhillon will challenge the very image of Canada ‘And how we do as a country is going to be judged globally.’ In an uncertain world, there is upheaval and opportunity.” |
Production
The production team, christened the Canadian History Project and later renamed the CBC Documentary Unit, is headed by producer Mark Starowicz. They continue to work on CBC documentaries, including the series The Canadian Experience, The Greatest Canadian, and Hockey: A People's History.