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The CBC on poor student knowledge of Canadian history
Link: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/11/09/canadians-quiz.html?ref=rss
This is the lead paragraph on a CBC story about the poor knowledge of Canadian youth:
If you know why 1867 is a noteworthy year in Canadian history or what top job Sir John A. MacDonald held at that time, then you've already outsmarted most college-aged Canadians on parts of a basic pop quiz.
Unfortunately I too couldn't think what Sir John A. was doing just prior to becoming Prime Minster of Canada. The leader of the Conservative party and a politician for sure, involved heavily in the process of Confederation certainly, but his actual job? I can't find a source that words it clearly but he was the Deputy Premier of the Province of Canada (with the Premier being the extremely well-known Narcisse-Fortunat Belleau.) If you knew that off the top of your head, your knowledge of Canadian history clearly exceeds mine.
Come on, CBC. When you're being pissy, at least word the snark appropriately.
(Wikipedia cites are used as I like the clean layout of the data and I truly don't have the interest to dig through the finer peer-reviewed books covering the period!)
1 comment
Technically he became Prime Minister after confederation. It was an instantaneous process (i.e. ‘Province of Canada’ and then *poof* ‘Country of Canada’ as soon as Royal Assent was granted) with no inbetween phase. Therefore whatever job Sir John A. held before then was the job he held “at that time.”
