A Film Review: The Canadian confederation

Extract

The Canadian Confederation is a 1980 National Film Board of Canada release written, directed, and edited by Joan Henson. This technically competent work begins with the establishment of the Canadian political system, and then gives us glimpses of all major facets of that system from village government in Smithfalls to the paramount halls of power in Ottawa. But this is not all. There are minicourses in Canadian constitutionalism, federal-provincial relations, energy policy, regionalism and regional economic planning, and last but not least, ethnology including native peoples packed into this freeze dried smorgasbord.

Some themes receive more treatment than others. The perceived dominant theme is diversity. Senator Maurine Lamontagne sets the tone by pointing out that Canada differs from the United States’ melting pot in that Canada is a mosaic, to use John Porter's enduring image.