“History is Objective” …. “It Does Matter”…

“History is Objective” …. “It Does Matter”…
Interview with the Canadian War Museum
Featuring Dr. Peter MacLeod, Historian, Pre-Confederation

 “What Shaped You ... Who are You …”

I was able to ask representatives from the Canadian War Museum if they felt Canadian history, the War of 1812 and “living history” is so important and, why is it important to Canadian’s for personal, national, and international dimensions? They respond …“Canada’s military history forms part of Canada’s history and by understanding our military history it all its dimensions, Canadians gain a better understanding of who they are and where they came from.”

In my research about the War of 1812, it is stated that "we learn from our past", but, it doesn’t seem that many of these lessons have been applied in our society today. I asked Dr. MacLeod if he had any thoughts about this. His reply …“Understanding our past helps Canadians to understand their country today.” Dr. Peter MacLeod, Historian, Pre-Confederation with the Canadian War Museum talked with us about how Canadian Military influenced Canada’s past. Dr. MacLeod goes on to say … “if you don’t know your history, you don’t really know who you are”. “Wars shaped Canada…. from our national anthem, O Canada; our official languages, development both economically and socially. They shaped us fundamentally; otherwise, Canada would just exist. Pre-Confederation wars created our boundaries and languages.”

I went on to talk with Peter MacLeod about the number of "controversial" articles written about the War of 1812. Since, on our website, we like to present all sides of an issue and since everyone seems to have a different strong "opinion", what would he suggest we do to “not offend” our readers and historians? I did talk about my article that I wrote entitled “The Ten Foot Rule … if it look authentic from 10 feet away it must be”. It seems that this Historian does not agree with my theory...

 Dr. MacLeod stated …“One of the key lessons we hope that visitors draw from coming to our exhibition is the importance of perspective, and allowing that one event may be experienced from multiple perspectives. We introduce this concept at the beginning of our exhibition. By allowing visitors to experience the exhibition from the four perspectives, we leave it to visitors to form their own opinions about what matters to them.” Dr. Peter MacLeod tells us that their goal was to give each visitor from one of the four perspectives the experience to feel at home; to explore and discover their own history and come to their own conclusions.  It is not all about the Invasions of Canada or the origins of the War, but that of all of us, inclusively worked together to defend Canada.

(To Be Continued)