Annual Report 2022-23

It’s a pleasure to report on the year and the important work of Canada’s National History Society. From grassroots heritage fairs, to building teachers’ skills, to honouring national excellence in history, we are a trusted partner and premier content source within Canada’s history ecosystem.

To our donors, partners, readers, and other supporters, we thank you. Your contributions are making a difference by enhancing the skills of educators and increasing the resources to support the teaching of history. As a charitable organization, we operate efficiently to maximize the impact of every dollar.

We know there has never been a more important time for discussing and considering history in Canada. We are uncovering new truths and reconciling them with past understandings. As historian and author Margaret MacMillan has said, the discovery of history is never-ending. Otherwise, we would not need historians to guide our learning!

After the pandemic years, we were delighted to return last November to a live event for the annual Governor General’s History Awards. Her Excellency, the Right Honourable Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada, has a keen interest in history and hosted an important conversation about how to ensure that Canada’s national narrative includes everyone. With a double cohort of award recipients from 2021 and 2022, it was inspiring to see the work happening in classrooms, museums, and communities all across Canada.

Meanwhile, our Canada’s History Stories Campaign is well underway. Our goal is to raise major new funds for Canadian history — and, thanks to our generous donors, we have already raised $1.7 million toward an overall goal of $5 million in charitable donations by 2027.

We are committed to further developing new classroom resources to meet the needs of teachers and students throughout Canada. We are also proud to collaborate with organizations such as the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, as well as subject-matter experts from a wide range of communities.

This is my first year as Chair and fourth year as a Board Member. It is my honour to serve our community of talented staff and dedicated Board Members and our broader history network. Our society is playing a vital role in supporting educators across the country while also ensuring that all Canadians see themselves reflected in Canada’s history.

Many of the recipients undertook projects to advance reconciliation in their communities. Examples include the groundbreaking exhibition from the McCord Stewart Museum in Montreal, Indigenous Voices of Today: Knowledge, Trauma, Resilience, and the work of teacher Jacqueline Cleave, whose young students in Winnipeg produced a child-friendly version of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s ninety-four calls to action.

Other projects explored community- based stories, like the interpretive panels for a local park created by the students of Carla Cooke and Tracey Salamondra in Hartney, Manitoba, or the two-year initiative by Heritage Lower Saint Lawrence that celebrated the local history of Métis-sur-Mer, a small town in Quebec’s Lower St. Lawrence region.

As Her Excellency, the Right Honourable Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada, said in her opening remarks at the awards ceremony: “The History Awards honour those who tell our stories — all our stories … We are telling a fuller history, fleshing out our stories from all the peoples of this land.”

For the award recipients, this honour was both a highlight of their careers and an opportunity to share their passion for history with a national network of like-minded individuals. The recipients formed new relationships that sparked innovative ideas that will advance their important work even further.

Canada’s History Society is grateful to all its award supporters, including the Department of Canadian Heritage, Power Corporation of Canada, Parks Canada, Musée de la civilisation, and Ecclesiastical Insurance, as well as the Canadian Historical Association and the Canadian Museums Association.

Visit our Awards section to learn more about the Governor General’s History Awards, and visit our History Award recipients page to watch video interiews with them.

Thirty years of Heritage Fairs

Canada’s History Society is proud to celebrate thirty years of the Heritage Fair program, which sees students share history-based projects at regional events throughout Canada each spring. Canada’s History contracted a research firm to review the national program and to inform our future activities and resources.

The final report indicates that the program remains relevant and engaging for today’s teachers and students, supporting a variety of cross-curricular learning objectives. Program alumni spoke very highly of Heritage Fairs and the opportunities they present to learn from other participants. “[I’m] so grateful that I took part in this Heritage Fair project,” one participant said. “It changed my life.”

Connecting Canadian youth

To conclude the youth program #OurStoriesOurVoices, Canada’s History hosted a virtual Youth Forum in the spring of 2022 with thirty young storytellers. We held seven online workshops designed to show students different applications of history and ways people engage with history through their careers. Members of the Canada’s History Youth Committee also led small group discussions with the participants.

In 2022, Canada’s History launched the John Bragg Award for Atlantic Canada, a pilot project made possible by the River Philip Foundation. The following organizations each received a $50,000 grant for initiatives that share the stories of inspiring people who have shaped Atlantic Canadian history and society:

• Cole Harbour Rural Heritage Society (Cole Harbour, N.S.)
• Friends of the Farmers’ Bank of Rustico Inc. (Rustico, P.E.I.)
• Nordais Collectif (Tracadie, N.B.)