> The other day, in my (eighth grade) history class, we were studying Confederation, and our history teacher was trying to make a point. So he asked one of our less bright students (incidentally, the one who mentioned the futile system in Things People Said) who the first Prime Minister was. (He tends to do that so we still have class interaction during a lesson.)
>
> "Umm.... Sir Issac Newton," said the student.
>
> Now, that got me thinking. Is all this stuff we Canadians are being told about us not knowing our history, we're not proud of ourselves, yak, yak, yak, actually TRUE? I mean, I certainly can't imagine an American eighth grader saying Patrick Henry was the father of their country, but I'm not sure it goes to that extreme in Canada.
>
> So is the Great White North truly lagging in historical awareness, or is that just propaganda being fed to us by the CBC or some such entity? Thoughts?
>
> -Mar"July 1, 1867"kusRTK

WHAT?!?! The CBC is telling you Canada is lagging the U.S. in history awareness? Hmmmm... Americans are told that they're behind Canadians. I smell a conspiracy. Still, I think (some) Americans only have that limited knowledge because we tend to be more nationalistic. I wouldn't get too excited about the historical awareness of your southern neighbors.

Do svidaniya,
Jannette ("But do you think more Americans know about the British North America Act than Canadians do the Constitution?")

PS: John A Macdonald. But I didn't learn that in public school!