Minute of the Day: Jennie Trout

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, October 10, 2012 at 5:42 PM - 0 Comments

Maclean’s is partnering with the Historica-Dominion Institute to celebrate the return of the Heritage Minutes. Over the next few weeks we’ll be featuring the most memorable Minutes, along with a few illustrious parodies, and a sneak peek of the brand new Minute set to be released on Oct. 15 for the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

Jennie Trout was the first woman in Canada to be a doctor, but she had to fight tooth and nail for it:

This Minute in a nutshell: “My friend Jennie Trout was not the only woman to face this kind of thing in medical school, but she would become the first woman licensed to practice medicine in Canada.”

Click here to watch more Minutes and parodies on Macleans.ca

Parody of a Minute: the B52

By macleans.ca - Friday, October 5, 2012 at 4:31 PM - 0 Comments

Maclean’s is partnering with the Historica-Dominion Institute to celebrate the return of the Heritage Minutes. Over the next few weeks we’ll be featuring the most memorable Minutes, along with a few illustrious parodies, and a sneak peek of the brand new Minute set to be released on Oct. 15 for the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

Rick Mercer has been a long time viewer of the Heritage Minutes, making parodies of them for the Mercer Report that include riffs on Canada’s bad timing, our passion for fighting over hockey, and notable inventions such as plastic garbage bags, men and women bathroom signs—and the B52 (the drink, that is):

Famous last words: “Ah, it’ll never work. We have three things that just don’t mix…”

Click here to watch more Minutes and parodies on Macleans.ca

Minute of the Day: the Canadian flag

By macleans.ca - Thursday, October 4, 2012 at 1:53 PM - 0 Comments

Maclean’s is partnering with the Historica-Dominion Institute to celebrate the return of the Heritage Minutes. Over the next few weeks we’ll be featuring the most memorable Minutes, along with a few illustrious parodies, and a sneak peek of the brand new Minute set to be released on Oct. 15 for the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

Canada’s flag was the result of fine design and even finer political talent:

This Minute in a nutshell: “Amazingly, John Matheson MP would achieve the unanimity he sought.”

Click here to watch more Minutes and parodies on Macleans.ca

Parody of a Minute: Rick Mercer’s ‘Bathroom’

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, October 3, 2012 at 4:25 PM - 0 Comments

Maclean’s is partnering with the Historica-Dominion Institute to celebrate the return of the Heritage Minutes. Over the next few weeks we’ll be featuring the most memorable Minutes, along with a few illustrious parodies, and a sneak peek of the brand new Minute set to be released on Oct. 15 for the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

Rick Mercer has been a long time viewer of the Heritage Minutes, making parodies of them for the Mercer Report that include riffs on Canada’s bad timing, our passion for fighting over hockey, and notable inventions such as the B52 (the drink, that is), plastic garbage bags—and men and women bathroom signs:

Click here to watch more Minutes and parodies on Macleans.ca

Minute of the day: Wilder Penfield

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, October 2, 2012 at 10:12 AM - 0 Comments

Maclean’s is partnering with the Historica-Dominion Institute to celebrate the return of the Heritage Minutes. Over the next few weeks we’ll be featuring the most memorable Minutes, along with a few illustrious parodies, and a sneak peek of the brand new Minute set to be released on Oct. 15 for the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

This is the Minute that taught a generation of kids a new tactic to annoy their parents: Incessantly screaming, “Burnt toast, I can smell burnt toast!”

This Minute in a nutshell: “Dr. Wilder Penfield, he cured my seizures, and hundreds more. They say he drew the roadmap of the human brain. We just called him the greatest Canadian alive.”

Click here to watch more Minutes and parodies on Macleans.ca

Parody of a Minute: Rick Mercer’s ‘garbage bags’

By macleans.ca - Monday, October 1, 2012 at 11:36 AM - 0 Comments

Maclean’s is partnering with the Historica-Dominion Institute to celebrate the return of the Heritage Minutes. Over the next few weeks we’ll be featuring the most memorable Minutes, along with a few illustrious parodies, and a sneak peek of the brand new Minute set to be released on Oct. 15 for the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

Rick Mercer’s Mercer Report has been a long time viewer of the Heritage Minutes, making parodies of them that include riffs on Canada’s bad timing, our passion for fighting over hockey, and notable inventions such as the B52 (the drink, that is), men and women bathroom signs and plastic garbage bags that sit in landfills until the end of time. Watch:

Click here to watch more Minutes and parodies on Macleans.ca

Minute of the day: Superman

By macleans.ca - Friday, September 28, 2012 at 5:04 PM - 0 Comments

Maclean’s is partnering with the Historica-Dominion Institute to celebrate the return of the Heritage Minutes. Over the next few weeks we’ll be featuring the most memorable Minutes, along with a few illustrious parodies, and a sneak peek of the brand new Minute set to be released on Oct. 15 for the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Joe Shuster, a Canadian-American comic book artist who helped create Superman in the 1930s.

Key quote: “Is he great or what?”

Click here to watch more Minutes on Macleans.ca

Minute of the day: Mona Parsons

By macleans.ca - Thursday, September 27, 2012 at 5:59 PM - 0 Comments

Maclean’s is partnering with the Historica-Dominion Institute to celebrate the return of the Heritage Minutes. Over the next few weeks we’ll be featuring the most memorable Minutes, along with a few illustrious parodies, and a sneak peek of the brand new Minute set to be released on Oct. 15 for the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

She never wore a uniform, but Mona Parsons was a fighter. She spent four years in a German prison camp in the 1940s after collaborating with the Dutch resistance.

This Minute in a nutshell: “Living in Holland during the war, Mona Parsons had helped downed allied airmen get back to Britain… and she did escape. And back in Nova Scotia after the war, she married General Harry Foster.”

Bonus Content:

Maclean’s sat down with Canadian actor Greg Ellwand, who played Major General Harry Foster in this Minute: 

How did you initially get involved with the project?

“It would’ve been how I get involve in everything. I got the call from my agent and I went out and auditioned for it. Fortunately, I was the right age, the right height, the right look, the right skin colour and I have a bit of military experience of my own and I had recently been in a military film called Dieppe. So I had the mojo going.”

What do you remember about filming it?

“It was in a studio. It looks like it’s outdoors in some ruined landscape, but it was actually just in a building, that whole thing is just a set.”

Why do you think people remember the Minutes across generations?

“As Canadians, we don’t get a lot of information about ourselves on our cultural channels. Even our television series are often, because they have to be sold in international markets or to the great elephant that we’re sleeping with the United States, they often look a little white-washed, a little indefinable as to where they are located and we’re often asked, as actors, to white-wash our accents too, to broaden out our accents and make them sound a little bit more American… So that’s what I think was particularly interesting about them, they were a little bit of nectar about ourselves. They’re short, they’re incredibly well shot, and it tells a huge story in a very short little spot of history.”

How did it feel to be involved in something so quintessentially Canadian?

“Oh, I absolutely loved it. We’re always, as actors, we have to fight for jobs all the time and when other countries come in to make their films here because of the tax credits or because it’s cheaper to use the crews or the actors, we don’t really get a shot at the good stuff. We’re sort of the cannon fodder that gets killed in the first scene. But one of the greatest joys is when you do films that are Canadian … I wait for these jobs to come along … I love anything Canadian for the same reason that I love working on these little films, these little Heritage moments, because I help weave the rug that tells the tapestry, the bayou tapestry, that tells the Canadian history.”

Click here to watch more Minutes on Macleans.ca

Minute of the day: Laura Secord

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, September 26, 2012 at 10:32 AM - 0 Comments

Maclean’s is partnering with the Historica-Dominion Institute to celebrate the return of the Heritage Minutes. Over the next few weeks we’ll be featuring the most memorable Minutes, along with a few illustrious parodies, and a sneak peek of the brand new Minute set to be released on Oct. 15 for the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

Remember this one? For many children, Laura Secord wasn’t much beyond a face on chocolate bars. Her Heritage Minute showed what her true contribution to Canada was:

This Minute in a nutshell: “Laura Secord delivered her message to the Canadian troops. The Kahnawake Mohawks forced the surrender of 500 Yankee soldiers, and the American invasion was stopped.”

Click here to watch more Minutes on Macleans.ca

Presenting: the return of the Heritage Minutes

By Scaachi Koul - Tuesday, September 25, 2012 at 12:34 PM - 0 Comments

Maclean’s is partnering with the Historica-Dominion Institute to celebrate the return of the Heritage Minutes on the bicentennial of the War of 1812. Over the next few weeks we’ll be featuring the most memorable Minutes, along with a few illustrious parodies, and a sneak peek of the brand new Minute set to be released on Oct. 15. 

The Heritage Minutes are back. Remember those 60-second spots in movie theatres and on TV that re-enact a moment in Canadian history? Of course you do. They taught generations of kids about how basketball traces its origins to Canada’s Dr. James Naismith, how Winnie the Pooh was named after Winnipeg, and that Laura Secord was about more than just ice cream.

Sixty-six Heritage Minutes were first made by the CRB Foundation and later by the Historica-Dominion Institute (which was then the Historica Foundation of Canada). It’s been seven years since the last ones were filmed, but the Institute is producing two new Minutes to celebrate the War of 1812 bicentennial.

The first one, to be released on Oct. 15, is about Richard Pierpoint, a 68-year-old former slave and Loyalist, who persuaded black men to enlist and fight in the War. The second one, coming up in the spring, is about Mohawk Chief John Norton who, with 80 Grand River warriors, surprised advancing American soldiers at the Battle of Queenston Heights. They held them off for hours until reinforcements came, and won the battle.

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