Why Canada?

I believe many Canadians know little about the discovery and development of what would become Canada beyond the two superstars in Canadian history: the Mohawk leader Joseph Brant, whose real name was Thayendanegea, and the British General Isaac Brock. And maybe also Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain.

Beyond Brant and Brock hopes to fix that.

What is Canada?

• Canada is hockey.
• Canada is baseball.
• Canada is basketball.
• Canada is fishing along rivers catching perch or on a lake landing a muskellunge (Musky).
• Canada is the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans.
• Canada is the great open plains of the West and big sky country.
• Canada is the majestic peaks, glaciers, mountain streams and thick forests of the Rockies.
• Canada is the long backroads heading off into the horizon past farms, villages, forests, and lakes. Canada is a beaver dam, a moose wandering amongst trees in the boreal forest.

OK, so now that we have finished flipping through the pictures on the wall calendar, let’s discover how much Canada is more than these wall-posters.

The whole story

Whatever you might imagine about Canada, a dozen images in a calendar can capture this vast and diverse nation. Its vast landscapes, its multinational peoples, its multitude of languages and the contributions and heritage of its Indigenous peoples all form part of the fabric and identity of Canada.

Beyond Brant and Brock attempts to describe in serialized form how that identify was formed.

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