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Prime Ministers of Canada (Ages 15-17)

23 films
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Canada has had no fewer than 23 prime ministers since Confederation in 1867. The films in this playlist are designed to familiarize learners with a remarkable group of leaders and provide perspective on their contributions to Canadian history and society. Pour visionner cette sélection en français, cliquez ici. Films in This Playlist Include The Champions, Part 1: Unlikely Warriors The Champions, Part 2: Trappings of Power The Champions, Part 3: The Final Battle ‘Dief’ Mackenzie King and the Conscription Crisis Tommy Douglas: Keeper of the Flame History on the Run: The Media and the ’79 Election Traitor or Patriot The …

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Prime Ministers of Canada (Ages 15-17)

Canada has had no fewer than 23 prime ministers since Confederation in 1867. The films in this playlist are designed to familiarize learners with a remarkable group of leaders and provide perspective on their contributions to Canadian history and society.

Pour visionner cette sélection en français, cliquez ici.

Films in This Playlist Include
The Champions, Part 1: Unlikely Warriors
The Champions, Part 2: Trappings of Power
The Champions, Part 3: The Final Battle
‘Dief’
Mackenzie King and the Conscription Crisis
Tommy Douglas: Keeper of the Flame
History on the Run: The Media and the ’79 Election
Traitor or Patriot
The Road to Patriation
Dancing Around the Table, Part One
Dancing Around the Table, Part Two
George P. Vanier: Soldier, Diplomat, Governor General
The Man Who Might Have Been: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Herbert Norman
Confessions of an Innocent Man
Royal Journey
Canada at the Coronation
The Royal Visit
This Riel Business
A Little Fellow from Gambo – The Joey Smallwood Story
Action: The October Crisis of 1970
Democracy a la Maude
Barbed Wire and Mandolins
Enemy Alien

Playlist

  • The Champions, Part 1: Unlikely Warriors
    The Champions, Part 1: Unlikely Warriors
    Donald Brittain 1978 57 min
    In Part 1 of this 3-part documentary series, director Donald Brittain chronicles the early years of Pierre Elliott Trudeau and René Lévesque. From their university days in the 1950s to 1967 when Lévesque left the Liberal Party and Trudeau became the federal Minister of Justice, Brittain attempts to get at the heart of what makes these men so fascinating.
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  • The Champions, Part 2: Trappings of Power
    The Champions, Part 2: Trappings of Power
    Donald Brittain 1978 55 min
    Part 2 of this 3-part documentary series about Pierre Elliott Trudeau and René Lévesque covers the years between 1967 and 1977, a colourful decade that saw Trudeau win three federal elections, the 1970 October Crisis and the sweeping rise to power of the Parti Québécois.
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  • The Champions, Part 3: The Final Battle
    The Champions, Part 3: The Final Battle
    Donald Brittain 1986 1 h 27 min
    The final instalment of this 3-part documentary series about Pierre Elliott Trudeau and René Lévesque spans the decade between 1976 and 1986. The film reveals the turbulent, behind-the-scenes drama during the Quebec referendum and the repatriation of the Canadian Constitution. In doing so, it also traces both Trudeau's and Lévesque's fall from power.
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  • "Dief"
    "Dief"
    William Canning 1981 26 min
    This documentary short is a portrait of Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party and 13th prime minister of Canada, John George Diefenbaker (1895-1979). Diefenbaker's political career spanned 6 decades. When he died in 1979, his state funeral and final train trip west became more a celebration of life than a victory for death. Interweaving scenes from past and present, the film crafts a tribute to an illustrious Canadian and records how a nation paused to pay homage to "The Chief."
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  • Mackenzie King and the Conscription Crisis
    Mackenzie King and the Conscription Crisis
    Erna Buffie 1991 31 min
    From the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, Mackenzie King tried to avoid conscription. Most English Canadians thought young men should be sent to fight, while most French Canadians vehemently disagreed. This same division had nearly torn the country apart during the First World War. King had to make a decision in the final year of the war. This docudrama combines archival footage with excerpts from The King Chronicles, a dramatic series written and directed by Donald Brittain.

    Some scenes contain graphic language.
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  • Tommy Douglas: Keeper of the Flame
    Tommy Douglas: Keeper of the Flame
    Elise Swerhone 1986 57 min
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  • History on the Run: The Media and the '79 Election
    History on the Run: The Media and the '79 Election
    Peter Raymont 1979 56 min
    This documentary examines the media's coverage of the federal election of May 1979. Filmed over a 3-week period, it takes a fascinating look at journalists in action and the politicians who attempt to manipulate the media.
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  • Traitor or Patriot
    Traitor or Patriot
    Jacques Godbout 2000 1 h 22 min
    This feature documentary is a portrait of Adélard Godbout, the largely forgotten man who was Premier of Quebec from 1939 to 1944. During his office, Godbout helped lay the groundwork for the Quiet Revolution of the 1950s and 1960s: instituting compulsory education, giving women the vote, creating Hydro-Québec and trying to free the province from domination by the clergy. Yet, during the conscription crisis, he favoured sending volunteers to fight Hitler: a sin for which many would never forgive him. Filmmaker Jacques Godbout takes a fresh look at his great-uncle's legacy.
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  • The Road to Patriation
    The Road to Patriation
    Robert Duncan 1982 1 h 33 min
    This feature documentary retraces the century of haggling by successive federal and provincial governments to agree on a formula to bring home the Canadian Constitution from England. This film concentrates on the politicking and lobbying that finally led to its patriation in 1982. Five prime ministers had failed before Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau took up the challenge in the early 1970s. Principal players in this documentary are federal Minister of Justice Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister Trudeau, 10 provincial premiers and a host of journalists, politicians, lawyers, and diplomats on both sides of the Atlantic.
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  • Dancing Around the Table, Part One
    Dancing Around the Table, Part One
    Maurice Bulbulian 1987 57 min
    Dancing Around the Table: Part One provides a fascinating look at the crucial role Indigenous people played in shaping the Canadian Constitution. The 1984 Federal Provincial Conference of First Ministers on Aboriginal Constitutional Matters was a tumultuous and antagonistic process that pitted Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau and the First Ministers—who refused to include Indigenous inherent rights to self-government in the Constitution—against First Nations, Inuit and Métis leaders, who would not back down from this historic opportunity to enshrine Indigenous rights.

    In a now infamous exchange, Kwakwaka’wakw lawyer and lead negotiator Bill Wilson states that he has two children who want to become lawyers and prime minister. When he says that they are Indigenous women, the male audience bursts into laughter, and Trudeau replies, “Tell them I’ll stick around until they’re ready.” Over 30 years later, Bill Wilson’s daughter, Jody Wilson-Raybould, became Canada’s first Indigenous minister of justice and attorney general in the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The conference was Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s last constitutional meeting before he resigned and the process was handed over to his successor, Brian Mulroney.
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  • Dancing Around the Table, Part Two
    Dancing Around the Table, Part Two
    Maurice Bulbulian 1987 50 min
    Dancing Around the Table: Part Two charts the battle to enshrine Indigenous rights in the Canadian Constitution, capturing a key moment in Canada’s history from the perspective of Indigenous negotiators. The 1985 conference, chaired by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, was the fourth and final meeting to determine an amendment to Indigenous rights as defined in the Constitution. The provincial premiers again refuse to reach an agreement with the First Nations, Metis and Inuit leaders, even though the majority of Canadians supported the inclusion of Indigenous rights to self-government.

    Director Bulbulian captures the pride and determination of Indigenous leaders and community members who refuse to back down on this historic opportunity to enshrine their rights, and the arrogance of the First Ministers who are fighting to keep power within the federal and provincial governments. The film takes us to Indigenous communities, where ceremony and traditional practices affirm the connection to the earth and its animals, and are the source of the strength and resilience shown by the Indigenous people around the table.
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  • Georges P. Vanier: Soldier, Diplomat, Governor General
    Georges P. Vanier: Soldier, Diplomat, Governor General
    Clément Perron 1960 29 min
    This short documentary looks at Governor General Georges Vanier: his military service in two world wars, his diplomatic service between the wars and his investiture as Canada's 19th Governor General.
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  • The Man Who Might Have Been: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Herbert Norman
    The Man Who Might Have Been: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Herbert Norman
    John Kramer 1998 1 h 38 min
    This feature documentary is a portrait of Herbert Norman, the Canadian ambassador to Egypt who leapt to his death in 1957. During his remarkable career, Norman had been a trusted aide of General MacArthur in post-war Japan and later played a key role in the Suez crisis. But for years, a US Senate subcommittee probed his past while the FBI accumulated a huge file on him, refusing to accept an RCMP investigation that cleared him of being a communist spy. Interviews with key players and dramatizations help reconstruct Herbert Norman's life.
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  • Royal Journey
    Royal Journey
    David Bairstow ,  Gudrun Parker , … 1951 54 min
    A documentary account of the five-week visit of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh to Canada and the United States in the fall of 1951. Stops on the royal tour include Québec City, the National War Memorial in Ottawa, the Trenton Air Force Base in Toronto, a performance of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in Regina and visits to Calgary and Edmonton. The royal train crosses the Rockies and makes stops in several small towns. The royal couple boards HMCS Crusader in Vancouver and watches Native dances in Thunderbird Park, Victoria. They are then welcomed to the United States by President Truman. The remainder of the journey includes visits to Montreal, the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, a steel mill in Sydney, Nova Scotia and Portugal Cove, Newfoundland.
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  • Canada at the Coronation
    Canada at the Coronation
    Allen Stark 1953 51 min
    This documentary depicts the colour and pageantry of the coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, as well as Canada's participation in this momentous event.
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  • The Royal Visit
    The Royal Visit
    1939 1 h 30 min
    This feature documentary offers a complete record of the 1939 Royal Tour of Canada by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. The film opens as the royal couple makes a stop in Québec city, where Premier Duplessis greets them. They then visit Montréal and meet mayor Camilien Houde. A visit to Ottawa brings them to Parliament, where Prime Minister MacKenzie King is present. The visit continues throughout Ontario, the prairies, and western Canada. The Royal couple also makes a brief stop in Washington and meets President Franklin Roosevelt. They then stop in on the Maritime provinces before boarding a Royal yacht for the journey back to England.
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  • This Riel Business
    This Riel Business
    Ian McLaren 1974 27 min
    This documentary short is a cinematic recording of Tales from a Prairie Drifter, a stage comedy about the North-West Resistance during the opening of the Canadian West. Highlighting the roles of Louis Riel, the Resistance leader, prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald and General Middleton, who was sent to quell the uprising, the play defines the First nations and Métis cause more succinctly than many history books. Here, the play is performed by the Regina Globe Theatre before an Indigineous audience of First Nations and Métis, whose reactions are recorded.
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  • A Little Fellow from Gambo - The Joey Smallwood Story
    A Little Fellow from Gambo - The Joey Smallwood Story
    Julian Biggs 1970 56 min
    This feature-length documentary paints a lively portrait of Father of Confederation and first premier of Newfoundland Joseph Roberts Smallwood, or "Joey," as he is known to most Canadians.

    Following one of Canada’s most colourful political figures during a two-and-a-half-month period that included a stormy Liberal leadership convention, the film reveals a man misunderstood even by his close associates.
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  • Action: The October Crisis of 1970
    Action: The October Crisis of 1970
    Robin Spry 1973 1 h 27 min
    This feature-length documentary looks at those desperate days of October 1970 when Montreal awaited the outcome of FLQ terrorist acts. Using news reports and clips from the time, the film reflects upon the October Crisis and reveals the relief, dismay and defiance people felt when the Canadian army stepped in.
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  • Democracy à la Maude
    Democracy à la Maude
    Patricia Kearns 1998 1 h 1 min
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  • Barbed Wire and Mandolins
    Barbed Wire and Mandolins
    Nicola Zavaglia 1997 48 min
    This documentary introduces us to Italian-Canadians whose lives were disrupted and uprooted by seclusion in internment camps during the Second World War. On June 10, 1940, Italy entered WWII.
 Overnight, the Canadian government came to see the country's 112,000 Italian-Canadians as a threat to its national security. The RCMP rounded up thousands of people it considered fascist sympathizers. Seven hundred of them were held for up to three years in internment camps, most of them at Petawawa, Ontario. None were ever charged with a criminal offence. Remarkably, the former internees are not bitter as they look back on the way their own country treated them.
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  • Enemy Alien
    Enemy Alien
    Jeanette Lerman 1975 26 min
    This documentary tells the story of the frustration and injustice experienced by Japanese Canadians, who fought long and hard to be accepted as Canadians.
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  • Confessions of an Innocent Man
    Confessions of an Innocent Man
    David Paperny 2007 52 min
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