It’s gratifying to learn that our project has sparked a blog post from Canadian Senator Elaine McCoy.  (UPDATE JUNE 4, 2010:  Senator McCoy wrote a follow-up post that also includes a response from Canadian Experience General Editor J.L. Granatstein — both can be found by clicking here.) Although she characterized our Series, in part, as “brilliant”, the Senator raised some issues pertaining to quality control.  This resulted in some internal affirmations about what exactly — for us — the project represents, why we are doing it, and who is involved.

In response to the Senator’s first blog post, Multimedia Nova President/CEO Lori Abittan wrote:

I am delighted that you are so engaged in this project – a project that provides all Canadians with a basic understanding of Canada’s democracy in an accessible way. Throughout the process I hope to foster intercultural inclusion based on commonalities. Our goal is to get people talking about “The Canadian Experience”.

As to the issues of quality control: as president of a publishing firm with over 50 years experience I take such issues very seriously. This is why I hired leading and widely-respected Canadian historians, like Jack Granatstein, to write and edit the series.

My view of Canada is one that exists not under the confining umbrella of multiculturalism, but a more inclusive view that responds to how this country is evolving day by day. There cannot be Democracy when a huge chunk of the population is excluded from the process. I don’t believe in confining people in silos and while multiculturalism as a concept suggests that it rejects this notion, I believe it is just another silo that excludes or creates barriers between people. You are either Canadian or Multicultural – I suggest we are simply Canadians with a citizen of the world attitude, Canada’s pride.

A lot of very thoughtful and proud Canadians with links to many different communities and countries have spent a great deal of time supporting this initiative. This, to me, is the true Canadian spirit.

The Canadian Experience Series General Editor, J.L. Granatstein, has also weighed in:

Dear Senator McCoy, I am very pleased that you recognize the importance of The Canadian Experience, a unique effort to explain Canada to the readers of 52 newspapers in a plethora of languages. It took guts and money and time to launch this effort, and Lori Abittan, her staff, and Multimedia Nova deserve only praise.

But, as the General Editor of the series of 52 columns, I’m less than pleased with some of your remarks. You see factual errors, but don’t detail them. Like Senators, historians sometimes make errors, but if there are any, please tell us, and they will be corrected. You complain of “a value-laden choice of words,” but again, you don’t elaborate. I’m not certain there is necessarily anything wrong with value-laden words, but we will be happy to look at anything you suggest is unseemly.

Incredibly, you then suggest that the columns betray “an unconscious bias toward the dominant life experience of the authors,” whatever this may mean. I read your website this morning and, while you toot your own horn pretty loudly, large portions of the site are devoted to your “dominant life experiences,” to your role in politics, and your independent streak. Terrific—those experiences obviously made you what you are today.

Like Senators, historians are shaped by their lives, and indeed, I selected them to write columns because they were different people, different kinds of scholars. But what all the chosen historians have is sound historical training, a detailed understanding of Canada, its past, and its institutions, major publishing track records, and high scholarly standards. Their life experiences, in other words, shape but do not determine what they write.

Finally, you complain of a lack of quality control. As the General Editor, that’s my job, and I take it as seriously as I have done every task in a life full of experiences that range from military service to teaching and publishing to running a national museum. I chose the columnists and approved their work. Very simply, Senator, I’d suggest that I exercised rather more quality control than is ordinarily applied to the selection and appointment of new members of the Upper Chamber.

All this said, I’m genuinely delighted you are reading The Canadian Experience.

With my best wishes,

Yours sincerely,

J.L. Granatstein, OC

So, what do you think?