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Most people who research, study and write about history in this country today focus on narrow social or intellectual specializations.
To them, all wars are abominations, so none can be taught about, even [World War Two]. Or it is noteworthy to them only for the fact that women worked in war plants, or that Japanese-Canadians were interned, or that the government imposed conscription, or that industrial workers unionized in great numbers.
Thus a massive and very important part of our history goes largely untold. That is why the overwhelming impression Canadians have of our effort in World War Two is of domestic strife, rather than of bonds forged on the battlefield.
What would those men say to us today? It is hard to believe they would agree with those who claim that English-speaking and French-speaking Canadians have so little in common, and so much that separates, that a united nation is impossible.
- Historian David Bercuson, receiving an honorary doctorate at 1998 spring convocation
