About this season
Heritage Minutes, also known officially as Historica Minutes: History by the Minute, are a series of sixty-second short films, each illustrating an important moment in Canadian history. They appear frequently on Canadian television and in cinemas before movies and are now also sold on DVD. The Minutes were first introduced on March 31, 1991 as part of a one-off heavily-promoted history quiz show hosted by Rex Murphy. The thirteen original short films were broken up and run between shows on CBC Television and CTV Network. The continued broadcast of the Minutes and the production of new ones was pioneered by Charles Bronfman's CRB Foundation, Canada Post Power Broadcasting, and the National Film Board. They were devised, developed and largely narrated by noted Canadian broadcaster Patrick Watson, while the producer of the series was Robert Guy Scully. In 2009 Historica merged with The Dominion Institute to become The Historica-Dominion Institute. While the foundations have not paid networks to air Minutes, they have made them freely available, and in the early years paid to have them run in cinemas across the country. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has ruled that Heritage Minutes are an "on-going dramatic series" thus each minute counts as ninety-seconds of a station's Canadian content requirements.
Episodes (15)
1. Laura Secord
Aired 30 April 1993 • 1 min
Canadian heroine Laura Secord aids the British in the War of 1812 with an overland trek to warn of an American military advance.
2. Marshall McLuhan
Aired 30 April 1993 • 1 min
Philosopher of communication theory Marshall McLuhan coins the phrases "the medium is the message" and "global village."
3. Marconi
Aired 30 April 1993 • 1 min
Inventor Guglielmo Marconi receives the first trans-Atlantic radio signals in Newfoundland and is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
4. Les Voltigeurs de Québec
Aired 30 April 1993 • 1 min
The band of this famous French Canadian regiment rehearses for the first performance of O Canada in 1880 at Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day celebrations.
5. Louis Riel
Aired 30 April 1993 • 1 min
What thoughts ran through Louis Riel's mind as he stood on the scaffold, waiting for the trap door to open to his death?
6. Étienne Parent
Aired 30 April 1993 • 1 min
Journalist and government official Étienne Parent demands equality for French and English.
7. Nitro
Aired 30 April 1993 • 1 min
A young Chinese Canadian risks his life helping to build the Canadian Pacific Railway.
8. Sir Sandford Fleming
Aired 30 April 1993 • 1 min
Engineer and inventor Sir Sandford Fleming develops the system of international standard time.
9. Maple Leaf Gardens
Aired 30 April 1993 • 1 min
Considered one of the "cathedrals" of ice hockey, the construction and history of the Maple Leaf Gardens is featured.
10. Le Réseau
Aired 30 April 1993 • 1 min
Engineer Thomas Wardrope Eadie develops the Trans Canada Microwave telecommunications network.
11. Joseph-Armand Bombardier
Aired 30 April 1993 • 1 min
Inventor Joseph-Armand Bombardier and the beginnings of his passion for engineering.
12. Maurice Ruddick
Aired 30 April 1993 • 1 min
Miner Maurice Ruddick recounts the 1958 Springhill mine disaster.
13. Inukshuk
Aired 30 April 1993 • 1 min
An Inukshuk a stone landmark or cairn is built on Baffin Island.
14. La Bolduc
Aired 30 April 1993 • 1 min
The story of how Mary Travers becomes a famed popular singer in Quebec.
15. Sam Steele
Aired 30 April 1993 • 1 min
Major General and police official Sam Steele (portrayed by Alan Scarfe) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police bars an unruly American (portrayed by Don S. Davis) from entering the Yukon with pistols, despite being threatened at gunpoint.