Cultural Selection and National Identity: Establishing Historic Stites in a National Framework

National historic sites and monuments represent important aspects of Canadian history because they indicate as well as communicate vanished cultures and architects. Historic sites and monuments are very influential our view of the Canadian past because our image of the past is a generated by the specific events or sites chosen for commemoration and the physical presentation of those sites. For many people, national historic sites and monuments provide a view of history which is implicit to their understanding of Canadian history.
National historic sites and monuments further illustrate the Canadian nation-building experience which was seen as a implantation of British derived institutions where all sectors of the population would be assimilated into a unicultural whole. National historic sites and monuments are determined through the process of cultural selection in which the histories of other groups within the country were either incorporated as supporting themes for the major nation-building story or were ignored completely. These sites and monuments were identified or categorized by themes associated with our Canadian history such as: early settlement, French regime, Aboriginal sites, British immigration, war of 1812, etc.
In Ontario, the major historic sites were associated with the war of 1812. This includes sites such as the Battle of Stoney Creek in Stoney Creek, the Battle of Lundy’s Lane in Niagara Falls, and the Battle of Cook’s Mills in Cook’s Mills. Notably, the reconstruction of Toronto’s Fort Georges at Niagara-on-the-Lake represented the capture of Fort George by Americans while the restoration of Toronto’s Fort York commemorated the military buildings among the oldest in Toronto that were built in 1813-1815. In addition, historic sites and monuments in Ontario were also chosen for architectural distinctions. For example, the restoration of the Barnum House in Grafton in 1940 was the first fully restored house museum in Ontario and the first-known building in Canada to be preserved solely for reasons of architectural distinction.
In Nova Scotia, Port Royal was declared a national historic site in 1924 because it was a reconstruction of the first French settlement of 1605. It contained a high level of accuracy based on surviving archaeological and documentary evidence. On the other hand, sites such as Sainte-Marie and Grand Pre presented communities in conflict with newly arrived groups.
Overall, developed historic sites and monuments represent the expansion of trade and settlement. The histories of groups other than the dominant British Canadians were relegated to supporting roles to show the conflict in which the British became the victor. They are also meant to teach cultural values to citizens of new nations because many of the sites and monuments were preserved because of their association with significant persons or events.