The bicentennial highlights a period of tremendous significance for Canadians. Before the war, “none of the people in these British colonies felt any sort of affinity for anyone from the other British provinces,” said Ron Dale, Parks Canada’s War of 1812 bicentennial manager. The American destruction of life and property — resisted equally by settlers, British troops and native warriors — bound them together into a new group who began thinking of themselves as Canadians. “Having faced a common enemy, it gave them a common feeling that they had all suffered under similar circumstances,” Mr. Dale said. (via War of 1812: Canadian identity developed in the crucible of combat | News | National Post)
..and here I thought re-enactments happened only in the South.. :)
