Maybe the Dominion Institute is right after all

I usually take the dire warnings of the Dominion Institute about the declining state of knowledge of Canadian history with a pound of salt. Although I consider myself to be a political historian, I generally do not subscribe to the "sky is falling" mantra that knowledge of my country's political history has all but disappeared.

But every so often, I wonder. I'm in the midst of reading a book for possible teaching purposes. I'm not going to name the author, because it's someone I consider a colleague, and it's not my purpose to engage in ridicule. But I am flabbergasted not only that someone with a PhD in Canadian history could not know that it was the Conservatives, not the Liberals, who formed the federal government at the outset of the First World War, but that this egregious error somehow made it past two expert reviewers and the copy editors at a reputable academic press!

Clearly, some people haven't been subjected to marking dozens of papers on the 1911 federal election - considered by many to be one of the most significant of this country's history!

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