Hey, world! Today I’m going to be talking to you about Canada, more specifically, Canadian Nationalism. So what is Nationalism? And how can we make Canadian nationalism board games? Well, you’re about to find out. Keep reading!

We launched into this project with a quick research task about a Canadian symbol- whichever one you like but you had to justify why it was a symbol of Canada. Some people chose hockey, lacrosse, poutine, Tim Hortons, maple syrup, or moose, or someone even chose Justin Bieber. I chose the beaver. I did some research and then turned my research into a cute informational video. I added footage of mine, that I took of the beavers I saw in Port Alberni. Check it out!

Then we learned about nationalism and what it means to be a nation. In simple terms, Nationalism is the idea of being loyal and devoted to your nation. Nationalism is where the common interests of the people, bring them together to form a nation.

“Think about Canada, for example. Canada can be thought of as a country — or nation-state — that extends from sea to sea to sea. It has physical borders and a single federal government that manages the vast territory on behalf of the people who live here. But Canada can also be thought of as a nation made up of people who share similar values and beliefs and are passionate about affirming and promoting them. Some people believe that Canada is a multi-nation state.”

I like this except because it’s clear and understandable and makes me understand the difference between a country and a nation-state, whereas, before this project, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you the difference.
Now that we had learned what nationalism meant, it was time for us to make connections between nationalism and the Canadian confederation. To do this we participated in a Canadian confederation simulation, in which each colony that could potentially join the confederation (East Canada, West Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, P.E.I., And Newfoundland) had to create a list of demands for joining confederation. Each person was put into a group to represent one of the 6 colonies (potentially) joining confederation. I represented Nova Scotia.

So then we had to do some research on Nova Scotia’s needs and wants for joining confederation in the 1860s.
We came up with these demands:

We listened for an eternity about the other colonies’ demands as well; some were very similar to ours like creating a shared currency, building an inter-colonial railway, and for French to be taught in schools, whereas some were unique like decreasing the taxes for farmers (specifically P.E.I. Farmers).
It was interesting to see how our values and demands compared to the other colonies’ demands. We almost had identical demands as New Brunswick.

Then all the colonies had a huge long debate about each other’s demands, taking the shoes and historical perspective of old white men in the 1860s. What can I say, it was a very long debate. Most of our demands were being met, but I could see others frustrated because their demands weren’t being met, like Newfoundland and P.E.I. When the day of debate was complete, we had to decide if we were or weren’t going to join the confederation, and more importantly, our reasoning behind doing so. Here’s my little justification.

And finally, now we could start our final keystone, and our final product for this project: A Canadian Nationalism Board game!
I got partnered with the amazing Sofia! We started by brainstorming ideas for games that could incorporate Nationalism. We thought of Monopoly, Guess Who, and Ticket to Ride. We decide to do a mash of Monopoly and Ticket to Ride and it turned out great! You can read our rules below, as well as how our game correlates with Nationalism:

And so, we started making our board game! Here is how it turned out! It looks pretty awesome for a homemade board game that we made a couple of class times, in my opinion. Here’s how it looked!

Overall, this was a great project directed by the lovely Ms.P, who helped guide me when I completely didn’t understand how 2 and 2 went together. I feel much more confident in my comprehension of the topics of Nationalism and building a Nation, and I think I enjoyed creating the final product for this project way more than creating another explanatory video. It was a nice change of pace. Also, this project included something for everyone as we did research, writing, debate, presentations, made videos and created board games etc.

Thank you for reading this post; I haven’t done one in a while…..oops. My bad.