The Heritage Minutes is a series of sixty-second short films, each illustrating an important moment in Canadian history. The Minutes integrate Canadian history, folklore and myths into dramatic storylines. Like the Canada Vignettes of the 1970s, the Minutes themselves have become a part of Canadian culture and been the subject of academic studies as well as parody.

They appeared frequently on Canadian television during the nineties, and as well-intended as they were, the short length of the films resulted in some of the dialogue being very “on the nose”, and the acting was not always the most stellar or convincing. This resulted in the Minutes being mockingly imitated by many a Canadian school child at the time; for Canadians of a certain age, lines like “Toast is burning”, “Both of you know I cannot read a word”, “Oh Daddy, let’s call him Winnie the Pooh!” and “CA-NA-DA!” are bound to bring memories of their youth flooding back in a Proustian Rush.

Anyway, in addition to inventing basketball and goalie masks, Canada also invented Superman, as you can clearly see in the film clip above (let’s just ignore the fact for now that Canada also declared Superman to be dead on at least two separate occasions).

Have a Great Night Thread, Avocado!