Despite bicentennial hype, poll suggests Canadians unaware of War of 1812′s significance

The Conservative government is spending up to $60 million to mark the bicentennial of the War of 1812, but a poll suggests the effort to raise the inconclusive Napoleonic War sideshow into a touchstone of national identity has fallen flat.

We've had the war take centre stage at this year's Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill; we've seen re-enactments of noted battles and a series of TV spots reminding us of heroes such as Gen. Sir Isaac Brock, Chief Tecumseh and Laura Secord, the lady on the chocolate box.

But the poll, conducted each year for the Department of National Defence to measure Canadians' impressions of their armed forces, found the relevance of commemorating the war was lost on the survey's respondents, The Canadian Press reports.

[Related: War of 1812 was a catalyst for what Canada is today]

Few were aware of the anniversary and even fewer could identify the War of 1812 by name.

"Typically, no more than one or two participants in each group were aware that this year is the bicentennial commemoration of the War of 1812, and these people tended to deduce this with simple arithmetic," said the report by Phoenix Strategic Services Inc., based on responses from the survey and related focus groups.

"From the year, 1812, they made the logical leap to the War of 1812. Most focus group participants had no prior awareness of this anniversary."

The Conservatives have hyped the bicentennial with live events, TV commercials, museum exhibits, a $60 commemorative coin and even a smart-phone app, CP notes.

Even in places where the war was fought — specifically Ontario's Niagara Region — people haven't paid much attention.

"In St. Catharines, which is geographically close to where some significant events of the War of 1812 took place, awareness of the 200th anniversary was higher, but still uneven and not widespread," said the survey report, released Tuesday.

Respondents to the poll, whose results have an error margin of 2.5 percentage points 19 times out of 20, seemed uncomfortable with chest-beating celebrations of wars and battles, preferring to focus on remembering the sacrifices of soldiers, CP notes.

"While they acknowledged marking historical events is important, they felt that these type of celebrations need to be modest in scale," said the 84-page report.

"For example, Remembrance Day celebrations are fine, but commemorating individual battles was seen to be excessive."

[Related: Canada has little to celebrate about the War of 1812]

The Conservatives have justified their 1812 bicentennial effort by arguing the war was a "seminal event" in Canadian history that helped pave the way for Confederation in 1867.

Historians have long debated who won or lost the war, with some concluding it was a draw.

The Americans saw it as an opportunity to strike back at Britain, which was stopping neutral U.S. ships as part of its blockade against Napoleonic France and pressing American sailors into the Royal Navy. With Britain's armies preoccupied with the French, some American leaders thought this was an opportunity to conquer the empire's remaining North American colonies.

Stretched thin by the war against Napoleon, the British largely left the defence of Upper and Lower Canada to its colonial garrisons, local militia and native allies, which repelled American incursions.