Heritage Minutes, also known officially as Historica Minutes: History by the Minute, are a series of sixty-second short films, each illustrating an important moment in Canadian history. They appear frequently on Canadian television and in cinemas before movies and are now also sold on DVD. The Minutes were first introduced on March 31, 1991 as part of a one-off heavily-promoted history quiz show hosted by Rex Murphy. The thirteen original short films were broken up and run between shows on CBC Television and CTV Network. The continued broadcast of the Minutes and the production of new ones was pioneered by Charles Bronfman's CRB Foundation, Canada Post Power Broadcasting, and the National Film Board. They were devised, developed and largely narrated by noted Canadian broadcaster Patrick Watson, while the producer of the series was Robert Guy Scully. In 2009 Historica merged with The Dominion Institute to become The Historica-Dominion Institute. While the foundations have not paid networks to air Minutes, they have made them freely available, and in the early years paid to have them run in cinemas across the country. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has ruled that Heritage Minutes are an "on-going dramatic series" thus each minute counts as ninety-seconds of a station's Canadian content requirements.

Cast

Steve Cumyn

Percy

Aidan Devine

Soldat dans les tranchées

Jean L'Italien

George-Étienne Cartier

Julian Richings

Roi Henri VII

Katherine Trowell

Narrator

Jason Cavalier

Autochtone #1

Ron Lea

Vince Coleman

James Bradford

M. Clarence

Vlasta Vrana

Monsieur Rickey

Colin Fox

J.S. Woodsworth

Peter Colvey

Un agent de la GRC

Roy Dupuis

Louis Riel

Cedric Smith

Marshall McLuhan

Patrick Watson

Narrator

O

Oke Nnawuchi

Jeune Richard Pierpoint

Alanis Obomsawin

Narrator

M

Matt Yantha

Thomas D'Arcy McGee

Sonja Smits

Narrator

Clyde Whitham

George Brown

Siobhan Williams

Eden Lyal Pringle

Seasons

110 episodes

Season 11991 · 13 episodes

Season 21992 · 14 episodes

Season 31993 · 15 episodes

Season 41995 · 25 episodes

Season 52005 · 8 episodes

Season 62012 · 14 episodes

Season 72018 · 6 episodes

Season 82020 · 7 episodes

Season 92023 · 8 episodes