The Centennial Voyageur Canoe Pageant as historical re-enactment

The Centennial Voyageur Canoe Pageant was one of the most successful events of Canada's Centennial year, garnering extensive radio, newspaper, and television coverage, and involving many small northern communities in centennial celebrations. Ten teams representing eight provinces and two territories took part in the race, which left Rocky Mountain House in Alberta on 24 May 1967 and arrived at the Expo site in Montreal on 4 September. Many of the participants were drawn from the ranks of the professional canoe racing circuit and focussed on winning the race; however, organizers and publicists represented the race as re-enacting a specific nationalist historiography that portrayed the voyageurs as "the founders of Canada" and legitimized Canada itself as a culturally and geographically unified nation.