Why 'Canada: The Story of Us' has angered a Nova Scotia town

The new CBC miniseriesCanada: The Story of Ushas caused an uproarin a small Nova Scotia town after claiming that thefirst permanentEuropean settlement was close to what is now Quebec City, not Port-Royal.

Annapolis Royal Mayor Bill MacDonaldposted on Facebook this week that he was"very troubled that the CBC has misrepresented Canadian history in the first episode of its television miniseries."

The location of Port-Royal is not far from modern-day Annapolis Royal and is a national historic site. Samuel de Champlain helped establish the settlementin 1605, althoughit was temporarily abandoned by the colonists in1607.

"Annapolis Royal is the cradle of our nation, and this erroneous representation of history is disrespectful as it erases (in a national broadcast) the true origins of our country," MacDonald said.

"This misrepresentation of Canadian history warrants a campaign to set the record straight."

Why Port-Royal was omitted

The producers of the series, Bristow Global Media, told CBC'spublic affairs officethat Port-Royal came up many times during research for the show.

But they decided todefine permanence as a continuous, year-round population and settled on Champlain's1608 settlement in what is now Quebec.

Further, the show's producers noted theprevious attempt at permanent settlement in Port-Royal was cut short in 1607.

"What we've had to do was to choose stories and inevitablywe only have 50 stories, there are certain parts that are omitted," saidJohn English, an author and a historian who has been guiding the series since it was in development in 2015 and also appears in the miniseries.

"We chose Champlainas one of the stories and we mention that he made other voyages to North America and what has become Canada, and what we did was choose to focus on him establishing the first permanent settlement in what is Canada."

'Inevitably there are things left out'

English also pointed to the Parks Canada website, whichsays Port-Royal was "one of the earliest European attempts at settlement in North America."

English said the showfocused on Quebec City because it became apermanent settlement after Champlain established himself there.

"It is the birth of a nation, the birth of Quebec if you like and of course it eventually becomes Canada," he said. "We had to connect our stories ... and inevitably there are things left out."

Mayor not satisfied

That explanation didn't satisfy the mayor of Annapolis Royal.

"From the perspective of continual occupancybeing any kind of a criteria for a permanent settlement, in 1607 Pierre Dugualost his monopoly on the fur trade and so he was returning to France," MacDonald said.

"He turned over Port-Royal to Sieur de Poutrincourt,and Poutrincourtwent back to France to bring his family and colonists back and he left the care of Port-Royal, the habitation, in the hands of Chief Membertouand the Mi'kmaq people who were here."

MacDonald's post about his frustration with the show resonated with a lot of people. As of Wednesday, the post was shared more than 200 times and it has generated a lot of discussion.

'Origins of Canada from here aren't represented'

"It resonates with a lot of people, they're concerned about the origins of Canada from here aren't represented," MacDonaldsaid in an interview.

"This was one of the sites where global empires fought and struggled for control of the New World and so we take exception to that first episode."

The mayor said he is also concerned about the miniseries being used in classrooms as alearning tool.As for how the show could make it right, MacDonaldsaid it could start by making sure the whole story is told.

"In an age of prequels, perhaps that's the way to go."

• WATCH Canada: The Story of Us

English said Nova Scotia has a rich history and that more stories from Atlantic Canada will be coming up in future episodes ofthe series.

A statement from CBC says future episodes of the series will include:

• William Hazen and New Brunswick's timber trade during the American Revolution in episode two
• Maritime captain and War of 1812 privateer Joseph Barss in episode three
• Halifax's Samuel Cunard and the Cunard Steamship and Frederick Gisborne and the installation of North America's first deep-sea telegraph cable between PEI and New Brunswick in episode four
• Nova Scotia's Viola Desmond and Newfoundland's Joey Smallwood in episode nine.