I'm going to say that I do not like the question as it is posed.  Supporting our national history is never a waste of time. 

But in this particular case, at this particular moment in Canadian *history*, this government's actions are a waste.  They are a waste of resources, money and time.  The War of 1812 is one of many "defining" moments in our history; it certainly is *not* the defining moment and is not of such significance that our government should be spending "tens of millions" of  dollars on this specific segment of our history while cutting funds to programmes that protect our environment, our people and our children's histories.

The school curriculum is the best place to educate Canadians about our history; piecemeal cherry-picking distorts and trivialises history — and our present government seems intent on an ideological repackaging of our story and our identity... 

1812 was a war of hegemony launched by the Americans against the British. There were good and bad motivations on both sides and, like all wars, the role of violence and miiitarism in establishing the outcomes is far too readily exaggerated.

Hear hear, LBmuskoka :3

It seems a very huge amount of money to talk about any war.  It gave us borders, but our ownership of God's lands is as tenants, at best.  Teach that in schools and the war should be taught there as well.

It seems that money should be given to First Nations' children to bring their individual amount for education up to every other child's in this Country.  That would honour the children we need to be respecting  with a good education... and patch up our history a tiny bit.    

The fact that 54% of people on here have never heard of the war of 1812 makes me wonder about who is on here and what are they talking about. Mcguinty destroyed the education system.