I've been strangely mesmerized by CBC's Canada: A People's History the past few weeks. Chances are, you've been too. It seems to be on the small screen all the time -- with two broadcasts on Sunday night (8 p.m and 11 p.m, with repeats on the French-language SRC and also on Newsworld Thursday nights.)

According to TV ratings, at least 2 million Canadians have watched the first two episodes. Airing on the heels of death of Pierre Trudeau and right in the midst of a federal election, the timing couldn't have been better for CBC. Maybe the best news is, Canada: A People's History has taken a bite out of CTV's ratings for simulcasts of the dreadful game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

The CBC's history project is an odd bit of television -- a mix of pseudo-journalistic coverage of Canadian history, starting way back 10,000 years ago -- with "dramatic interpretations" to jazz up the dull pages of history. The re-enacting can be a bit awkward, and these dramatic scenes aren't quite up to the standards of Stratford - if you're watching on your VCR, fast-forward through to the real history and facts.

But there's another way to fast-forward through the dramatic schlock of The People's History, and that's to hop onto the web (hey, you're already there). Online, you can get high-quality video clips of the highlights of the TV series, and play along with interactive games.

My favourite interactive element is Who Wants to Be a Viking, a tongue-in-cheek Flash game about the early explorers. "No, you won't win a million dollars. But then you do get to try this quiz in the privacy of your own home. And you'll even get three 'lifelines' to help you arrive safely in Newfoundland."

For crossword fanatics, there's a weekly interactive puzzle based on historical highlights from each Sunday's episode. For example "In 1608, to gain control of the trading post Quebec, the Basques bribed Jean Duval to do it (2 words)" ... pretty obscure, so I think it's best that you watch the show Sunday night before even attempting the interactive games.

Tune into this Sunday, 8 p.m. on CBC, to catch Episode 4, "The Battle for a Continent." This one covers the pre-Meech Lake war, when England and France tackled the Seven Years' War, "a conflict that begins as a clash between les Canadiens and land-hungry American settlers in the Ohio Valley and becomes a world war that engulfs the continent."

Political Art: The McMichael Gallery in Ontario has just had the governmental whip come down. This week the Ontario Provincial Legislature ordered that the gallery return to its original mandate. A solid focused emphasis on collecting works solely by the Group of Seven or their contemporaries. This has got art groups around the country up in arms. They're furious at this type of governmental meddling, insisting that galleries and only galleries, should have the right to choose what they'll purchase.

Not so, says founder Robert McMichael. He and his wife Signe started the gallery in the 1950s with a singular vision. They only bought or accepted works done by the Group of Seven or artists from the same period. When the gallery got too big for the McMichaels to handle in 1965, the government stepped in to run the show. At that time the gallery had less than 200 works.

Between then and now the collection has swollen to nearly 6,000 paintings. But here's the fly in the ointment. Many of these works are contemporary canvases and this made Robert McMichael see red. He's been petitioning the government to do something about this since 1980 and finally he's got his wish.

The McMichael Gallery must sell at least half of its 6,000 work collection to meet the new mandate. Who's going to get the paintings? How and when will they be sold? Who's going to get the money? Should a public collection be cast upon the private waters never to be seen (except by the fabulously wealthy) ever again?

Farris Wheel: Diane Farris, queen of the west coast scene, has just mounted another new show, a series of mixed media paintings by Angela Grossman. Looking Back is all about the power of the look, from the paintings' perspective. Grossman's prior works featured figures avoiding the gaze of the viewer. In Looking Back, one is uncomfortably aware of the painting's penetrating gaze. The figures in this exhibit are mostly young women, who stare from the canvases unabashedly, "with a confidence not often encountered in contemporary renditions of the female form."

Talk about Princess Xena of the canvas! Clearly Grossman is out to reclaim the female body. She wants us to discover a new and invigorated female sexuality and strong physical presence in this show.