Why isn't Pierre Berton required reading?

This is an awful thing to admit, but until January I had never read a book by Pierre Berton. He is recognized as one of Canada's greatest historical writers and has published books on almost every period of our short history. But in my 45 years I had not read a single one of the many books he wrote over the course of his long career.

Sad as it is to say, I think it might be that I never really thought of Pierre Berton as a writer. Growing up in the Ottawa Valley in the 1960's and 1970's, we only got two or three television stations. Of course, one of them was the CBC. And given the limited selection we tended to watch whatever they put on. One of those shows was Front Page Challenge. And one of the regular panelists on the show was Pierre Berton. I've never been able to think about him in any other capacity since then.

I was shocked then when, almost by accident, I picked up a copy of The National Dream. I was shocked at how good it is. Like many Canadians I've never thought of Canadian history as anything but dull, dull, dull. So imagine my surprise when I find a cast of characters that seem like they were spawned from the imagination of Twain or Dickens. Certainly not the stolid, wearisome texts we were subjected to in school. The book was so good I could barely put it down at night (causing my wife much grief -- she gets up very early).

All of this has me wondering, is Pierre Berton a standard history text in our high schools? And if not why not?