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This whole thing is kinda faulty from the start... define "greatest".
I think all the candidates are pretty "great" for their own specific reasons... except Gretzky (well maybe with the fund-raising, but I could raise funds and I don't need 4 Stanleys to do it). It's a good little thing they got going on to educate people but making it out as, what Dame said, picking the prom queen is just sorta blasphemy. I mean, when it boils right down is anybody gonna actually say "So-and-so is the greatest Canadian"? Or that Fox is "greater" than Trudeau? It's stupid.
I like the idea of teaching people (what they should already know) about some of our fellow Canadians but come on, in essence it's stupid. I voted for Bell on the fact that he invented something. It just so happens that this something is used everyday, pretty much everywhere by pretty much everyone. But he contributed something.
Gretzky didn't contribute jack-shit. Neither did Cherry. All Suzuki did was heighten our awareness of our environment. He didn't really save the planet or nothing (that could be debated... forget I said that... lol). Although I've paid close attention to Suzuki since I was a kid (and I can cite From Naked Ape To Super-Species at the drop of a hat), I don't think he belongs in the same league as someone like Terry Fox.
And besides, my dad, Mcpl D.G. Macmillan, weapons-technician and veteran, formerly serving in our nations military, who saved lives during the ice-storm of 98 and has been shipped all over the world to assist other countries in need (Bosnia, Cyprus), and kept me out of shit (uh, "did his best"), wiped my ass in infancy and taught me countless lessons in life, is the greatest Canadian.
No one on that list could hold a match to him.
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I hate competitions that try to boil things down to "The One". In almost any case you can name, there are more than one true greats in any category and it's folly to elevate one above the others.
If they weren't so desperate to generate controversy and therefore ratings, CBC would have been much smarter to elect the top THREE greatest Canadians and give each a thorough rehashing. I mean, they've already done Life & Times specials on all these people, so they have an hour-long bio of each they could run.
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Updated Standings as of November 22nd:
1. Tommy Douglas
2. Terry Fox
3. Dr. Frederick Banting
4. David Suzuki
5. Pierre Elliott Trudeau
6. Lester B. Pearson
7. Don Cherry
8. Sir John A. Macdonald
9. Wayne Gretzky
10. Alexander Graham Bell
Final Showdown - Sunday November 28, 8-10 pm
Greatest Canadian of Them All - Monday November 29, 8 pm
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Damn, I guess Trudeau's not going to win. I ACCUSE BANTING'S HOMETOWN OF BALLOT-STUFFING! How the heck else can he be above Trudeau, Bell and Pearson.
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At the risk of being publicly castrated and force-fed liberal dogma food, I have to say that Pierre Trudeau is NOT the greatest Canadian. Most people cite the Constitution Act 1982 as the reason for this, as if Canada did not have a constitution prior to 1982. And the Charter of Rights and Freedoms? A great document in and of itself, but it has led to the courts ruling this nation instead of our elected politicians. Trudeau foresaw this, but it didn't matter. This was his legacy. In my opinion, the best thing he ever did was invoke the War Measures Act for the FLQ crisis. And, most people think he was wrong on that one, so needless to say, my views are despised by most small-l (and big L for that matter) liberal Canadians.
Jeff
June 21, 2003 Toronto, ON: SkyDome
July 1, 2004 Toronto, ON: Molson Amphitheatre
November 26, 2004 Toronto, ON: Air Canada Centre
June 24, 2006 Toronto, ON: Historic Fort York
May 10, 2007 Indianapolis, IN: The Vogue
July 14, 2011 Edmonton, AB: Northlands Festival Site
June 30, 2012 Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON: The Commons at Butler's Barracks
January 23, 2013 Edmonton, AB: Rexall Place
July 28, 2016 Edmonton, AB: Rexall Place
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:oops:
I must have subconsciously remembered what you said...sorry, didn't mean to blatantly plagiarize!
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Updated Standings as of November 24th:
1. Tommy Douglas
2. Terry Fox
3. Pierre Elliott Trudeau
4. Dr. Frederick Banting
5. David Suzuki
6. Lester B. Pearson
7. Don Cherry
8. Sir John A. Macdonald
9. Wayne Gretzky
10. Alexander Graham Bell
Final Showdown - Sunday November 28, 8-10 pm
Greatest Canadian of Them All - Monday November 29, 8 pm
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Just out of curioisity, where would you guys rank these 10? We've all identified a favourite, but because I'm bored I'll go for the whole thing.
1. Pierre Trudeau
2. Lester Pearson
3. Tommy Douglas
4. A G Bell
5. Terry Fox
6. John A MacDonald
7. David Suzuki
8. Dr F Banting
9. Gretzky
10. Don Cherry
(and I love hockey!)
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switch your two Scotsmen around, and I agree with you.
CT
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TOMMY DOUGLAS CROWNED GREATEST CANADIAN
Couldn't happen to a better man!
Last Updated Tue, 30 Nov 2004 00:05:53 EST
TORONTO - And the greatest Canadian is ... Tommy Douglas.
Douglas – the former Saskatchewan premier who is considered by many to be the founding father of Canada's health-care system – was named Monday night as the winner in the CBC's Greatest Canadian contest. The socialist politician was chosen by CBC viewers as the Canadian who has had the most profound impact on the country's history.
Marathon of Hope runner Terry Fox placed second in the voting. Behind Fox was former Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau. Douglas was the leading vote-getter going into Monday's finale. In all, 1.2 million votes were cast during The Greatest Canadian's six-week run.
The show debuted in October using a format borrowed from a BBC series. It began with a list of ten finalists, drawn from the more than 140,000 names that were submitted to the show's producers.
Each finalist had an advocate – a celebrity who tried to convince viewers that his or her nominee was worthy of being chosen as the winner. Viewers then voted by phone, text message or e-mail. The celebrity who stumped on behalf of Douglas was George Stroumboulopoulos, the MuchMusic personality who will soon join the staff of the CBC. "I feel like Tommy Douglas is getting the recognition he deserves," Stroumboulopoulos said when his nominee was named the winner.
Fourth place in the voting went to Frederick Banting. The rest of the top ten, in order, are: (5) David Suzuki, (6) Lester Pearson, (7) Don Cherry, (8) John A. Macdonald, (9) Alexander Graham Bell and (10) Wayne Gretzky.
CBC host Evan Solomon was the celebrity advocate for Bell, the inventor of the telephone. "I'm shocked that so few Bell supporters knew how to use the phone to vote," Solomon quipped earlier in the show when his nominee placed ninth.
The final episode of The Greatest Canadian, titled The Greatest Canadian of Them All, was hosted by CBC correspondent Wendy Mesley and This Hour Has 22 Minutes cast member Shaun Majumder. Monday's broadcast began with a recap of the Sunday edition of the show. That instalment was memorable for the barbs traded by the advocates.
At one point, CBC commentator Rex Murphy – who championed Trudeau – got into a heated verbal tussle with George Stroumboulopoulos, who argued that Douglas was the source of Trudeau's ideas. "There is a difference between the fertilizer and the tree," Murphy said pointedly.
Douglas, born in Scotland in 1904, spent his early years in Winnipeg. After a stint as a Baptist minister, he served as a federal MP from 1935 to 1944. He then became premier of Saskatchewan as leader of the CCF, the predecessor to today's NDP. It was in Saskatchewan that Douglas introduced Medicare, a concept that was later adopted at the federal level by the Liberal Party. He died in 1986.
According to the CBC, The Greatest Canadian has averaged between 500,000 to 700,000 viewers per episode. The program's Oct. 17 debut drew more than one million viewers. The series is arguably the public broadcaster's most talked-about show in recent years. After it debuted, Canadians from across the country joined in the debate, arguing passionately for different candidates.
The Greatest Canadian was also criticized for its methodology, with some observers noting the paucity of female nominees. "How can this be said to represent the nation's choice of 'Greatest Canadian' when it isn't even being shown in French?" asked columnist Andrew Coyne, writing in the National Post.
Mesley and Majumder did not reveal on Monday how many votes each nominee garnered.
PS: I would like to point out to all the people who don't have enough to whine about in real life and criticize me for pointing out duplicated threads that I chose to put this in the appropriate existing thread. It's not nearly as hard as you might think.
cratch:
