Tommy Douglas
27 November 2004, early evening
CBC is running a ‘who is the greatest Canadian’ event. My vote would be for Tommy Douglas. Tommy Douglas is probably most well known for being the father of Medicare in Canada, though he was also a very funny man. He started plenty of speaches with jokes. Kiefer Sutherland’s is Douglas’ grandson. His speach on Medicare is interesting to listen to as well. Especially since I watched him chop a man’s head off at stick it in a bowling bag in 24.
CBC would only let you vote for one person. I had trouble being decisive and ended up not voting for anyone. I think I would have voted for Wayne Gretzky though.
by Ryan on November 28 2004, 9:02 am #
Gretzky? I’d vote for him to be Canada’s greatest Hockey player, but greatest Canadian? I think Douglas or Trudeau should win. Though Trudeau isn’t so popular out west or in Quebec.
by ramanan on November 28 2004, 4:19 pm #
Yeah, maybe it is a bit of an oblique choice, but politics is a bit of a dirty field.
Hockey is one of the pillars of Canadian culture. And Gretzky is a nice guy that people can relate to.
by Ryan on November 28 2004, 8:14 pm #
As a Canadian who has never watched more than five consecutive minutes of North American hockey, I am pretty surprised to see that Wayne Gretzky made the top ten.
I feel that the greatest Canadian should exhibit qualities not present in just any person. For this reason, I would choose Terry Fox. To me he personifies strength of will, and though the accomplishments of the other nine candidates do impress me, they don’t leave me in awe.
by rishi on November 29 2004, 4:12 pm #
Wayne Gretzky is the greatest hockey player every and Canadians are hockey mad. So I’m not surprised that he made the top ten.
I am surprised that Don Cherry made the top ten though (and was in the middle of that pack even). He’s a well-known and heavily-watched figure, but that’s due to all the politically incorrect things he says. Which doesn’t really equate with being a great Canadian…
by Ryan on November 30 2004, 2:26 am #
The Greatest Canadian is a CBC show meant to decide, well, the greatest Canadian. As a Canadian who has never watched more than five consecutive minutes of North American hockey, I am pretty surprised to see that Wayne Gretzky made the top ten.
by Robin Smith on November 30 2004, 3:44 am #
Douglas won. Nice.
On a side note, don’t link to your home page if it is obviously something that looks like a spammer would link to. I will promptly erase it.
by ramanan on November 30 2004, 12:22 pm #
Wow, I must have subconsciously filtered out Don Cherry when I first glanced at the list, I didn’t even see him in there. That is definitely more surprising than Wayne Gretzky.
Obviously Canadians are hockey crazy if both Wayne Gretzky and Don Cherry made the top ten. However, I don’t think I will ever be able to comprehend how the sport can inspire such passion.
I’m not trying to insult anyone’s tastes. Hockey just one of many things my personal perspective doens’t shed much light on.
by rishi on November 30 2004, 12:52 pm #
From Metafilter: “It’s telling that the Canadian list actually included the joke candidates, considered their votes valid, and the winner was still a revolutionary political reformer.”
by ramanan on November 30 2004, 1:24 pm #
I quote this from an article in the star, written by Vinay Menon, “After all, the series had a daunting mission: In a country not accustomed to celebrating its past, a country saddled with 137 years of escalating modesty, searching for The Greatest Canadian was not dissimilar to looking for The Tallest Midget.”
by martha on December 1 2004, 3:02 am #