Greatest Canadians

[BushPilot]

Top Ten Greatest Canadians(according to the CBC survey):
in alphabetical order:

Sir Fredrik Banting
Alexander Graham Bell
Don Cherry
Tommy Douglas
Terry Fox
Wayne Gretzky
Sir John A. McDonald
Lester B. Pearson
Dr. David Suzuki
Pierre Eliot Trudeau

My list in order:

10. Don Cherry
9. Sir John A. McDonald
8. Tommy Douglas
7. Wayne Gretzky
6. Alexander Graham Bell
5. Sir Fredrik Banting
4. Dr. David Suzuki
3. Lester B. Pearson
2. Pierre Eliot Trudeau
1. Terry Fox

A lot of hockey players and entertainers on the list, but also a lot of humanitarians and inspirational personalities. My pick, without a doubt is Terry Fox. I'm sure that most in my generation grew up loving and admiring Terry. Still to this day, whenever I see any documentary footage of Terry Fox on TV, or even get into a conversation about him, I well up with sadness and admiration for a young man who inspired so many. Being five when he started the Marathon of Hope, I never really realized at the time that he was just a kid himself. He was only 22 when he died. I sometimes still get angry when I think about the Socred government of the time deciding to name the dome BC Place, rather than the Terry Fox Memorial Dome. Then again, such a great person doesn't deserve to have his name on such a brutal stadium. Once again, just my two cents, or maybe a bit more than just two...............

 

[Verb]

you better add verb to that list

 

[WiYd]

BushPilot: You have Banting in your list.. but where is Charles Best??

Was Bell ever a Canadian citizen? I know he lived here but he was Scottish and then an American citizen


Some of these could be in my top 10.

no canadian has had a greater impact on the lives of everyone than the inventor of the light bulb James Woodward & Mathew Evans

Sir Sanford Fleming - divided the world into time zones

James Gosling - invented Java (programming language)

the great Canadian communist - Norman Bethune

Author - Pierre Berton

Louis Riel - Metis rebel

Sir Adam Beck

Stompin Tom

Peter Puck

Dudley Doright

Billy Bishop

 

[BushPilot]

The ten that I listed were not my list. They were the actual ten finalists from the poll conducted by the CBC. it is strange that Banting is on the list, but Best isn't. They were a team, weren't they? If I was making the list, Don Cherry wouldn't come anywhere near the top fifty, never mind the top ten. I would put David Foster's accomplishments in music up there, but he wasn't on the list. I'd put Romeo Dallaire higher on the list. I'd always keep Terry Fox at the top of the list, though. The true life hero of my generation.

 

[WiYd]

and how about the thousands of chinese slaves that built the railway, the backbone of Canada?

 

[Bull]

Greatest missed opportunity in Canadian history

 

[timec]

Bull, how would that fit into the Greatest Canadians thread? Perhaps start another thread, something like “Displaced Western Conservatives & Why They Continue To Have a Hate-on for CHRÉTIEN, Jean Joseph Jacques"

 

[Bull]

LOL Timec

How about a thread on the "Top Ten Greatest Canadian Assholes"?

 

[LonelyGhost]

Neil Young ... should be Govenor General !

 

[tiger]

I'd cast a vote for the late Moe Norman - in addition to the numerous great examples above.

 

[Kev]

I don't see Stompin' Tom Connors on the list.

The guy sang about everything Canadian. --- Kev

 

[cancowboy2001]

I don't see Stompin' Tom Connors on the list.

Stompin' Tom Connors just missed the cut at 13th.

Here's the list of 11th to 100th (PDF format):
http://www.cbc.ca/greatest/greatcanadians/includes/TOP_100.pdf

 

[dirk_dog]

Thats a shitty list.

Its like they asked "Name any famous Canadian you can think of".

 

[dirtydan]

Neil Young ... should be Govenor General !

Actually on the serious side, how about Rick Hansen to succeed Adrianne Clarkson?

 

[dirtydan]

From the top ten, my choice for first overall is Terry Fox. That's because a nobody became a terrific national hero who's still influences Canada and 50 other countries.

 

[cancowboy2001]

Thats a shitty list.

Its like they asked "Name any famous Canadian you can think of".

It's an imperfect popularity contest.
#34 Hal Anderson is a Winnipeg DJ that got enough listeners to vote for him

 

[The Lizard King]

Don Cherry over Rick Hansen? Sad, sad, sad....

 

[luckydog71]

Well it all depends on the criteria:

The Canadian I would most like to do - Shania

The Canadian that has done the most for Canada - Mackenzie King...he led Canada out of the great depression and through the second world war...and he did it without making a bunch of enemies....

He is symbolizes of what Canada use to be and what it could be again

 

[dbrw42]

My comments regarding CBC's lists

ROMEO DALLAIRE/LEWIS MACKENZIE
-shows the world a true Canadian military hero

Mackenzie, yeah, not bad as fas as ossifers go. Dallaire, no way. He 's made a career out of Rwanda since, and even though the massacre's are not his fault as he tried very hard to get the UN to pull it's head out of it's ass in time, when a group of Belgian paratroopers was surrounded by militias demanding the Belgian's lay down their weapons, Dallaire told them to do so. About half the Belgian's were hacked to death with machetes. The Belgian contingent, upon arriving home, as soon as they stepped off the plane, burned their UN Blue Berets. Belgium hasn't sent troops on UN peacekeeping missions since, and Dallaire's name in Belgium is mud.

 

[pickupjoe]

LOL Timec

How about a thread on the "Top Ten Greatest Canadian Assholes"?

number one A-hole, it's got to be non other than her royal uselessness Adrianne Clarkson. She spends, I mean waste, taxpayers money like there was no tomorrow.