Years ago CBC had a "Greatest Canadian" series that many of you might remember where we were able to nominate and vote for our favorite Canadians throughout history. I remember pulling for Terry Fox, a real inspiration to me, but he ended up placing second to Tommy Douglas (Founding father of our health care system). The final ranking was:
- Tommy Douglas
- Terry Fox
- Pierre Trudeau
- Frederick Banting
- David Suzuki
- Lester Pearson
- Don Cherry
- John A. Macdonald
- Alexander Graham Bell
- Wayne Gretzky
There are some real all-star Canadians in this list, but I know our community can do much much better. Who are your favorites? Who inspired you? I'm sure there are many great Canadians that many of us have never even heard of.
Would depend on what you define as best Canadian. Wayne Gretzky was the best athlete in a global sport. He didnt do anything for Canada in particular and is, ultimately, just an athlete. Banting made penicillin, which puts him on list of biggest discoveries in medical field and, by association, savoir of billions of people. Amazing accomplishment, but, ultimately, just a doctor. Nothing to do with Canada in particular. Most dont even know who he is sadly. Bell did his work in Baddeck, but is Scottish. Does that count as "Greatest Canadian"? Various prime ministers at least have something to do with Canada and not just personal accomplishments. Technically, John A is a Scot, but led confederation and could argue the first Canadian as a nation (yes, settlers were Canadians long before confed, etc, but as Canadian accomplishment).
MOst of the people on that list arent even remotely great. Trudeau is the ultimate traitor that sold the country into debt slavery. Suzuki is a fraud on same level as fucking Bill Nye and Neal Tyson celebrity "scientist" media personality. Environmental racism, etc by this asshole. You can find all kinds of "white racism" and "white privilege" bullshit from this fucker. Most are just socialist bastards that destroyed our country by inflicting wounds that can never heal.
https://www.historicacanada.ca/heritageminutes
The Heritage Minutes from the 90s were excellent choices for actual Canadian achievements. Be wary of the new ones they mixed in, like Viola Desmond, etc. Humphrey, Baldwin & Lafontaine, Sam Steele, Fleming, Marconi (similar to Bell - not technically Canadian, but major accomplishments in Glace Bay), Carr, John McCrae and you could go into countless other WWI and WWII soldiers and accomplishments. People that fought and died for Canada. Not people that sold us out for personal wealth and future favours.
Ultimately, it would come down to what you consider the qualifications for Canadian achievement. Does creating medicare count as something good? If only surface view, "FREE" healthcare is nice. When you see the disasterous consequences of that today, half the people on the list involved with it and cpp, etc should be considered traitors with Trudeau. These things only work with homogeneous communities that care for one another and work to better everyone. A nation of leeches that hate and distrust one another while living in ethnic enclaves and abusing the system at every opportunity just makes these policies a cancer eating the country economically from within. Someone like Terry Fox emobdies Canadian spirit and united a country behind him. Others on the lsit have global achievements in their respective fields that should be honoured and respected. I dont like personal achievements as 'Greatest Canadian', but they definitely deserve recognition. Again, comes down to what you would ultimately use as your qualifications.