The Greatest Canadian
Mondays and Wednesdays at 8 pm on the CBC
You may have noticed some annoying ads on CBC over the summer: people in coffee shops, or by water coolers, or in cars on long road trips arguing back and forth over who was (is) the Greatest Canadian. You were encouraged to go to the Web site, and nominate your choice for the title.
As annoying as the ads may have been, the idea seemed to capture our imaginations. Over one hundred thousand people sent in nominations ranging from Bryan Adams (incidentally, he was only 10 in the Summer of '69) to Neil Young (apparently no Great Canadians have last names beginning with Z (that's a "Zee" for you Americans)). There were sports heroes (Gordie Howe), Rebels with Causes (Louis Riel), Geeks (Preston Manning), Freaks (Jim Carrey), and people who inspired us to do the best we can with what we have (Terry Fox). But who is really the Greatest? How do we decide who should win? Why do I even care?
Well, the CBC has done the first part for us. They've narrowed the field down to 10, who will be highlighted in hour-long documentaries starting Oct. 18th and finishing Nov. 22. The rest is up to us. We, the people... who kept Jean Chretien in office for so darn long (he made the Top 100 by the way).
Undoubtedly Gretzky will take it all. He is "The Great One" after all. And while Hockey and Canada are used interchangeably in many minds, I think that there are far more important values that Canadians hold dear to their hearts. Universal health care, civil liberties, access to education, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms... surprisingly, I'm not endorsing Pierre Elliot Trudeau. A great Canadian, no doubt, but one whose political ideologies were borrowed from a far greater, more original, more humble Canadian: Tommy Douglas. "The little fellow with an idea." Lots of ideas, to be exact. Universal access to healthcare, regardless of age, gender, physical condition, or race; mothers' allowances; sewage systems; paved roads; education; car insurance; labour reforms; old age pensions. And all that with a balanced budget that actually reduced his province's deficit! Before the Liberals got a hold of them, these were NDP ideas. Socialist ideas. The fruits of the mind of the little fellow in Saskatchewan, all of which were adopted as part of the modern Canadian identity. These values are what we feel set us apart from the rest of the world, and specifically from our neighbo(u)rs to the south. I think it's time we recognised where these values came from. That's why I am going to vote Tommy Douglas for The Greatest Canadian.
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