The Greatest Canadian
The Greatest Canadian was a 2004 television program series by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to determine who is considered to be the greatest Canadian of all time, at least according to those who watched and participated in the program. The project was inspired by the BBC series Great Britons.
The Greatest Canadian | |
---|---|
The Greatest Canadian logo | |
Genre | Documentary |
Developed by | Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |
Written by | Gary Pearson |
Directed by | Guy O'Sullivan |
Country of origin | Canada |
Release | |
Original release | 17 October 2004 |
Radio-Canada, the national publicly funded French-language broadcasting agency, was not involved in The Greatest Canadian project, reducing the input of Canada's French-Canadian minority over the results. The CBC did, by law, make its website available in French, however.
The "Greatest Canadian" was not decided by a simple popular poll, but was instead chosen through a two-step voting process.
On 17 October 2004 the CBC aired the first part of The Greatest Canadian television series. In it, the bottom 40 of the top 50 "greatest" choices were revealed, in order of popularity, determined by polls conducted by E-mail, website, telephone, and letter. To prevent bias during the second round of voting, the top ten nominees were presented alphabetically rather than by order of first round popularity.
This second vote was accompanied by a series of documentaries, where 10 Canadian celebrities acting as advocates each presented their case for The Greatest Canadian. Voting concluded on 28 November at midnight and the following evening, 29 November, the winner was revealed to be Tommy Douglas.
The series has a spiritual sequel, The Greatest Canadian Invention.
Top 10
On 17 October 2004, the top 10 nominees were revealed in alphabetical order, and on 29 November the top 10 were announced in order of votes:[1]
Rank | Image | Name | Notability | Birthplace | Advocate |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
10 | Wayne Gretzky | Hockey player, holder of numerous NHL records | Brantford, Ontario | Deborah Grey[2] | |
9 | Alexander Graham Bell | Scientist, inventor, founder of the Bell Telephone Company |
Edinburgh, Scotland | Evan Solomon | |
8 | Sir John A. Macdonald | First Prime Minister of Canada | Glasgow, Scotland | Charlotte Gray | |
7 | Don Cherry | Hockey coach and commentator | Kingston, Ontario | Bret Hart | |
6 | Lester B. Pearson | Fourteenth Prime Minister of Canada, United Nations General Assembly President, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate |
Toronto, Ontario | Paul Gross | |
5 | David Suzuki | Environmentalist | Vancouver, British Columbia | Melissa Auf der Maur | |
4 | Sir Frederick Banting | Medical scientist, co-discoverer of insulin, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine |
Alliston, Ontario | Mary Walsh | |
3 | Pierre Trudeau | Fifteenth Prime Minister of Canada | Montreal, Quebec | Rex Murphy | |
2 | Terry Fox | Athlete, activist, humanitarian | Winnipeg, Manitoba | Sook-Yin Lee | |
1 | Tommy Douglas | Father of Medicare, Premier of Saskatchewan | Falkirk, Scotland | George Stroumboulopoulos |
When the top 10 finalists were announced, Wayne Gretzky instructed his supporters to vote for Terry Fox.
Other editions
- Other countries have produced similar shows, see also: Greatest Britons spin-offs
See also
- Canada: A People's History
- Canadian Newsmaker of the Year
- Heritage Minutes
- List of Canadian Victoria Cross recipients
- List of Companions of the Order of Canada
- List of inductees of Canada's Walk of Fame
- Persons of National Historic Significance
References
- "Who is The Greatest Canadian? CBC viewers respond". The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 2010. Retrieved 21 June 2010.
- Bill 101
External links
- The Greatest Canadian on IMDb
- The Greatest Canadians from the CBC Archives – Clips about the lives and accomplishments of the Top 10.
- CBC.ca - Grands Canadiens (French)