Talk:The Greatest Canadian

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List[edit]

I was wondering, I'm thinking of removing the initial list of suggested Greatest Canadian nominees since it is redundant with List of Canadians and the short list has been announced. Do you think it should go? - User:Kchishol1970

I think so, for sure. The contest is over, I don't think it makes much sense to have a list of people who "could" have been chosen. It's pretty pointless.
If anything it should be merged with the list of Canadians, like you said. user:J.J.
We could have the selected Canadians in the List of Canadians article bolded to indicate their selection in The Greatest Canadian poll.

On another matter, SCTV ran on CBC for one season (it was the network that made the can-con demands that created Bob and Doug McKenzie) and John Candy was part of the cast at that time. So, it should be listed as among his major appearances on CBC and I'm changing it accordingly. -User:Kchishol1970


Is this true "The top 10 were presented deliberately out of vote numerical order for the purposes of the series." ? Earl Andrew 21:49, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Of course. The top 10 were present alphabeticaly on the show on Sunday. And the reason for that is it creates a level playing field for the lobbying for the Greatest Canadian -User:Kchishol1970
I got the impression that this statement meant they were in some sort of "numerical order", although I am aware it was done alphabetically. I think the wording of that sentence is wrong. Earl Andrew 04:25, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)
It is not. I wrote that sentence to say while 11-50 are listed numerically by the number of votes for each, the producers refrained from doing the same to the 10 ten to avoiding prejudicing the voters and since the series format was explained above, explaining would be redundant. -User:Kchishol1970

Ohmyfreakingawdinheaven, what in blazes did Anne C. Cools ever do to deserve getting on this list? Bearcat 08:05, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Was she not the first African Canadian senator? Earl Andrew 21:29, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Yes, and the infinitely more deserving Rosemary Brown was the first African Canadian (and the first woman of any racial background) to run for the leadership of a political party, and the first black woman elected to a provincial legislature. Or Lincoln Alexander. Or Alvin Curling. Or Howard McCurdy. There are literally dozens of "first African Canadian" candidates who deserve to be on that list more than a dippy lunatic like Anne Cools does. Bearcat 23:30, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)


"Unlike other "Greatest" projects in other countries however, the "Greatest Canadian" will not be decided by a simple popular poll, and will instead be chosen through a two-step voting process."

Er, this is exactly how it ran in Britain.

Just Curious

I am just curious why there are a few people on this list (Alexander Graham Bell, Tecumseh) who were not born in Canada. What is the definition of a Canadian? I mean, in the case of Bell, he moved to Canada when he was 23; and in the case of Tecumseh, he lived before Canada was officially a country and therefore never officially resided there. Were they just running out of people?

Tommy Douglas, the Greatest Canadian, was not born in Canada either. :-p
I thought the article and program were quite clear on the definition of a Canadian; someone whose name was submitted to the contest. Corvus


Greatest by Province[edit]

This is a list by province of their hometowns

BC 1. Terry Fox
2. David Suzuki
3 Rick Hansen
4. Pamela Anderson
5. Chief Dan George
6. Emily Carr
7. Bryan Adams

AB 1. Michael J. Fox
2. Bret Hart
3. Marshall McLuhan
4. Emily Murphy
5. Kurt Browning
6. Preston Manning
7. Joni Mitchell

SK 1. Tommy Douglas
2. John George Diefenbaker
3. Gordie Howe
4. Sandra Schmirler
5. Farley Mowat

MB 1. Louis Riel
2. Nellie McClung
3. Hal Anderson
4. William Stephenson
5. Burton Cummings
6. Ed Belfour
7. Elijah Harper

ON 1. Sir Frederick Banting
2. Don Cherry
3. Lester Bowles Pearson
4. Sir John A. Macdonald
5. Alexander Graham Bell
6. Wayne Gretzky
7. Neil Young
8. Peter Gzowski
9. Stephen Lewis
10. Shania Twain
11. Bobby Orr
12. Mike Myers
13. Harold Rogers
14. Arthur Currie
15. Norman Bethune
16. Jim Carrey
17. Gordon Lightfoot
18. Laura Secord
19. Ernie Coombs
20. Avril Lavigne
21. John Candy
22. Sir Sandford Fleming
23. Billy Bishop
24. William Lyon Mackenzie King
25. Craig Kielburger
26. Glenn Gould
27. Paul Henderson
28. Tim Horton
29. Stan Rogers
30. Roberta Bondar
31. James Naismith
32. Margaret Atwood
33. John McCrae
34. Charles Best
35. Robert Munsch
36. Dan Aykroyd
37. Mike Weird
38. Donovan Bailey
39. Geddy Lee
40. Sam Steele
41. J.S. Woodsworth


QC 1. Pierre Trudeau
2. Romeo Dallaire
3. Maurice Richard
4. Celine Dion
5. Mario Lemieux
6. Wilfrid Laurier
7. Mary Maxwell
8. Jean Chretien
9. Leonard Cohen
10. William Shatner
11. William Edmond Logan
12. Brian Mulroney
13. Sheila Fraser
14. Patrick Roy
15. Jean Beliveau
16. Rene Levesque
17. Anne C. Cools
18. David Thompson
19. Henry Morgentaler
20. John Molson
21. Louise Arbour
22. Mordecai Richler

NB

NS 1. Sarah McLachlan
2. Anne Murray


PE 1. Stompin’ Tom Connors
2. Lucy Maud Montgomery

NL 1. Rick Mercer
2.

YT 1. Pierre Berton

Other 1. Jean Vanier (France)
2. Unknown Soldier (various)
3. Isaac Brock (Britain)
4. Tecumseh (Ohio country)
5. Lord Stanley (Britain)

Earl Andrew 03:59, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Shania Twain and not Robertson Daives?[edit]

Indeed. I'm from Nashville, Tennessee and I'm embarrassed. God forbid that they should try "the Greatest Amercian". We'd no doubt get Kurt Cobain ahead of Aaron Copeland and Howard Stern ahead of James Madison. Rlquall 01:17, 8 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Tecumseh & Canada[edit]

The article currently says Tecumseh "never resided in Canada". Well, he did, sort of, in a certain respect: the Quebec Act of 1774 annexed the Ohio Country—Tecumseh's homeland—as part of Quebec. So, from the point of view of the British ministry, if no one else, Tecumseh lived in Quebec from 1774-1783. That's my pedantic trivia for today. You be the judge if the wording should be adjusted to something like Tecumseh "never resided in what is now Canada." --Kevin Myers 10:13, 24 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Tommy Douglas[edit]

While Tommy did make #1 (I played my small little part!), is it really necessary to have a paragraph on him and his life on there - there's several links to the Tommy Douglas article in the article - after all it's an article about the *show* The Greatest Canadian, not an article *about* the greatest Canadian. --Canuckguy 06:24, 22 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

It would be good to summarize the accomplishments of the top 10, to a max of 75 words each. It's essentially the equivilent of plot summaries for fictional series. -- Zanimum 22:09, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

fair-use images ({{cleanup}})[edit]

Per the licensing of the majority of the images used here ... they can't be. Fair-use licensing on each image states in what fashion using them constitutes fair-use, and this image-gallery-esque article is not one of them. — pd_THOR | =/\= | 23:19, 15 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Gretzky is totally the greatest Canadian. Too bad I didn't vote. Douglas A. Whitfield 23:31, 10 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Criticizm and comments section[edit]

The second reference for the article is broken, and leads to a JJ McCullough website dedicated to Indonesian online gambling. Someone (who's better at wikipedia than me) may want to try and fix that. Just a thought. A thought I think is good. I hate seeing JJ McCullough satisfied in any way. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.170.198.19 (talk) 15:05, 17 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This article has no sources meaning anyone could have just made stuff up and put it there. I was going to delete this (and will if no one has a reasonable objection) section but I decided to put this message on this talk page and see if anyone objects first.--eskimospy (talkcontribs) 23:28, 22 May 2007 (UTC) [reply]

I agree with your concerns but perhaps it is better for now to just put an {{Unreferenced}} tag on the section -- that way whoever wrote it will have time to find citations for the information in that section. It seems less drastic that way. Although I don't have time to go researching it, I'd guess that at least several of the "Comments and criticisms" mentioned could be found in some Canadian media story about the TV special, e.g. from cbc.ca or globeandmail.com. Spebudmak 14:26, 24 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Sounds good.--Eskimospy Bot 00:24, 31 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

NPOV edit[edit]

The term "abortionist" is used exclusively by opponents of abortion, and therefore it's not NPOV to describe Henry Morgentaler as such (see the "Worst Canadians" section). I'm going to substitute it with "physician and pro-choice advocate" (which is how the Wikipedia page on him describes him). Dkostic (talk) 03:38, 15 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

My goodness, what a false non sequitur! 69.253.219.207 (talk) 09:02, 14 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Full list[edit]

Currently, there is no list of who were considered before voting. But shouldn't there be the voted top 100 list, still? It was once here, I then checked the sports persons, for example #19 was Bobby Orr, #23 Maurice Richard, #38 Mario Lemieux and #53 Gordie Howe among others. Most other countries "Greatest" -articles have the whole voted lists, Germany's Unsere Besten has even top 200. 46.132.78.122 (talk) 19:20, 30 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

 Done...--Moxy 🍁 21:51, 30 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]