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Canadian History nomination

The TVClubHouse: Archives: 2004 January - Arpil: Canadian History nomination users admin

Author Message
Jan
Member

08-01-2000

Wednesday, April 07, 2004 - 3:22 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
For those Canucks among us, CBC is sponsoring "the Greatest Canadian" competition whith a view to producing TV biographies of the top 10. They show brief blurbs on many Canadians that, I am sad to say, were never taught in my day. I found it fascinationg reading.

The Greatest Canadian

Hippyt
Member

09-10-2001

Wednesday, April 07, 2004 - 4:19 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I didn't know Margaret Atwood is Canadian. I love her books.

Rupertbear
Member

09-19-2003

Wednesday, April 07, 2004 - 5:02 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I thought Alexander Graham Bell was Scottish?
And it admits John Cabot was Italian....huh?
Jacques Cartier...Samuel de Champlain...

Okay...I've only read up to the 'F's so far but they have Celine Dion? How does she compare to many of the others on the list?

Terry Fox...wow...now there was someone who put his own pain & suffering aside to try & do something for his fellow Canadians.

Think I may vote for him.

Mocha
Member

08-12-2001

Wednesday, April 07, 2004 - 5:05 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Great link Jan!!

Jan
Member

08-01-2000

Wednesday, April 07, 2004 - 5:06 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I think I will vote for Tecumseh on the basis of his victory for Canada in the War of 1812 and our failure to grant him a promised homeland after the war ended..


quote:

TECUMSEH 1768-1813
Like an early Martin Luther King, the Shawnee chief had a dream: a dream of a pan-Indian movement and enough land to guarantee his people's way of life. His support of Brock's attack on Detroit ensured Brock's victory, but ultimately, did not further his own.




ETA Yes, Hippy I love her too.

Rupert, you don't have to be born here to be a great Canadian. eg Bell came here young and started his work on the telephone in Brantford, Cabot, Champlain, Cartier "discovered" our land..as for Dion..well they list lots of celebrities. I don't think they should be included but that's just MHO. You are missing lots of good names if you quit at the F's, BTW.

Thank you, Mocha :-)

March
Member

10-02-2003

Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 8:19 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Great link Jan, Thanks
I will have to go through it closely later to see how I would pick.
I did notice a couple of mistakes when I quickly went through it though
1. The have Louis Robichaud as having died in 1970. He is still alive and well - living in New Brunswick
2. I can't find my name listed - I AM sure it was omitted my mistake. LOL


Rupertbear
Member

09-19-2003

Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 8:27 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Yes Jan, this link is truly wonderful!

Even though I worked in a library for ten years, I could never warm up to Margaret Attwood.

Hippy, they always put a maple leaf on the spine of Canadian authors to identify them, if you're in the mood for a Canuck scribe ;)

Oh, I'm going to finish the rest of the alphabet Jan, it's extremely interesting reading.

I just wish they only had Canadians in the contest though. There would still be lots and lots from which to choose! :-)

Lyn
Member

08-07-2002

Friday, April 09, 2004 - 2:24 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Wow, there sure are a lot to choose from: Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Laura Secord, Alexander Graham Bell...

I do think it should be categories like: Sports (Richard, Beliveau, Howe, Gretzky), Entertainment (Foster Hewitt, Micheal J. Fox), Explorers, etc. I don't think there really is (or should be) any one great Canadian

The one person NOT getting my vote: RENÉ LÉVESQUE Smoking Mad 2

Sasha
Member

03-06-2004

Friday, April 09, 2004 - 2:45 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I voted for Terry Fox. I still get tearful during the annual run. He is such an inspiration.

Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Friday, April 23, 2004 - 7:05 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
They didn't list Richard Bennett the prime minister of Canada during the Great Depression. I understand that he was the Herbert Hoover of Canada and blamed for the Depression just as Hoover was in the States. (Really no surprise why he was not mentioned , except I hoped time might have shed a new light on him.)

He is my great-great-grandmother's first cousin so we have been doing some research; he seems to have been a much maligned man. There are many existing letters from people who asked him for his personal help during the Depression and he provided it. Apparently, he was so hurt by being blamed that he took off for England where he died. New Brunswick wanted his body returned, but I guess the relatives have finally decided that his adopted country was where he really wanted to be.

The other thing that I respect about him is the fact that he divested himself of his personal fortune to help finance WWII.

That's my only "claim to fame" as far as I know.

Fun thread! I must tell my Canadian relatives.


Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Friday, April 23, 2004 - 7:07 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Oh, Jan, I meant to ask you is it okay for Canadians to call themselves "Canucks" but not okay for Americans to call Canadians Canucks?

That's what my Canadian mother tells my American father!

Jan
Member

08-01-2000

Saturday, April 24, 2004 - 3:09 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
LOL , it has never bothered me, Vee, to be called a Canuck. I suppose it must depend on how your father says it!!!!

Any other Canadians want to weigh in on this? I never thought there was anything wrong with the term Canuck, although I have to admit no one has ever called me one. Where does it come from anyway, anyone know?

PS here is a nice article re your relative, Vee

Richard Bennett

Maybe you should write in and nominate him :-)

Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Saturday, April 24, 2004 - 9:21 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thanks, Jan, for putting in that link. It gives a little background on whom I'm talking about.

You may just imagine how my dad is saying "Canuck" .

One of our dear Canadian friends, who is now in her eighties, tells the story of meeting my dad for the first time and thinking that she wouldn't like him one little bit. Seems they were at a train station and he was identifying travelers as Canadians or U.S. citizens as they stepped off the train. When she asked him how he could tell, he replied that Canadians wear all those sweaters with moose and bears on them . He's not especially politically correct. By the way, they've been friends now for nearly 50 years so I guess she forgave him somewhere along the way.