Who is/was the greatest Canadian?

[Infanteer]

It doesn‘t matter where you live, Trudeau‘s egotistical misunderstandings of Canada make him a bum throughout Canada.

People hammer on Dubya‘s military service, but here is a guy who hid in a Lawyers office during the Second World War. His handling of the FLQ is the only bright point of his mandates.

 

[shaun_bougie]

Infanteer,

I think you‘d have to agree that the constitution was pretty important as well. If it was not for that we‘d still be doing what Britain tells us to do. Anyway, I wasn‘t out to start a civil war on this topic. I just stated my opinion. Let‘s agree to disagree and go back to the topic at hand which is who people feel the greatest Canadian was. Sorry to offend.

Cheers,

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Shaun,

Your last post was excellent. I wish more people throughout this site would follow your example to refrain from urinating contests and remain on topic. Well done.

 

[Armymedic]

Canadian history was a favorite of mine when I was younger...

If we are talking after 1867 then I have two very good choices:
1. Obviously as mentioned above, but really only known to us Canadians:
Terry Fox,

2. Well known around the world (and my personal choice)...

Lester Pearson

Prior to 1867, there are so many English and French pioneers, and native Canadians to count.

 

[md200]

I personally think...

Sir Frederick Banting and Terry Fox

 

[K. Ash]

Terry Fox is well up there on my list. I‘d also have to agree with Shaun about Trudeau, if for no other reason because of the constitution.

I know it would be considered a bit of stretch to consider him the greatest Canadian, but definitly one of my favorites (right now)--Rick Mercer

 

[Slim]

The reason I said Farley Mowat was , as well as having been a Capt. in the Hasty Peas, he was the CO of the Canadian war museum collection team.

All of the German equipment that was brought back to Canada after the 2nd world war was brought back by him!

Including a V2 rocket...which is what our space program was based on!

 

[shaun_bougie]

Originally posted by absent_element:
[qb]I know it would be considered a bit of stretch to consider him the greatest Canadian, but definitly one of my favorites (right now)--Rick Mercer [/qb]

I agree about him being one of the favorites. He‘s one of mine too. His support in Afghanistan was great and who can forget about "Talking With Americans"

 

[hooch]

Originally posted by Shaun:
[qb]
I think you‘d have to agree that the constitution was pretty important as well. If it was not for that we‘d still be doing what Britain tells us to do. [/qb]

The constitution was important, but as for "doing what Britain tells us to do," refer to the Statute of Westminster, 1931.
http://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/StatuteofWestminster.html

As for great Canadians, I‘m going to have to throw Paul Henderson into the mix...he saved our national dignity at the last second and learned ‘em commies a thing or two about hockey.

P.S. Trudeau was a bum...

 

[1feral1]

Great Canadians? What about volunteers,ranging from veteran soldiers to someone who has compassion for giving their time to say, assist our elderly, and all things in between.

My 2c worth.

Cheers,

Wes

 

[K. Ash]

Hey Wes, who would you consider the greatest Aussie?

 

[patrick666]

I think any veterans still alive today, is as great as you can be.

 

[Fusaki]

Greatest Canadian? My mother!!

I love you Mom!!!

 

[1feral1]

A great Australian? Seems every generation has many, and its hard to say so, Weary Dunlop perhaps, maybe even Barry McKenzie. Good ole Bazza

Do a search on both such as: australia barry mckenzie and australia weary dunlop, or great australians.

See if you casn hire (rent) the movie "The Adventures of Barry Mckenzie". You‘ll p_i$$ your pants laughing, but much slang, so you might need an Aussie/English dictionary. Its a story about an Aussie lad who goes to england for teh first time, and its a great movie icon here. made about early 70‘s.

Cheers,

Wes

 

[Spr.Earl]

Elijah Harper for screwing Meach Lake and lien Brian.

 

[dave_conolly]

I would think Terry Fox. His house (where he grew up) is really close to mine; probably a 10 minute drive.

Trudeau definatly isn‘t the greatest Canadian, people from the west were protesting about how he didn‘t care what we thought because we didn‘t have the majority of population. As he was leaving he gave the protestors the middle finger.

 

[WWPierre]

Salut! mes amis,

I did a search for "Greatest Canadian" in Google, and this forum was close to the top of the list.

Who, in my not so humble opinion is/was the greatest Canadian? There can only be one answer!

Lt. General Romeo Dallaire

To me, this man personifies how we would like the world to percieve us.

A great Canadian and a great Human Being.

Even if he is not recognized in the final vote, I hereby raise my glass to Romeo Dallaire!

WWPierre

 

[1feral1]

Dont get me wrong, and no disrespect for this bloke, but in other parts of the world this guy was criticised for not sending more troops in when the Belgium paratroops who were slain as many see that this could have been prevented. Here he was viewed as inadequate and branded as a coward.
My opinion is not that harsh, but thats how other nations see things sometimes.

Regards,

Wes

 

[winchable]

Louis Riel;
Rebel attitude, fighting spirit, politician (if they had allowed him) burst the dam when it came to racial, language relations etc. in Canada. Still has impact today when you say his name, as I‘m sure any response to this post will prove.

I think looking for negative aspects of the greatest Canadian is fairly futile, research anywhere will give you negative things about any one of the nominees (Riel is certainly no exception) so there‘s not much point in arguing over negative aspects.

 

[WWPierre]

Hmmmm,

It is obvious I don‘t have all the facts. I haven‘t gone into the details of the incident with the Belgain paratroops. Is there an inference that he did, in fact have the strength to control the situation and the mandate to follow through, but erred in his deployment?

The story we get in our comfortable distance is that he had neither the strength nor the freedom to carry out his mission. When the magnitude of the holocast became evident, he did the best he could in an untenable situation.

It is really quite stupid to try to pick the one Canadian that is "greater" than all the others: Greater how? However, the discussion such a topic engenders does have the result of providing some insight, so I suppose it does serve a purpose.

Intelligere infers that I am very wrong in my estimation of Lt. Gen. Dallaire. I would like to know more about this.

Pierre