[mac/dief]

But hey, what do I know <img align=absmiddle src='images/smilies/lol.gif' alt='Laughing Out Loud'>

[KevinGagnon]

<br> <br /><p>1. Kevin Gagnon <br />2. Kevin Gagnon <br />3. Kevin Gagnon <br /> <br /> <img align=absmiddle src='images/smilies/lol.gif' alt='Laughing Out Loud'> <br /> <br /><p>Just kidding of course. All I know is I voted for Tommy Douglas. I was surprised that Michael J. Fox got second place. I would have though David Suzuki or Pierre Burton would have got that spot. <br /> <br /><p>Kevin <br /> <br />

[mac/dief]

I wasnt so surprised that Terry Fox got 2nd, he was a brave man who tried to conquer an incurable desease and raised money and hope for millions afflicted with this desease, but he has not had the same historical and obvious societal effects as many of the other candidates have had on us as a nation. Macdonald should have been 1st place and many of those who voted for Douglas, Trudeau, PEarson and even Don Cherry and DAvid Suzuki would have placed Sir John second. However education on our most important Prime Minister, whom we owe by far the most too has sadly taken a backstage to all of the Pearsonia and Trudeaumania of the last few decades.

[N Say]

[QUOTE=nsay]look up the following names, and then wonder why they aren't even mentioned: <br />- glenn gould <br />- sir william osler <br />- john charles fields <br />- margaret atwood <br />- carol shields <br />- lew urry <br />- bertram brockhouse <br />- peter north <br />- leonard cohen <br />- richard beamish <br />- hsm coxeter <br />- gerald vincent bull <br />- john polanyi <br />- gerhard herzberg <br />- alan davenport <br />- charles fenerty <br />- sir william logan <br />- bill reid <br />- emily carr (& the other 6) <br /> <br />any list of greatest canadians can't really be taken seriously if it leaves them out, imho. a lot of them have done stuff as significant as banting or suzuki (osler, urry, beamish, fields, coxeter) but have gotten no recognition at all, except by their peers in their respective communities. [/QUOTE] <br /> <br />there's another thread on this here: <br />http://www.vivelecanada.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?forum=19&showtopic=4273&highlight=lew%20urry

[robert_fisher]

[QUOTE BY= KevinGagnon]I was surprised that Michael J. Fox got second place. <br />[/QUOTE] <br /> <br />Is this the typo of the year or what? Sorry Kevin it needed to be said. <br /> <br />[QUOTE BY= mac/dief] <br />Myself I would say: <br /> <br />1. Sir John A. Macdonald <br />2. John Diefenbaker <br />[/QUOTE] <br /> <br />I think that some things can be assumed. <br /> <br />Wasn't Macdonald a drunk? <br /> <br />[QUOTE] <br />Macdonald was well known for his wit and also for his alcoholism. He is known to have been drunk for many of his debates in parliament. One famous story is that during an election debate Macdonald was so drunk he began vomiting violently on stage while his opponent was speaking. Picking himself up Macdonald told the crowd, "see how my opponent's ideas disgust me." <br />[/QUOTE] <br /> <br />[QUOTE] <br />In another version of the story, he responded to his opponent's query of his drunkenness with "It goes to show that I would rather have a drunk Conservative than a sober Liberal." <br />[/QUOTE] <br /> <br />And a theif? <br /> <br />[QUOTE] <br />After the Pacific scandal in 1873, in which Macdonald was accused to taking bribes to award contracts for the construction of the railway, the Conservatives were ousted in the 1874 federal election by the Liberal Party of Canada, led by Alexander Mackenzie. <br />[/QUOTE] <br /> <br />[QUOTE] <br />The Pacific scandal involves the allegations of bribes being taken by Canada's Conservative government of Sir John A. Macdonald. As part of British Columbia's agreement to join the Confederation of Canada, the government had agreed to build the Canadian Pacific Railway, a transcontinental railway linking the Pacific provinces to the eastern provinces. <br /> <br />Two groups competed for the charter to build the railway, Hugh Allan's Canadian Pacific Railway Company and the Inter-Ocean Railway Company. In 1873 it became known that Hugh Allan had contributed a large sum of money to the Conservative government's re-election campaign of 1872. The Liberal party, at this time the opposition party in parliament, accused the Conservatives of having made a tacit agreement to give the contract to Hugh Allan in exchange for money. <br /> <br />Despite Macdonald's claims that he was innocent, evidence was found showing receipts of money from Allan to Macdonald and some of his political colleagues. Perhaps even more damaging to Macdonald was when the Liberals discovered a telegram he sent to Allan six days before the 1872 election which read, "I must have another $10,000. Will be the last time of calling. Do not fail me. Answer today." Macdonald resigned as Prime Minister. He offered his resignation as the head of the Conservative party, but it was not accepted and he was talked into staying on. Perhaps as a direct result of this scandal the Conservative party fell in the eyes of the public and was relegated to being the official opposition in the federal election of 1874, during which Alexander Mackenzie was elected as the new Prime Minister.[/QUOTE] <br /> <br />For all the good he did for Canada he did it under a party, his merits are credited as individual but really he was just the lead hand. I don't think you would find too many of the other Canadians in the top ten, aside from Don Cherry maybe, hurling amidst a speech, and laundering money. As great as he was I don't think that he could be called the greatest.

[KevinGagnon]

Rob,

I'm sorry if my personal opinion is that Pierre Burton and David Suzuki have lived as true Canadians in all of their lives, more then Michael J. Fox. IMO

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying he shouldn't be nominated at all. Just that people like Pierre Burton and David Suzuki have lived out real Canadian values in their lifes. Pierre who was like a leader for this country accept we never had the privilege to have him lead our country. He truly spoke for Canada when our politicians waren't. David Suzuki spreading his word about human rights and making people known of environmental issues. Its a Canadian value to worry about the environment. Maybe its the native culture in us Thank god for our native culture in this world is what I say.

Kevin

[robert_fisher]

I think you should go back in time with Marty and see who was actually in the top ten. Your 'Flux Capacitor' and your 'Time Circuits' aren't functioning apparently. <br /> <br />If you can't see where I am going with this... <br /> <br />Then God help Vivelecanada!

[arc628]

[Quote by: robert_fisher] I think you should go back in time with Marty and see who was actually in the top ten. Your 'Flux Capacitor' and your 'Time Circuits' aren't functioning apparently. <br /> <br />If you can't see where I am going with this... <br /> <br />Then God help Vivelecanada! <br /> [/QUOTE] <br /> <br />It's not his fault, he just never had very strong 'Family Ties'. Sorry Kevin, couldn't resist <br />

[arc628]

[QUOTE BY= robert_fisher] I think you should go back in time with Marty and see who was actually in the top ten. Your 'Flux Capacitor' and your 'Time Circuits' aren't functioning apparently. <br /> <br />If you can't see where I am going with this... <br /> <br />Then God help Vivelecanada![/QUOTE] <br />It's not his fault, he just never had very strong 'Family Ties'. Sorry Kevin, couldn't resist <img align=absmiddle src='images/smilies/biggrin.gif' alt='Big Grin'>

[KevinGagnon]

Oh I see. Sorry about that, my bad. And the sarcasm was not needed Rob. Yep it seemd like sarcasm to me.

I had thought he meant it was a typo cause I had stated my opinion of Micheal J. Fox.

Since it is Terry Fox then we stand in agreement. But still didn't need the sarcasm.

Kevin

[arc628]

[QUOTE BY= mac/dief] Who did you want to see on the Greatest Canadians list, and if you could have decided the list how would it have gone? I think that that's a pretty interesting question to ask yourself and you're knowlegde and perception of Canadian history. <br /> <br />Myself I would say: <br /> <br />1. Sir John A. Macdonald <br />2. John Diefenbaker <br />3. Tommy Douglas <br />4. Sir Frederick Banting <br />5. Sir Louis Laffontaine <br />6. Sir Robert Borden <br />7. Lester B. Pearson <br />8. David Suzuki <br />9. General Romeo Dallaire <br />10. David Orchard <br /> <br />[/QUOTE] <br />I would have broken it down into 3 categories: <br /><BR>1.Politics<BR>2.Science<BR>3.Culture<BR><BR>My three lists would then be(In no particular order):<BR><u>Politics</u><BR>Lester B. Pearson<BR>Pierre Trudeau<BR>Sir John A. MacDonald<BR>Mackenzie King<BR>Tommy Douglas<BR><BR><u>Science</u><BR>David Suzuki<BR>Frederick Banting<BR>Joseph Tyrell<BR>Phillip Currie<BR>William Logan<BR><BR><u>Culture</u>Farley Mowat<BR>Pierre Burton<BR>Foster Hewitt/Dick Irvin<BR>Maurice Richard<BR>Gordon Lightfoot<BR><BR>Oh, and there should also be a list for our military. Thats how I see it, just my personal opinion though.

[robert_fisher]

[QUOTE BY= KevinGagnon] Oh I see. Sorry about that, my bad. And the sarcasm was not needed Rob. Yep it seemd like sarcasm to me. <br /> <br />I had thought he meant it was a typo cause I had stated my opinion of Micheal J. Fox. <br /> <br />Since it is Terry Fox then we stand in agreement. But still didn't need the sarcasm. <br /> <br />Kevin <br /> <br />[/QUOTE] <br /> <br />If you take away the word 'sarcasm' and use 'friendly humour' as it's replacement...haha, sorry. <br /> <br />[QUOTE BY= arc628] <br />I would have broken it down into 3 categories: <br />[/QUOTE] <br /> <br />That would have been a way better idea. The only downside would have been that Avril Levigne would have been higher on one of the lists.

[mac/dief]

Well Rob, Sir John might have laundered money but the sad truth is, is that that's how things were done in politics back then. He might have made some mistakes but he did what he felt he had to do to get that railway up and running and bring devlopment into the then poverty stricken west. He may have been an "alcoholic" for periods of his life, but lets not forget the horrible tragedies that befell him. His child and wife dying, and his daughter being born mentally chalanged, he had good reason to be depressed at times. When it comes right down to it we owe ALOT to Macdonald, nobody deserves to be named ahead of him as far as I am concerned. <br /> <br />Besides that if Alexander Mackenzie had of remained in power the railway would have gone from north to south, we would have become economically dependent on the U.S. and would not have developed as a wealthy nation due to the contentalist, super-free trade that Mackenzie advocated and Canada would be a lot smaller today and most likely not united! EVERY Prime Minister had faults, Trudeau despite what we owe to him was an egomaniac who rarely listened to other people and when he had an idea in his head (like the NEP or the way the Constitution was done for example) he just went right ahead and rarely if ever took for account how other Canadian regions felt about it. Diefenbaker, despite the fact that he is my political hero was also very stubborn and almost never worked with public servents because he thought that since Canada hadn't had a Conservative government since 1935 and they were all appointed by Liberal administrations that they couldnt be trusted at all, one of the things that led to his downfall. <br /> <br />I do think that it would have been better to seperate the categories, but hey what are you gonna do. As a Canadian Catholic of Irish descent I was kind of freaked out that Oliver Cromwell made the Great Britons list, LOL. <br /> <br />

[KevinGagnon]

Sorry to you Rob. Its my bad. I've been known to take jokes and friendly humour personal. Like an attack towards me. Its just the way I am. <br /> <br />I'll recognize your friendly humour next time <img align=absmiddle src='images/smilies/wink.gif' alt='Wink'> <br /> <br />Kevin

[robert_fisher]

[QUOTE BY= mac/dief] Well Rob, Sir John might have laundered money but the sad truth is, is that that's how things were done in politics back then. <br />[/QUOTE] <br /> <br />Not much has changed unfortunately. <br /> <br />I don't mean to ride John A. I just though that he wasn't one of the 'greatest' especially in comparison with 7 of the top ten candidates, and what they did as individuals. John A. made some great decisions and some bad decisions, and I do respect his role in our history and will give credit where credit is due.