The Greatest Canadian
| The Greatest Canadian | |
|---|---|
 The Greatest Canadian logo | |
| Genre | Documentary |
| Developed by | Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |
| Written by | Gary Pearson |
| Directed by | Guy O'Sullivan |
| Release | |
| Original release | 17 October 2004 |
Officially launched on 5 April 2004, The Greatest Canadian was a 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.
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 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]
Other editions
- Other countries have produced similar shows, see also: Greatest Britons spin-offs
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Germany ran their version on ZDF and called it Unsere Besten (Our Best). -
KRO (part of the Netherlands Public Broadcasting) ran the De Grootste Nederlander (The Greatest Dutchman). -
The Discovery Channel (in conjunction with AOL) ran The Greatest American in May 2005.[2] -
The South African Broadcasting Corporation ran the Great South Africans. -
In Finland, YLE ran Suuret Suomalaiset (Great Finns).[3] -
In France Le Plus Grand Français (The Greatest Frenchman) ran on France 2. -
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In Belgium.: De Grootste Belg and Le plus grand belge. -
A Czech version called The Greatest Czech (Největší Čech) aired in June 2005. -
100 Welsh Heroes was the result of an on-line poll carried out in 2003-4. -
A Bulgarian version, The Great Bulgarians (Великите българи), finished in February 2007. -
In Romania, the show called "Mari Români" (Great Romanians) started in May 2006; on 8 July, Televiziunea Română (TVR) presented the 100 Greatest Romanians, and on 21 October the Greatest Romanian of all the times. -
In Portugal, RTP chose dictator António de Oliveira Salazar as the Greatest Portuguese. -
Argentina ran their version on Telefe and called it El Gen Argentino (The Argentine Gene). Started on 27 August 2007.[4] -
In Spain, Antena 3 chose the current head of state, King Juan Carlos I, as The Most Important Spaniard in History, on 22 May 2007. -
Ukraine ran their version on Inter and called it Великі українці (The Great Ukrainians). To broadcast 2007–2008 season, 2007.[5] -
In Greece, Skai TV ran the show Great Greeks. -
In Italy, Rai Due chose Leonardo da Vinci as the greatest Italian ever on 10 February 2010.
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.
- ↑ "AOL TV". Tv.channel.aol.com. Retrieved 10 October 2011.
- ↑ "Suuret Suomalaiset | Arkistoitu". yle.fi. 1 June 2011. Retrieved 10 October 2011.
- ↑ http://www.telefe.com.ar
- ↑
External links
- The Greatest Canadian at the Internet Movie Database
- The Greatest Canadians from the CBC Archives – Clips about the lives and accomplishments of the Top 10.
- CBC.ca - Grands Canadiens (French)
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