GIANT OMISSIONS?
As Stephen Ripley explains, 150 names wasn’t enough for ‘Sask-uicentennial’ list.
What do the world’s tallest man, the first lady of the Canadian theatre and a war hero all have in common?
Answer: Despite their fame and accomplishments, none of them were included in our list of 150 Saskatchewan people who helped shape the nation.
For the past six months, readers of the Regina Leader-Post and Saskatoon StarPhoenix have been treated to a daily dose of Canadiana. Every day, to help mark the sesquicentennial, we’ve been publishing short profiles of Saskatchewan people who made a lasting impact on the country. Relying on the opinions of experts, suggestions from readers and our own research, we came up with 150 profiles, the last of which appears in today’s paper.
As someone who grew up in Saskatoon and who recently moved to Regina after 25 years in other provinces, I volunteered to oversee this project. I figured it would be a good way to reacquaint myself with my once and current home and the people who made it great.
As it turns out, I was right. But I had no idea what a challenge it would present — first, to come up with all the names worthy of inclusion, and then to pare that list down to just 150.
For the first part of the challenge, we had a lot of help. In the six months since kicking off the series with a profile on curling legend Sandra Schmirler, we’ve received more than 300 emails, and almost as many letters and phone calls, from proud Saskatchewanians, suggesting names to be added to the list. Although some were obvious, I was amazed at how many I had never heard of. Not all of them made the list, but every one came with a little history lesson.
Together with our readers, I learned about Lois Boyle, the civilian administrator who gave the Snowbirds their name; Robert Sass, the inventor of the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System; and John Vernon, the prolific character actor whose long list of bigscreen villains was topped by the evil Dean Wormer in Animal House. If they hadn’t been suggested by readers, none of them would have made the list.
But for every candidate we selected, there were dozens who didn’t make the cut, for a variety of reasons.
The largest group was comprised of people who had an enormous impact within Saskatchewan but less so outside the province’s boundaries. This included politicians Woodrow Lloyd and Bill Beeching; educators Walter Murray and Gilbert Eamer; businessmen Ira Mumford and Joe Young; and health-care professionals Emmet McCusker, Alfred Shadd and Eleanore Louise Miner.
Some worthy nominees were excluded because they worked in crowded fields. These included agricultural innovators Robert Coupland, Doug Knott and Murad al Katib; Supreme Court justices John Henderson Lamont, James Estey and his son Willard Estey; artists A.W. Davey, Ivan Eyre and Count Berthold von Imhoff; and athletes Vera Pezer, Blair Morgan and Tiger Williams.
Of all the prominent people mentioned here, the names that might have been the hardest to omit are the three I referenced at the start of this column. The first is Edouard Beaupre, also known as the Willow Bunch Giant, whose eight-foot-one frame made him an international sensation more than a century ago. The second is the acclaimed stage actress Frances Hyland and the third is Hugh Cairns, whose bravery in the First World War earned him the Victoria Cross.
Despite all the second-guessing a project like this entails, I can honestly say it’s been one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had in my career. That’s mainly because of the overwhelmingly positive response we’ve had from readers, but also because of everything it’s taught me about Saskatchewan and its people.
So when O Canada is played at July 1 celebrations across the province this year, we’ll all have a lot more than 150 reasons to be proud.