Terry Fox and Oscar Peterson named to Canada’s walk of fame
Inductees are ‘great balance of Canadians’
TORONTO — Legendary runner and cancer activist Terry Fox, music producer Bob Ezrin, actor Victor Garber and pianist Oscar Peterson are among the latest inductees to Canada’s Walk of Fame.
Rounding out the class of 2013 are actor Alan Thicke, Olympic soccer hero Christine Sinclair and brother activists Craig and Marc Kielburger.
“We’ve got a great balance of Canadians from many disciplines. We don’t just focus on just music, or just the arts, and it’s really people who have made a difference in Canada,” said Dan McGrath, chair of the Canadian Walk of Fame’s board of directors.
Now in its 15th year, the Walk of Fame has honoured Canadians who have excelled in music, sport, film and television, as well as in the literary, visual, performing arts, science and innovation, for at least a decade. “The reason it becomes harder to choose every year is that every year there are more people who will come into the fold who are deserving,” McGrath said. “Every year, there’s someone new who hits that 10-year milestone.”
Typically, the Canadian Walk of Fame honours only one posthumous inductee with the Cineplex Legends award, but this year two are being welcomed: Fox and Peterson.
“We decided to have two this year because we wanted to have a special recognition of Terry Fox as part of our 15-year anniversary,” McGrath said.
With the introduction of smartphone voting, McGrath said voting for this year’s slate spiked, with nearly 30,000 Canadians from 130 countries submitting a nomination.
This year also marked the first year the Walk of Fame awarded the RBC emerging artist music mentorship prize, which gives up-and-coming musicians an opportunity to learn from the brightest Canadian stars. Last week, Taylor Kurta, a 20-year-old selftaught guitarist and singer from Thornhill, Ont., won the cash prize and the chance to be mentored by Gord Sinclair of the Tragically Hip.
Pop star Carly Rae Jepsen of Mission, B.C., was also announced as the fourth winner of the Allan Slaight award, which recognizes young and inspirational Canadians. Past recipients include rapper Drake and jazz-pop singer Nikki Yanofsky. Jepsen is slated to perform at the award ceremony on Sept. 21 at Toronto’s Elgin Theatre.
The names of this year’s Walk of Fame inductees will be engraved on stars and displayed with the others along King Street West and Simcoe Street in Toronto.
Past inductees include rocker Bryan Adams, TV host Alex Trebek, comedian Phil Hartman and hockey great Bobby Orr. The show will be broadcast nationally on Global Television and Slice this fall.