Pierre Trudeau, Terry Fox top list of most inspirational Canadians
OTTAWA — Canadians have handed the Harper government a top- 10 list of the country’s greatest heroes, featuring some of the Conservative party’s greatest adversaries, past and present.
The list, compiled from online consultations in the run- up to Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017, includes Pierre Trudeau, Jack Layton, David Suzuki and Lester B. Pearson.
About 12,000 Canadians participated in the online exercise, which began Dec. 11 and closed last month.
A five- part digital form included the question: Which Canadians have inspired you the most over the last 150 years?
The Canadian Heritage Department extracted a top10 list for an April 29 briefing note for the minister, Shelly Glover.
Only one clearly identifiable Conservative appears: John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, in eighth place.
The list was topped by former Liberal prime minister Trudeau, followed by marathonof- hope runner Terry Fox, former NDP leader Tommy Douglas, former Liberal prime minister Lester B. Pearson, astronaut Chris Hadfield, environmental activist Suzuki, former NDP leader Layton, MacDonald, hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and Romeo Dallaire, the soldier and Liberal senator who recently announced his resignation. The consultation also asked which of Canada’s accomplishments of the last 150 years “make you most proud to be a Canadian?”
Medicare topped that list, followed by peacekeeping, then the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms at No. 3.
The Conservative government, which has recently been buffeted by a series of charterbased losses at the Supreme Court of Canada, did not mark the 25th anniversary of the Charter in 2007, nor the 30th in 2012.
The rest of the accomplishments list, in order, were: Canada’s contribution to the Second World War, the Canadarm, multiculturalism, Canada’s contribution to the First World War, bilingualism, space exploration and the Constitution Act of 1982.
The briefing note and related documents were obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.
Glover said the exercise was simply to consult Canadians about how to celebrate 2017, adding “we have no intention of making a kind of final list.”
“Every community is going to have their own personal list. … We will not be telling people whom they ought to be celebrating.”
“The consultations were not partisan in any way shape or form,” she said in an interview from her Winnipeg riding, noting for example that many Canadians do not regard Tommy Douglas as a New Democrat politician but simply as the father of medicare.
The government has yet to announce its budget or its overall theme and focus for the 2017 celebrations.