leonardcohenforum.com

Last spring, CBC Television issued their viewers to vote for who they thought was the greatest Canadian. The list was revealed last night and Leonard Cohen did make it! I thought I would post the list, if anyone is interested. It looks as though you can still vote for the final ten as well.

The Final Ten~
Frederick Banting - Inventor of insulin
Alexander Graham Bell - Inventor of telephone, amongst other things
Don Cherry - Former hockey coach and host of Hockey Night in Canada
Tommy Douglas - Canada's Father of healthcare
Terry Fox - Fundraiser for cancer
Wayne Gretzky - Hockey great
Sir John A. Macdonald - Canada's first prime minister
Lester B. Pearson - Prime minister
David Suzuki - Geneticist, academic and broadcaster
Pierre Elliott Trudeau - Prime minister

11: Métis leader and martyr Louis RielWith a report from Canadian Press
12: Humanitarian Jean Vanier, founder of the L'Arche movement
13: Singer, Stomping Tom Connors
14: Singer Neil Young
15: CBC radio host and writer Peter Gzowski
16: Rwanda massacre chronicler General Romeo Dallaire
17: Former NDP leader and Africa AIDS advocate Stephen Lewis
18: Singer Shania Twain
19: Hockey player Bobby Orr
20: Comedian and actor Mike Myers
21: The Unknown Soldier
22: Kinsmen founder Hal Rogers
23: Hockey player Maurice "The Rocket" Richard
24: First World War General Arthur Curry
25: Suffragette Nellie McClung
26: Doctor and revolutionary Norman Bethune
27: Singer Celine Dion
28: 1812 war hero Sir Isaac Brock
29: Actor and comedian Jim Carrey
30: Wheelchair athlete and fundraiser Rick Hansen
31: Writer, broadcaster Pierre Berton
32: Actor and Parkinson's disease activist Michael J. Fox
33: Singer Gordon Lightfoot
34: Winnipeg radio host Hal Anderson
35: War of 1812 heroine and candy box face Laura Secord
36: Ernie Coombs and his TV character Mr. Dressup.
37: Native warrior Tecumseh
38: Hockey player Mario Lemieux
39: Wrestler Brett Hart
40: Singer Avril Lavigne
41: Actor Comedian John Candy
42: Time zone inventor Sir Sanford Fleming
43 Prime Minister Sir Wilfred Laurier
44: May Maxwell
45: Prime Minister Jean Chrétien
46: Singer, poet Leonard Cohen
47: Prime Minister John Diefenbaker
48: First World War ace Billy Bishop
49: Prime Minister William Lyon McKenzie
50: TV comedian Rick Mercer

I'm happy that Leonard made the list. There are a few on the list that really shouldn't be - Avril Lavigne (someone must have let their teenagers vote!) and Hal Anderson (a terribly tacky radio show host who encouraged his listeners to vote him in). The CBC site has blurbs to all of these Canadians but for some reason I could not find Leonard's blurb.

http://www.cbc.ca/greatest/

There was a book published in 1998 called The Canadian 100: The 100 Most Influential Canadians of the 20th Century. Leonard Cohen was not on that list but Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney, Maurice Richard and Wayne Gretzky were. Gordie Howe and Bobby Orr were not on that list because they won their cups with U.S. Hockey teams.

Check out the book.

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/item.asp? ... oks&zxac=1

Thank you for the link YG! It looks interesting. Next time I am in Chapters I will try and find it so I can thumb through their list!

Linda

yesss... it's nice that leonard at least made the top 50. i am not canadian but i know quite a few of those people. it's good to see neil young up there with john candy and bret hart (they actually have a professional wrestler!! hahaha).

Anyway, Leonard should be the best rated singer on the list, although I like Neil Young. Who's Stomping Tom Connors? There's Shania Twain? CELINE DION??????? This is obviously made by people's vote.

Stompin' Tom is a very Canadian maritimes singer-songwriter who pens songs about hockey, Canadian towns, and other such topics. I'm not much of a fan but I think he deserves to be on this list over such people like Celine Dion and Shania Twain! If you are curious...

http://www.stompintom.com/

One point that appears to have been overlooked is the following:

If you go to the site - go to the top 100 - find Leonard Cohen - and then click onto the link which contains archives of Leonard Cohen events since the 50s which are maintained by CBC.

Songs, interviews, etc ...

The site lists as the top link - "The LeonardCohen Files" - before the Sony site.

Cheers.

JRBAcct

Ah yes, there are a lot of nice video clips and interviews in the CBC Archives for Leonard Cohen, as well as other Canadian topics/people/news/etc.