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[edit]

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]

Rank	Name	Notability	Birthplace	Advocate
10	Gretzky, WayneWayne Gretzky	Hockey player, holder of numerous NHL records	Brantford, Ontario	Grey, DeborahDeborah Grey
9	Bell, Alexander GrahamAlexander Graham Bell	Scientist, inventor, founder of the Bell Telephone Company	Edinburgh, Scotland	Solomon, EvanEvan Solomon
8	Macdonald, Sir John A.Sir John A. Macdonald	First Prime Minister of Canada	Glasgow, Scotland	Gray, CharlotteCharlotte Gray
7	Cherry, DonDon Cherry	Hockey coach and commentator	Kingston, Ontario	Hart, BretBret Hart
6	Pearson, Lester B.Lester B. Pearson	Fourteenth Prime Minister of Canada, United Nations General Assembly President, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate	Toronto, Ontario	Gross, PaulPaul Gross
5	Suzuki, DavidDavid Suzuki	Environmentalist	Vancouver, British Columbia	Auf der Maur, MelissaMelissa Auf der Maur
4	Banting, Sir FrederickSir Frederick Banting	Medical scientist, co-discoverer of insulin, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine	Alliston, Ontario	Walsh, MaryMary Walsh
3	Trudeau, PierrePierre Trudeau	Fifteenth Prime Minister of Canada	Montreal, Quebec	Murphy, RexRex Murphy
2	Fox, TerryTerry Fox	Athlete, activist, humanitarian	Winnipeg, Manitoba	Lee, Sook-YinSook-Yin Lee
1	Douglas, TommyTommy Douglas	Father of Medicare, Premier of Saskatchewan	Falkirk, Scotland	Stroumboulopoulos, GeorgeGeorge Stroumboulopoulos

Other editions[edit]

Other countries have produced similar shows, see also: Greatest Britons spin-offs

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.
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.