Oct 26, 2004
Oct 20, 2004
The Greatest Canadian (yes, again)
A brief update on my last post: the alphabetical list of the Top 100 nominees has been replaced with a ranked list from 11 to 100. The good news is that Leonard Cohen is now listed. The bad news is that Agnes MacPhail got dropped since she actually came in at 108, bringing the total number of women down to 19. Also, Shania Twain is the highest ranked woman on the list at 18. At least Nellie MacClung beat Celine and Avril.
Oct 18, 2004
A great Canadian is a white male Canadian
CBC has released the top 10 contenders for Greatest Canadian, as nominated by the Canadian public, and it's quite telling. Not a single woman made the cut, but Don Cherry did. I'm not knocking Pierre Trudeau, Frederick Banting, and many of the other great Canadians on the list, but it's sad to see that being male and white are overwhelmingly considered to be key criteria in determining greatness, and that athletic achievement is a more important measure of worth than, say, fighting to give women legal status as persons or being the first black person ever appointed to the Senate.
A look at the Top 100 reveals that only a handful are non-white and only 20 are women, with over a third of those in the entertainment industry (Pamela Anderson, Avril Lavigne, Shania Twain, Celine Dion, Anne Murray, Joni Mitchell, and Sarah MacLachlan). While the official site doesn't give away the rankings, CBC News tells us that Shania, Celine and Avril all made the top 50, while Agnes MacPhail came in at 108, Roberta Bondar at 63, and Emily Carr at 85.
Rick Mercer made it, Mary Walsh did not. David Suzuki made it, Elizabeth May did not. No sign of Margaret Laurence, Kim Campbell, Audrey McLaughlin, Karen Kain, Silken Laumann, Myriam Bedard, Ursula Franklin, Maude Abbott or Elsie Gregory MacGill, though a whole lot of their male contemporaries, and even Bret "The Hitman" Hart, are there. (Here's a primer for those of you who need to brush up on your Canadian women's history.)
Not that all the sad exceptions are female - I'm at a loss as to why Robertson Davies or Leonard Cohen are overlooked (Timothy Findlay and Margaret Atwood are boththere) - but 20 out of 100 is just not good enough.
A look at the Top 100 reveals that only a handful are non-white and only 20 are women, with over a third of those in the entertainment industry (Pamela Anderson, Avril Lavigne, Shania Twain, Celine Dion, Anne Murray, Joni Mitchell, and Sarah MacLachlan). While the official site doesn't give away the rankings, CBC News tells us that Shania, Celine and Avril all made the top 50, while Agnes MacPhail came in at 108, Roberta Bondar at 63, and Emily Carr at 85.
Rick Mercer made it, Mary Walsh did not. David Suzuki made it, Elizabeth May did not. No sign of Margaret Laurence, Kim Campbell, Audrey McLaughlin, Karen Kain, Silken Laumann, Myriam Bedard, Ursula Franklin, Maude Abbott or Elsie Gregory MacGill, though a whole lot of their male contemporaries, and even Bret "The Hitman" Hart, are there. (Here's a primer for those of you who need to brush up on your Canadian women's history.)
Not that all the sad exceptions are female - I'm at a loss as to why Robertson Davies or Leonard Cohen are overlooked (Timothy Findlay and Margaret Atwood are boththere) - but 20 out of 100 is just not good enough.
Pierre Burton's guide to rolling joints
Yes, you read that correctly. Pierre Burton, the 84 year-old best-selling author, journalist and broadcaster will be giving tips on rolling joints tonight on Rick Mercer's Monday Report. Burton says he smokes pot about once a month to relax.
Kind of makes you wonder if Grandpa (who, come to think of it, was a Pierre Burton fan) really was wishing for a Christmas toke...
Kind of makes you wonder if Grandpa (who, come to think of it, was a Pierre Burton fan) really was wishing for a Christmas toke...
Oct 12, 2004
Yet another Hollywood remake of classic TV
A new addition to the "things that will probably suck" file is The A-Team, the movie. It's sure to include all the original cast in bad cameo roles, except for George Peppard, whose death in 1994 spares him from having to pretend to be just thrilled about passing the torch on to some Hannibal-for-a-new-generation.
The big question is, who's man enough to fill Mr. T's gold chains? Let's hope it isn't a Wayans brother. They'll have their hands full desecrating The Munsters in film. Is nothing sacred?
The big question is, who's man enough to fill Mr. T's gold chains? Let's hope it isn't a Wayans brother. They'll have their hands full desecrating The Munsters in film. Is nothing sacred?
