For those who are not familiar with these folks, here’s a quick intro:
1 Tommy Douglas: a western working person’s politician who fought to bring socialized health care to all Canadians, and who built a strong socialist party that is now the NDP, always with a view to people helping people, and people participating in their own governance
2 Terry Fox: selfless courage incarnate – a true hero – a cancer amputee who while dying hopped halfway across Canada to raise funds to fight cancer – his dream lives on as tens of thousands of people walk and run in Marathon-of-Hope fund-raisers each year
3 Pierre Elliott Trudeau: a philosopher and Prime Minister who cut our final constitutional ties with England, created our constitution’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms (which has had a tremendous effect on civil rights – most recently, gay marriage), who pirouetted behind the queen, gave us the term “fuddle-duddle”, encouraged all patriotic Canadians to shower with a friend, decreed that the government has no business in the bedrooms of the nation, and above all, was a consummate wilderness canoeist
4 Sir Frederick Banting: discovered insulin – need I say more – millions and millions served
5 David Suzuki: a biologist who has popularized environmentalism across Canada through a combination of hard facts, clean logic, and vision – tree hugging is a good thing
6 Lester B. Pearson: a key builder of the United Nations (and a president of the UN) and of Canada’s role as a peacekeeper (who won a Nobel Prize for preventing WWIII over Suez), who while Prime Minister brought in federal bilingualism and Tommy Douglas’ socialized heath care
7 Don Cherry: Hockey Night in Canada’s resident curmudgeon of exquisite sartorial taste – Bob and Doug McKenzie, Red Green, and Don Cherry define the Canadian male
8 Sir John A. Macdonald: our first Prime Minister who while on an extended bender united many of the earlier provinces into Canada, and then built a railroad across it to try to hold it together
9 Alexander Graham Bell: ring-ding-ding-ring-a-ring-a-ding-ding – flew really big kites too
10 Wayne Gretzky: a really, really nice guy who played hockey really, really well