Guest Author - Betty Dobson
November 29, 2004
I have spent the past three days immersed in back-to-back episodes of CBC television's 12-part series, The Greatest Canadian.
The idea behind the series was relatively simple. CBC identified the top 100 nominees from more than 140,000 individuals nominated by the public. The top 10 contenders each earned a one-hour documentary segment hosted by a celebrity advocate. The episodes were broadcast twice a week on CBC and, after each episode, the country was invited to cast their votes. The advocates gathered for a final debate in the 11th episode and the results revealed on the final night.
I decided to lump the whole experience together with CBC Newsworld's marathon repeats over the past weekend. This is what I learned.
Politician Deborah Grey came across like an adolescent groupie when touting the merits of hockey star Wayne Gretzky. She went so far to surmise that the "C" on his jersey--which stood for "Captain"--might actually represent that he was "really cute." The one good thing I can say about the Gretzky episode is that it made stentorian sportscaster Don Cherry look deserving by comparison.
On the other hand, the advocates for Tommy Douglas, Lester B. Pearson, and Pierre Trudeau presided over intriguing depictions of three landmark political lives. Their stories were presented with a touch of humour but never without respect.
Somewhere in between lay the episode dedicated to naturalist David Suzuki--the only candidate who wasn't a white male. An otherwise compelling documentary was hampered by too much concert footage of advocate Melissa Auf Der Maur.
The lowest point in the series came near the end of the final episode. When each candidate was eliminated, his advocate was asked to transfer moral support to one of the remaining candidates. As the fourth advocate joined the Terry Fox team, co-host Shaun Majumder commented--during a live broadcast--that support for Fox was spreading like cancer. One has to wonder how soon the comedian will be asked to host such an event again.
Overall, what could and should have been a proud moment for all Canadians looked more like a three-ring circus, complete with clown.
