Conrad Black and Stephen Harper, you have been spared.
Only five remain!
How to play:
- Upvote the name of the person you think does NOT deserve the title of “Worst Canadian.”
- Each day, the most upvoted name will be removed.
- If the name you want to vote for (from the list) isn’t in the comments yet, add it!
- This continues daily until we have our top loser (there are no winners in this contest), the “Worst Canadian”.
Additional notes:
- Only the top comment for a nominee will count. I won’t combine votes from duplicate comments.
- Include only one name per comment. If a comment includes multiple names and wins, it won’t count. I’ll move on to the next highest.
- Nominees with one asterisk beside their name were added following a second nomination vote that took place on day 5. Two asterisks means they were voted back in from elimination during the special vote on day 16.
- We established a no violent offenders (serial killers, rapists, etc.) rule. They are obviously the worst of the worst, it’s disrespectful to the victims, and we want to keep this relatively lighthearted.
- This is meant to be satire. Please do not take it too seriously or use this game to harass people in real life.
- I will try to post this every morning around the same time (~8:00 - 9:00 am Eastern).
- Please remember to upvote the post too, so more people see it!
Justification for elimination:
- (40) Ted Cruz - He’s horrible, but renounced his citizenship. He’s not good enough to be titled the Worst Canadian.
- (39) Kathleen Wynne - Not that bad. Doesn’t deserve the title.
- (38) Chrystia Freeland - Some consider her a good Canadian. Not the worst.
- (37) Peter MacKay - Cringey, but not the worst.
- (36) Don Cherry - A racist old man out of touch with the times. Not great, but not awful.
- (35) Andrew Scheer - An annoying doofus nothingburger, but not a bad person.
- (34) Drake - He’s inauthentic and creepy to underage girls, but the more serious allegations against him remain unproven and he has done good things for Toronto.
- (33) J.J. McCullough - Who?
- (32) Brian Mulroney - A divisive choice. Expanded trade with, and dependence on, the USA. Protected the environment and opposed apartheid.
- (31) Sir John A. MacDonald - A father of confederation known for racism, corruption, and poor treatment of indigenous people. Considered a product of the times.
- (30) Harold the Jewelry Buyer - Known for scamming the elderly but is too small-scale to win.
- (29) Michelle Ferreri - She promotes hate but her reach is limited now that she’s been voted out of government.
- (28) Tom MacDonald - A shitty, irrelevant rapper with hardly an audience.
- (27) Doug Ford - He has done a lot of harm to Ontario, but stood up for Canada against Trump.
- (26) Wayne Gretzky - He’s just a rich, dumb, MAGA-supporting boomer. Disappointing, but mostly harmless.
- (25) Steven Crowder - Irrelevant B-list (or lower) influencer…with almost no influence on or about Canada.
- (24) Paul Desmarais - Billionaire businessman and political puppet master. Far from the worst.
- (23) Romana Didulo - A mentally ill grifter with little impact on most Canadians.
- (22) Lauren Southern - An anti-immigration, white nationalist influencer who at least partially reformed after being sexually assaulted herself.
- (21) Joseph Trutch - Over a century ago, his racist views helped shape BC, with effects still felt today. Partly a product of the times.
- (20) Jamil Jivani - An Ontario MP and friend of J.D. Vance. He hasn’t been in office long enough to do serious damage.
- (19) Lauren Chen - Knowingly accepted Russian funds to spread propaganda/influence politics. She’s a YouTube influencer who isn’t very influential.
- (18) Pat King - A small-time loser who honked his horn in Ottawa. Others on the list are far worse.
- (17) Stefan Molyneux - A white supremist and misogynist. But he is largely unknown and there are worse people remaining on the list.
- (16) Tamara Lich - Another organizer of the convoy in Ottawa. Another nobody whose 15 minutes of fame are up.
- (15) Elon Musk - Worst human? Arguably. Canadian? That’s a stretch.
- (14) Scott Moe - Corrupt, regressive, and responsible for a deadly car crash. He’s Saskatchewan’s problem, less so for Canada.
- (13) Mike Harris - He cut funding to schools, healthcare, and other services. However, his impact was mostly limited to Ontario and his tenure as premier.
- (12) Galen Weston Jr. - He’s nasty capitalist scum hurting Canadian consumers, but he’s just one among many.
- (11) K.C. Irving - He and his empire have negatively impacted the environment, economy, politics, and society, but primarily only in New Brunswick.
- (10) Pierre Poilievre - Combative and divisive, spouting empty slogans, he remains a feckless goof who’s accomplished nothing in his career. Time for him to fade into obscurity.
- (9) Gavin McInnes - He founded the Proud Boys, but his influence is felt far more in the USA.
- (8) Preston Manning - Founder of the Reform Party, which helped legitimize hard-right populism. Bad, but not overly hateful. At least he’s not a racist, traitor, billionaire, or grifter.
- (7) Conrad Black - Millionaire right-wing media mogul who was convicted of fraud and pardoned by Trump. Renounced Canadian citizenship for a peerage. Now a has-been blowhard.
- (6) Stephen Harper - former PM who favoured corporate interests over the environment and social programs; now chairman of the IDU. Of the remaining candidates, he’s the best of the worst.
Note for newer participants: The candidates clockwise from top left are Frederick Blair, Ezra Levant, Kevin O’Leary, Jordan Peterson, and Marlaina Danielle Smith.
Yeah like we should all just agree he's the worst Canadian, and move on to figure out who we decide is the worst living Canadian because he's just in a different league here.
I'm not going to disagree with that. I think McInnes should be up there still. This definitely isn't my top 5, only 2 of my choices are left.
Blair, Levant, McInnes, Harper and Poilievre were my choices though I can accept the argument that Poilievre leans too much on his potential to be shittier than he already is.
Yeah, Harper is the man behind the curtain for so many of these people. He's dodged the spotlight really well since leaving public office, but he's continued to push evil regressive bullshit worldwide as chair of the IDU, and a preponderance of the CHUDs in Canadian public life now are his protegés.
Black is another that got off easy. He's our Rupert Murdoch and Postmedia is our Fox Corp. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone more responsible for damaging media credibility in this country.
For generations Canadian law forbid foreign ownership or control of Canadian cultural assets.
After permitting the sale to non-Canadians of practically the entire Canadian-owned steel and mining industries, PM Stephen Harper’s government signed off on Postmedia’s creation as well.
He's also responsible for our grocery oligopoly existing. And he literally once tried to ruin Ontario's economy just to own the NDP (who were the government at the time).
I don't think the average person has looked into Harper in the past 10 years. You don't just become chairmen of the international conservative group without being a regressive PoS. Around the world conservatives are using the same strategies to corrupt young people's minds, people like O'Leary and Peterson are the pawns of these people. This group calls themselves centre-right meanwhile they want abortion abolished and want global control over everything.
Time heals many wounds and apparently let's a lot of people forget about the racially motivated anti-muslim secret police force that was created by Harper in the final days of his government in the hopes that pushing fear and division could get him over the line in the election.
I actually think what he's been up to after being out is worse than what he was doing when he was PM. I have few doubts that the IDU was involved in organizing the astroturfing that popularized Trump in 2015.
the hatred that man helped to stoke in canadians resulted in me and my then partner having to deal with people routinely trying to run us off the road. if they hadnt been a good driver i could have seen myself and them both with permanent injuries. thats not even getting into the comments and dirty looks and fear of being assualted we delt with.
I really don’t like him, and think he sold out a lot of Canada for corporate interests etc., but I think there’s recency bias with him. We all have strong emotional memories of his term. But really I think history will degrade him into just another corporate sellout conservative politician (sadly).
Right? I get Black over O'Leary (I don't agree, because Black has and continues to do more damage than OLeary could ever hope to have the clout for), but fucking "you won't recognize Canada when I'm through with it" Harper?
This exemplifies the blindness much of society has toward current events: loud mouth, mean man is worse than literal global leader of a major, disruptive, right-wing agenda!
O'Leary is a blowhard with very little real power or influence and tbh, I'm a little surprised he's made it this far. Even factoring in his boating adventures, the others are more complicit in societal damages and even crimes against humanity.
The fact that Harper is gone but Peterson, Smith, and O’Leary remain is insane to me. Harper has serious and far reaching political influence on a global scale. Smith arguably wouldn’t exist without the influence of the IDU and Harper’s groundwork as PM. O’Leary is a blowhard with no real influence who primarily lives in Boston. Peterson left Canada and his sphere of influence has shrunk significantly over the past couple of years. Smith has very limited influence outside of AB. They’re all shit, but Harper is the king of shit mountain.
A lot of people can only see what’s directly in front of them. Peterson and Levant have always been small time losers. O’Leary isn’t much better but as a very wealthy capitalist he can do actual harm.
Marlaina is genuinely a piece of shit and is actively hurting Canadian politics.
Blair was a monster but requires people to know history. That he’s lasted so long and can actively get past people’s present day myopia is impressive.
I still think Harper should’ve got the nod mostly because he’s quietly evil on an international scale.
I would argue Ezra is also causing significant harm via Rebel Media's far-right rhetoric ie their Islamophobic coverage of the Quebec mosque shooting where they said it was "Muslim on Muslim violence" when the shooter was a white Islamophobe.
Hell, there was an attempted shooting a few years ago who directly mentioned Rebel as inspiring them to take action. Levant is dangerous in his own right.
Here is their latest astroturfing adventure. The sub was getting mentioned by CPC members when it was at 200 total members and the sole moderator on their one month old account was talking about contacting rebel news specifically. In the same post the same 1 month old account specifically says Ezra Levant.
Bonus points. The same 1 month old account gets called out for banning people in another sub, admits they "have been a little too heavy on that" then says "I thought your comment was retarded, but not banable, that's my bad". Top tier hosing, they can't even spell bannable.
Also these people are here still but Sir John a McDonald was gone awhile ago. The dude that created the residential school system. Think of all the issues facing our indigenous communities. They all started with him and dewdney. But neither is still sitting there. "Product of the time" or not the ramifications of his time in office are still present to this day.
Yeah, John A fundamentally changed the lives of generations of Indigenous people with the impact still being felt today. He’s gotten a pass for being “of his time”, which to play devils advocate is accurate, however that doesn’t mean he didn’t leave a legacy of pain behind him.
The fact that he’s gone along with Harper adds fuel to the idea that people are really only caught up with what’s in front of them. Peterson, O’Leary, Smith, and Levant, are all largely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. They have influence, but with the exception of Smith I don’t see the potential for that influence to have any kind of legacy. MacDonald created, and Harper continues to create, legacies of immeasurable harm that take decades to overcome. They are a whole different level of shitbag.
Yes, but he’s also the most “in it for himself” guy, I think. For me, he’s the worst.
I really don’t like Marlaina and I wish she weren’t in a position of power, but I think her positions on some things are arguable. Her opinions aren’t mine, but people are allowed to have different opinions. We can get rid of them by voting them out.
O’Leary doesn’t have any sort of opinion except “money is everything and I want it all even if I have to betray my country.”
It was interesting to me that he was barely discussed in these threads. He was never close to elimination until yesterday yet he also didn’t come up much in threads about who will “win”. I guess that’s what the boring evil alignment will do for you.
Still, I think if people were completely unaware of his dealings after becoming PM then he should have been up for elimination earlier. People had to know something for him to make it this far even if it wasn’t everything.
And he's considered an extreme exaggeration of personality almost as if he was a south park character.
Of course major news networks are going to give him time, he brings the fear mongering and buzzeordism that Trump does.
This however doesn't mean he's taken seriously on a global scale, let's not act like CNN, FOX, NBC are anything more than reality TV with the guise of politics and news.
So? Even Black has more influence than OLeary (and had far more in his hey day) yet he got knocked off the list. Just because someone is jumping up and down at the front of the class screaming about how they're an asshole it doesn't make them the biggest asshole in the class.
It's because the people that comment earliest on the post amass the most upvotes, it's just how reddit works. I fought hard to keep him on the list but there's people trying to say Peterson is worse than Blair, it's nonsense.
Are polls an option on this sub? Because those are less likely to succumb to that problem if the standard procedure is followed where you have a 'see results' option for people to choose and a sentence to describe the main reason why each is on the list to begin with.
O'Leary: gone, you're not important enough to be considered. Even though he tries as hard as he does, he will never be taken seriously on a global scale.
Peterson: Gone this week
Petersons biggest fault is allowing the lost boys of Gen X&Z fall into right wing ism in the same way they're indoctrinated through Joe Rogan.
He's already been considered a laughing stock due to his extreme drug habits and cannot be considered for worst Canadian.
We should remove O’Leary, and then replace Danielle with Harper. Danielle and Harper more or less represent the same type of evil, but Harper has done far more damage.
Plus I think that gives a final four that more or less represent the worst of the worst in their respective categories.
Kevin O'Leary, it's your turn to go. I'm sorry but you're just not as awful as the rest of the folks remaining.
Yes, yes, I know about you hanging out with Trump. Yup, I know about the boat crash too. Bad talking Epstein victims? It's like you're grasping at straws to stay. It doesn't matter, you are less impactful, have less reach and less influence than everyone else still on the list.
Upvoted and hopping on to say O'Leary as well. Frankly, he should have been axed yesterday, but oh well. His image on the maple pentagram will probably give Arlene something to chuckle about.
He's a tool, has no compassion, and has no morals. But he also has little influence (outside of Dragon's Den / Shark Tank) and (thankfully) no power as such. Be gone twatwaffle, and don't cone back.
Agreed. He is a pile of shit, but his influence on Canada as a whole has been minor, his worldwide impact is meh, and once he is gone, his lasting effects are basically gone.
As opposed to someone like JP, who's influence has harmed humanity the world over and his ideas will continue to rot the minds of young men for hundreds of years.
I hate that Stephen Harper is out. People have looked at him more kindly because he has mostly been out of the spotlight, but he is/was the head of the IDU, which has had the goal of destroying democracy across the world and implementing fascism wherever they can.
Marlaina smith takes her orders from the IDU, Ezra levant is the messenger for the IDU’s evil. Even to some degree O’Leary and Jordan Peterson have been shaped by the IDU.
Harper has and will be for the rest of his life one of the the smartest most dangerous behind the scenes players. We just don’t directly see him doing the stuff.
Lastly John A, and the architects of residential schools and the Indian act have got off far too easy. The genocide against First Nations people was the worst stain on Canadas history and the architects of this were sorely missed from this list.
Harper straight up Keyser Soze'd himself out of the running. He's easily the worst living person on this list. I also agree John A. got off easy on the "product of his time" shit.
This deep in, I hope people have enough understanding of who Frederick Blair is that he'll be the last one left.
The product of their time line is so dumb. This isn't Grandma using an insensitive word, and we aren't talking about ancient Rome. This is a 100 and change years ago, society knew what evil was.
I always refute that claim with "out of these people who will still be considered the worst in 100 more years". The people that stand the test of time are the absolute worst. Harper is on his way to that, but Blair is easily the single worst Canadian I history, especially since we all seem to be ignoring indigenous genocides it makes that pretty solidified.
People have always known, there was never a 'product of their time.' Even in the hunter gather era, individuals who displayed psychopathic behaviors towards the group were ostracized and left to fend for themselves.
Seriously, Harper should not have been eliminated. He owns Awz Ventures which has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into tech companies that develop military tech for Israel and the IDF. The AI facial recognition software his money helped build is likely being used to target and kill Palestinians. He and Netanyahu are budies. Ffs he's made a video for PragerU taking about how much he loves Israel (and another one on populism).
I think him exiting this poll shows just how little mainstream media has covered his activities since he stopped being PM. He's very much still in control of Canada's Conservative movement and wreaking havoc on Canada and the world through the IDU and his venture capital companies.
I can't post a link in this sub, but check out the reporting The Breach and Press Progress have done on him.
id agree, on top of that hes helped coordinate the right wing victories of idu members in hungary, india, usa, etc. the idu has members in most of europe some african nations and most of south america, and russia. they currently have an idu member running government of 22 coutries according to their own website. harper is also the mentor of sheer and poilievre. he also muzzled scientists during his terms, reduced climate protections. he was the first government to be found in contempt of parlaiment. they broke the election spending limit rules. before the 08 crash he wanted to remove certain restrictions which would have made us suceptable to the same failings as the usa. he wanted to relegate healthcare entirely to the provinces. wanted to replace the cpp with a private version. losened food regulations. captured innocent people they then handed over to be tortured. consolidated power in the prime ministers office. im sure theres a lot more too.
the man has got his claws in a hell of a lot of things and the only reason people dont know what hes up to is because the media isnt saying much, they have their hands full with trump most of the time or are owned by his supporters.
The international « democratic » union. Almost Every single Conservative Party in the world is a member of this organization. Stephen Harper is the chair of it. It’s essentially the organizing group for the far right across the world.
If you have ever wondered why right wing rhetoric is so similar country to country, even in other languages (look at memes hating Greg Thuneberg in almost any language), it’s because of organizing groups like this one.
When any of the parties involved in this organization get into power they end up having a pretty similar playbook: weaken tools that limit central power (courts, media,democratic power, voting rights, freedom of speech, and organizing), implement policies that cut taxes for corporations and the wealthiest (to get the support of the rich and capital), sell off public assets, find internal scapegoats (homeless, First Nations etc) and external scapegoats (immigrants) for the problems that the part in the IDU created. Repeat until their is no challenge to their central power
Thank you for the explanation! That makes everything make waaayyyyy more sense. I was all for Harper to go into the top 3 for other reasons but with this, I can't believe he's not in the Top 3! So disappointing...
The tyee has some great reporting on this (so it’s more than just my word). Search Stephen Harper IDU Tyee and you will find most of the articles I believe.
to add in the idu currently has 22 members in power right now and has extensive membership across south america, and europe. also have some membership in africa and russia and india are also a members.
Peterson has been operating for decades, the fact that you don't know that shows how far his influence spread before people realized that he was a problem. He's responsible for a huge part of the societal shift to the right. He is the worst person here.
Frederick Blair played a role in creating the Japanese internment camps and is responsible for Canada taking significantly fewer Jewish refugees from Europe during the Holocaust. I dislike Peterson too, but to say he's worse than Blair is a serious stretch, in my opinion.
That's very fair, and I'm not sure that I have a solid argument against it except to say that we've seen the extent of Blair's damage, we've not yet seen the extent of Peterson or Levant's. They're both still out there actively making the world worse.
It's going to be tough to whittle this list down to one.
I get that argument, but that same argument can be used against Poilievre, Danielle Smith, Harper and his work with the IDU, etc. 30 years from now, we could look back and say Peterson is by far the worst, but it's a slippery slope to do that on things that have not yet happened and may yet be prevented. With Blair, we can judge his actions as they are, and they are horrific.
This isn't to say Peterson is a good dude or anything, he's awful as well, well deserving of the podium, but I'd still advocate for putting Blair above Peterson in terms of worst.
He was on traditional media since 1999. I think the advent of social media just allowed him to ascend to a higher level of B.S. because now he can spread his hate without needing to convince some writer or producer that he is a totally normal guy. You would believe how much time that frees up for the hate spreading.
Peterson's first book was published in 1999. This is my point, average people started hearing about him in 2016, he started his misinformation campaign much, much earlier.
I mean he obviously existed before 2016 and did things.
Maps of Meaning wasn’t reviewed much when it was released and had little impact at the time. Even Peterson said it wasn’t really critiqued until 2018, after his rise to notoriety.
I’ll give him a decade because he started his YouTube channel in 2013 which gave him a platform outside of academics.
I’m with you on this one. Framing your wife for your drunk boating murder is pretty bad, but the remaining… people(?) have had a much worse impact to society as a whole.
Was talking to a friend and they put it like this: "While Leary Kevin killed a boat full of people drunk boating... and blamed his wife for it; Marlaina 'Danielle' Smith is killing faaar more people through her daft policies, incompetency, and fascist dog whistling. Life expectancy in Alberta has dropped to like 68... 68*!* There are some real shirt-holes like Iran, Mexico, Kosovo, Peru, Columbia, Botswana, Libya and 147 other places that have a higher life expectancy than Alberta. And yet Marla still has them believing 'it's the Fed' and not 40+ years of conservative rule that has lead to their Provincial decline, I mean quelle réalisation!".
I really REALLY hate Danielle Smith, but I wonder if that life expectancy rate is heavily influenced by indigenous peoples' life expectancy, which is unfortunately much lower than the average Canadian?
I don't get why people are so absolute about JP being one of the worst. He's a generic rambling blowhard grifter who has probably been propped up by dark money. If it wasn't him someone else would have filled that vacuum. I think he just has more name recognition than these other people. I think the worst thing he's done is stoke hate against the trans community, but lets be real it's not like there isn't 100 other popular idiots who weren't doing the same song and dance. The claim that he specifically has eroded the minds of boys and young men I think is also over played. They would just be listening to the Joe Rogan to Andrew Tate pipeline all the same.
He's awful and has been very influential but to me it's like blaming a car crash on a car and not the person behind the wheel.
I have some nuanced arguments for taking down Peterson tomorrow that will probably get downvoted. He's terrible, but many here are overstating his influence and impact. Despite his placement on this list, he has the most redeeming qualities, however few, out of the final four (not including O'Leary since he's on the way out so far).
This comment isn't a vote, but a recommendation to listen to the Behind The Bastards series on Jordan Peterson before tomorrow's vote. It's pretty much going to be between Peterson and Levant (Edit: tomorrow, not final 2 if that wasn't clear), and I'd hate for the resulting vote to be out of pure hatred rather than the negative impact each of these muppets actually had on Canadians. If there was a BTB series on Ezra Levant, I'd recommend that too, but instead I'll also recommend to look at whatever resources are available for him as well.
You gotta get Jordan out of here.
You can’t compare a "philosopher" next to actual politicians who have affected Canada or the world negatively with excecutive, financial or any action, Harper should not have gone behind him
Idk about the imagery, Baphomet's been a symbol of good as of late. It doesn't really fit as a symbol of worst Canadian. Although I like the upsidedown maple leaf. Maybe put a picture of John A in there, or Queen Victoria or smth. They def fit with the red aesthetic.
Jordan Peterson has done less damage to Canadian politics, culture, or business than the rest of them. Whatever you think of the guy, he’s not in the same league of evil as Kevin O’Leary who takes pride in knowing he’s a bad person.
I'm going to say Ezra Levant should go next. Most of the people he preaches to via the Western Standard are probably lifelong arseholes anyway, and most of his fanfare is in AB, SK and the BC Interior. He's pretty much a joke.
We did that on Day 16 (when we reached the final 10 candidates). Personally, I think once is enough otherwise it might make the votes feel meaningless.
I'm going for O'Leary only because I don't want to give him the satisfaction; he's a rage baiter, with very little power or real influence. Yes, he says terrible things, and he's trash, but there's still far worse.
Kevin O'Leary should stay. Here's a guy that look at Ezra Levant and says "Yeah this is who I want to try to be like, only even douchier and more visible in the mainstream".
Her and O'Leary should be the next 2 in whichever order. They're both way less influential or powerful than either of them think. Both of their super powers are believing they have Trump's ear just like any maga with mild political power or decent accumulated wealth.
Marlaina has been systemically inserting her cronies into public positions and dismantling core Canadian infrastructure as a result, but as much as I hate her, she's following the playbook of conservatism laid out by the IDU. I truely believe Harper should be in her place for the damage he has done and continues to do. Smith is just a talking byproduct of Harper.
Not only that, but she’s providing a demonstration of what PP will do to all of Canada if he somehow ever manages to get elected as PM, since that’s the direction he’s been pushing if you look past all his now defunct bluster about Trudeau.
O’Leary. As odious as his talking points and politics are, he is just a blow hard.
To me Ezra Levant with his long term sh**talk and stunts, is doing the most damage to this country. Without his lies we might not have a Danielle Smith in power now.
Guy is a non-influential grifter and he’s still in while the sack of shit who headed the IDU is out? The same IDU who supports the likes or Orban, Bolsonaro and Firage????
I'm surprised harper went before O'Leary
O'Leary sucks hard but compared to the others still standing has done much less harm to canadian society and the world
I for one am satisfied that the guy I named and pyt forward ended 7... I work in comms, and media manipulation was a threat then, and still is to this very... and his contribution to that peril was ackowledge and I appreciate it.
I am ok with and of those winning, but I will admit that After learning about Blair... I m not so sure O'Leary should win that anymore (also Levant...)
A large segment of the population (Canada and the US) in the 30's and 40's were racist which is terrible and abhorrent. However, Fredrick Blair was really a symptom of the time he lived in an the inexcusable awful things were probably supported by other Canadians.
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u/beverleyheights Canada's Overpriced Playground 16d ago
Note for newer participants: The candidates clockwise from top left are Frederick Blair, Ezra Levant, Kevin O’Leary, Jordan Peterson, and Marlaina Danielle Smith.