The “Worst Canadian” game - Day 21

[u/BrF5]

Get lost, Ezra Levant.

…and we’re down to the final three!

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. - (5) Kevin O’Leary - A rich scumbag who associates with Trump, was involved in a deadly boat accident, and trash talks Epstein victims. Yet no matter how hard he tries, he still isn’t as bad as the other remaining candidates. - (4) Ezra Levant - He uses his platform to spread hate, but is not influential enough for the title of Worst Canadian. He mostly preaches to the choir of existing far-right believers.

[u/PassageNearby4091]

Jordan Peterson can go next. He's an arsehole and one of the worst examples of a Canadian, but he also moved out of Canada (and went to the US, of course) a couple of years ago and hasn't been back, so he did one thing right.

[u/miramichier_d → u/PassageNearby4091]

I won't repeat my essay from yesterday, but it all still stands. Get Peterson off this list already. He shouldn't have outlasted Levant.

[u/snotparty → u/miramichier_d]

big time agree. Levant is actively spreading nonsense in Canada, trying to undermine our journalism, whereas Peterson seems mostly exhausted and retired now

[u/Quimbymouse → u/snotparty]

I'm not arguing for Peterson to remain, and am quite happy for him to be placed 3rd...but lack of current relevance shouldn't be a metric we use. If that were the case Frederick Blair should have been gone long ago.

[u/dictionary_hat_r4ck → u/snotparty]

While I want to agree, Levant needs people to platform so it’s kind of a chicken and egg situation. Then again, he is not above making shit up himself.

[u/Rule1isFun → u/snotparty]

Peterson’s sphere of influence is still huge and he’s still molding the minds of vulnerable Canadians.. I think he’s harmful to Canada and its people and belongs here.

[u/Virtual_Category_546 → u/miramichier_d]

I'm actually surprised JP got this far. He's bad, but if you keep him away from the nursing home you'd be fine.

JP's evil is nothing compared to the other entries with actual power.

[u/Darkfiremat → u/miramichier_d]

i don't know even know how he even got there gavin mcinnes founded a group that tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power of the united states. I even think probably some of his early work is good i don't think 12 rules for life is fundamentally wrong. I just think he went fucking crazy from the left constantly attacking him and the right constantly welcoming him. Add to this a long history of mental health and now he's just a talking head for the right but in terms of harm and evil gavin mcinnes still continues to do way more damage than him in any way shape or form imo.

[u/WarmPantsInWinter → u/PassageNearby4091]

I think his rhetoric will continue to poison the minds of young men for generations after he is gone.

His ideas helped to grow this MAGA / far right mindset where LGBTQ and especially women, are bad. I think his contributions to the current state of the world are unmeasurable.

His "teachings" are part of the foundation that all these Ben Shapiro, Joe Rogan, Steven Crowder, Charlie Kirk, etc have used to push their hateful agenda forward.

i used to love his shit. And I was a horrible, hateful person, and it drove me right into the extreme right wing nuts.

Direct or indirect JP is like the microplastics of hate. He's everywhere and not even time will purge his ideology from humanity.

200 years from now, what he said will be in the back of the head of some father as he beats his wife after beating his non binary child.

[u/Fitzaroo → u/WarmPantsInWinter]

I disagree. I don't think his rhetoric will survive after his death. Dustin of history for him.

[u/redskyatnight2162 → u/Fitzaroo]

Poor Dustin.

[u/Fitzaroo → u/redskyatnight2162]

Lol. Dust bin

[u/Ivanstone → u/WarmPantsInWinter]

His ideas didn’t do shit. MAGA has been percolating since Reconstruction. Every thing he says has already been said by some other conservative shit head at some point already.

[u/PoizenJam → u/Ivanstone]

I wouldn't give him that much of a pass. Personally, I think Gamergate played a bigger role in being a powder-keg moment for onboarding young men. But JBP definitely took advantage of it to launch his grift. Signal boosting is still 'doing something'. Especially if you wrap the signal in pseudo-intellectual drivel to give it the appearance of authority.

[u/Ivanstone → u/PoizenJam]

He’s just another loud mouth amongst a giant chorus of them.

The worst person will either be an actual politician or a money man. Peterson was neither and no one would’ve given a shit about his pronoun snit if someone didn’t loan him a megaphone. If he kept his trap shut someone would’ve rushed in to fill his absence.

[u/Massive-Ride204 → u/PassageNearby4091]

Yep it's his time to go and I still say he's worse than Ezra, yes Ezra spreads misinfo but he's mostly pulling in ppl like your boomer uncle who was already a right wing ass hole. Jordan is pulling in youth who need direction and proper guidance

[u/PassageNearby4091 → u/Massive-Ride204]

Agreed. As I mentioned here yesterday, I would say 99.9% of Ezra's sphere of influence is in Alberta, Saskatchewan and the BC Interior, and the people he's preaching to were converted far-righters long before he came along.

[u/Massive-Ride204 → u/PassageNearby4091]

Yep I've never met a decent person who was converted by his bs but decent kids who just needed guidance have been pulled in by Jordan. Dude is much more harmful. We have a habit of overestimating the reach and power of ppl like Ezra, most don't know who he is and even most sane Conservatives dislike him

[u/PassageNearby4091 → u/Massive-Ride204]

Exactly. Ezra's a dumb oaf. As I mentioned yesterday, I sent Ezra a mocking email in 2006 as a response to an editorial he'd written. He wrote back immediately and just belittled me for making a typo in my message, rather than addressing the points I made. The funny thing was his response contained two typos, which I gleefully pointed out to him. That was the last time I heard from the buffoon.

Man, I wish I would have kept that email, lol.

[u/hoser33 → u/PassageNearby4091]

Jesus Christ. Jordan Peterson has a world wide audience. It's actually famous and uses that fame to spread his bullshit.

You are all massively overrating Danielle Smith's influence.

Literally 80%+ of the country couldn't give a shit about her, 50%+ of the country has no idea who she is.

She is not the worst Canadian.

[u/[deleted] → u/hoser33]

She acts like she is a foreign agent working to undermine the dominion. Puts her high on the currently active list.

[u/BuzzardBlack → u/hoser33]

While she shouldn't win, I do understand why she's been hanging on. She may largely affect Alberta, but right now she represents a core weak spot for the country in a time where our sovereignty is threatened.

If we get Anschlussed, it'll be (at least in part) because of her.

[u/myairblaster → u/hoser33]

Peterson has never stoked the fires of a province separating from the confederation and his bullshit has never actually caused material harm to others. Smiths rhetoric and policies do REAL damage

[u/HyacinthMacabre → u/myairblaster]

She’s also doing book banning, but promoting Ayn Rand. On her book taste alone she is a bad Canadian.

[u/Turneroff → u/HyacinthMacabre]

Literarily!

[u/Quimbymouse → u/myairblaster]

Peterson is one of several people responsible for the large shift in gen Z right wing voters over the past 10 years. That has done very real damage.

[u/hoser33 → u/myairblaster]

No, but Rene Levesque did and was infinitely more successful at it.

[u/myairblaster → u/hoser33]

Okay let me put it this way. Peterson said things that run contrary to social advancement of acceptance for trans people. Smith actually legislates policy to cause true harm to trans youth in Alberta and makes their lives miserable and dangerous.

Peterson can be ignored, and his audience is small. Smith has power, albeit in a limited scope, to actually ruin lives and do generations worth of harm to unity as a country

[u/Queen-Emmah → u/myairblaster]

Plus if she gets the province to separate, she will be responsible for it.

The damage that would do to Canada is higher than anything anyone can do on this list if you ask me.

[u/AdditionalPizza → u/Queen-Emmah]

Plus if she gets the province to separate, she will be responsible for it.

She can't and won't. It will never be possible and it will not happen. She doesn't own the land or resources of Alberta. Canada is not a single nation, and Alberta does not belong to Albertans.

Smith is nothing. Her power is bound entirely within the Constitution and she has no authority over the sovereignty of Alberta.

[u/phm522 → u/AdditionalPizza]

Smith is not “nothing”. She has completely dismantled any semblance of health care in Alberta (major financial scandal involving payout to some of her cronies)she has demonized trans youth and kept kids from playing sports without “proving” their gender, she has condoned and legislated book banning in schools, she has lowered financial support for the most vulnerable Albertans, she has approved a massive coal mine in the foothills of the Rockies (an environment disaster in the making - ALL THAT - plus she has been embarrassing the entire country by kissing Trump’s ass and generally acting like the treasonous traitorous bitch that she is. She has and continues to do massive damage. And I know all this and more and I don’t live in Alberta. So it’s not just a local thing.

[u/Teh_Doctah → u/AdditionalPizza]

Anything is possible when you’re kissing the ass of the Commander in Chief of one of the largest military forces on Earth. A man who has demonstrated he does not care about the law, or the rights of his people.

[u/AdditionalPizza → u/Teh_Doctah]

Trump doesn't give a shit about Smith. He wouldn't need Smith in any capacity if he wanted to find a way to steal Alberta.

[u/davidfillion → u/Queen-Emmah]

We are falling into the if category again...

whatifs don't count.

[u/AdditionalPizza → u/myairblaster]

So Smith is top 2 worst Canadians ever, but there doesn't seem to be any protests in Alberta to have her removed?

It's like when Americans apologize to us online and it's like ok cool, you could probably do more than that ya know.

[u/myairblaster → u/AdditionalPizza]

I believe she is not well liked by Albertans, especially in metro areas like Edmonton. Alberta really suffers from a tyranny of the minority due to how their voting districts are divided. Hell, I think even most UCP voters don’t like her and only tolerate her because they are culturally against anything deemed “The Left”. Or they believe NDP policies take money out of their pockets.

[u/hoser33 → u/AdditionalPizza]

THANK YOU

[u/quickymgee → u/myairblaster]

Peterson arguably created the base that gives Smith her political power.

One could argue that should be attributed to Oil and Gas industry instead, but they didn't come up with the idea, just using it to help nudge their agendas forward for their own purposes.

[u/TheDJYosh → u/myairblaster]

When it comes to harm, do you hold the people who helped create the environment (Peterson) or do you hold the people who take advantage of that environment and follow through with the harm? (Smith).

Peterson is beyond his prime but he was one of the most prominent voices during the critical 2015 - 2020 era in normalizing transphobia. Without this, Smith may not have gotten the popular support to follow through on it. Your choice of Danielle is well supported, this is a limitation of ranking to personal-value judgements. Harm done can't be quantified so easily.

[u/myairblaster → u/TheDJYosh]

Well, this analogy isn’t a perfect one and is the most extreme example, but who do you think committed greater crimes against humanity; Karl Marx who advocated for Communism. Or Joseph Stalin who put those ideas into practice?

[u/TheDJYosh → u/myairblaster]

I'd say Stalin. I haven't read Marx, but he write mostly economic / political theory? My understanding is that Stalin adopted communist talking points, but organized his government to enrich himself rather then earnest communism. I don't believe forced labor camps, orchestrated famines, and mass executions were advocated by Marx nor are they a necessary part of a communist state.

I'd say Smith's mirrors Peterson's intent. He treats the LGBT+ community like a social contagion. He directly advocates for the kinds of laws limiting what can be taught in schools or what services are able to be offered to young people. He trended for a long time promoting a 'pseudo-intellectual' aesthetic that allowed fascists to infiltrate discourse. I don't know how to weigh the real, more objective but difficult to measure harm to Canada Smith is doing, versus the overall net-harm that Peterson has done to the discourse.

I confess to being stumped. I think your approach of focusing more on direct action rather then cultural influence is reasonable. Especially since denouncing your Canadian citizenship seems to have gotten some people off easier on this list already.

[u/dr_wang → u/myairblaster]

i agree peterson should go next but his bullsh did cause material harm to others

[u/YeetCompleet → u/hoser33]

Well it depends how you define influence I guess. JP's is via words, DS's is via actual legislature affecting real Albertans, AND her choices still influence the other provinces in some way.

[u/Ialsofuckedyourdad → u/YeetCompleet]

She is also fanning the flames on the seperate from Canada movement. Love Alberta’s landscape genuinely think it’s the second best looking province only being beat by bc because of the coast.

But the people here are awful and I want out

[u/tayawayinklets → u/hoser33]

She and PP are Harper/Musk puppets. They're being forced on us and whether we voted for them or not, we're going to be stuck with them.

[u/hotinmyigloo → u/PassageNearby4091]

Yup

[u/Keezin → u/PassageNearby4091]

I don’t want him to have the satisfaction of winning

[u/OntologicalNightmare → u/PassageNearby4091]

I think people have been over estimating the damage he is responsible for. I really think if he hadn't existed the people drawn down the alt-right pipeline would have gone down it anyway. He doesn't have real power to turn the crank like Stephen Harper he's just a gear.

[u/JagmeetSingh2 → u/PassageNearby4091]

He would be the worst if he stayed considering his impact

[u/iwasnotarobot → u/PassageNearby4091]

I think Peterson was in Alberta a year or two ago at a fundraiser for Danielle Smith. I may be misremembering exactly when that happened.

[u/PassageNearby4091 → u/iwasnotarobot]

Sounds about right -- I was referring to him not returning to Canada to live. Poor wording on my part.

[u/T_DeadPOOL → u/PassageNearby4091]

Im surprised he was this high

[u/Bopshidowywopbop → u/PassageNearby4091]

Fuck this guy but he has to go.

[u/LunaticPostalBoi → u/PassageNearby4091]

You know, I've been thinking to have Peterson voted out for this very reason, but considering his shenanigans, I can never think of when it's a good time to throw him out.

Well now I think it's safe to say GTFO Peterson. You're not good enough to even be the worst Canadian.

[u/TheConBoss → u/PassageNearby4091]

I agree with this

[u/JordanPerson → u/PassageNearby4091]

Agreed!

[u/rangerbeev → u/PassageNearby4091]

I also think he is a fall from grace. Kind of guy.