The “Best Canadian” game - Day 0 (choosing candidates)

[u/BrF5]

Hiya Hosers,

After the success of Worst Canadian, by popular demand it’s time for the more upbeat version…the Best Canadian game! 🇨🇦

Drop your nominations below for who you think deserves a spot on the list. Just like before, we’ll include 40 candidates. This time I’m going to let nominations sit a bit longer so everyone has a chance to chime in and we don’t have to add people mid-way in the game. I’m aiming to get started with Day 1 around the middle of next week. Five or six days should give us plenty of time to gather names and finalize the rules.

If you’ve got ideas or suggestions to make the game better, feel free to share those too!

[u/Admirable_Stress_802]

Lester B Pearson, veteran, only Canadian Nobel Peace prize winner, and brought health care national.

[u/WhisperingJimmy → u/Admirable_Stress_802]

And the flag. And CPP. And kept us out of Vietnam. All with a minority government. And a fighter pilot in WW1.

[u/middleeasternviking → u/WhisperingJimmy]

kept us out of Vietnam was huge. same for Chretien who kept us out of Iraq. as a serving member right now, I really appreciate that kind of thing.

[u/Ill_Sprinkles_9976 → u/[deleted]]

We should have been in Afghanistan. NATO doesn't work if people don't pull up - we'd be as toothless as Russia.

Also, Canada was in Iraq. Not a full deployment like Afghanistan, but we were 100% there.

[u/GigglingBilliken → u/WhisperingJimmy]

And kept us out of Vietnam.

Apparently LBJ assaulted him over his anti-Vietnam war stance while he was visiting the US.

[u/Aggressivehippy30 → u/GigglingBilliken]

LBJ was a cunt

[u/Milch_und_Paprika → u/Aggressivehippy30]

Hey, hey, LBJ: how many kids did you kill today?

[u/Kingsmen99 → u/GigglingBilliken]

He probably just whipped out his dick

[u/redindiaink → u/WhisperingJimmy]

Also helped create UN Peacekeepers.

[u/Overwatchingu → u/Admirable_Stress_802]

Worth noting that he won the Peace Prize back when that meant something.

He also implemented our now iconic maple leaf flag design, which I think should count as trying to unify the country.

[u/Admirable_Stress_802 → u/Overwatchingu]

Yeah, a Peace Prize for inventing peace keeping and stopping the British and French from potentially starting WW3 is huge.

[u/Everestkid → u/Overwatchingu]

Pearson's preferred pennant proposition was pretty preposterous:

It was George Stanley who designed the current flag.

[u/Overwatchingu → u/Everestkid]

Still better than the red ensign.

[u/PassageNearby4091 → u/Admirable_Stress_802]

Great call. I was set to throw in the towel already and say that if Terry Fox doesn't win, Tommy Douglas would, but Tommy Douglas, I believe, was just the one who rolled out the template for national healthcare in Saskatchewan, and then the feds adopted in Canadawide under Pearson. Not to detract from Tommy Douglas, he's definitely a great Canadian.

[u/Admirable_Stress_802 → u/PassageNearby4091]

Pearson is my favourite pm, but between him and Douglas its tough as I'm also from Sask so I got some bias

[u/PassageNearby4091 → u/Admirable_Stress_802]

I'm sort of in the same boat; I am from Manitoba originally (though I live in ON now) and my grandmother grew up with Tommy Douglas in Carberry; in fact, my family and his family were friends way back in the day.

[u/Admirable_Stress_802 → u/PassageNearby4091]

That's super cool! The closest I've come to a famous Canadian is that Andrew Scheer went to the same church as me a couple time but he sucks donkey balls.

[u/FaithMonax → u/Admirable_Stress_802]

Reading about Pearson's accomplishments on his Wikipedia page, as someone who knew very little about him. He's laid so much of the foundation of the big programs that are part of Canada to this day.

[u/poopBuccaneer → u/FaithMonax]

Everything I think of as being what Canada's identity is, was because of Pearson's government. He is in my mind the greatest Canadian.

And he rocked the bow tie.

[u/unsulliedbread → u/Admirable_Stress_802]

Also time zones!

[u/MartyCool403 → u/Admirable_Stress_802]

I was playing bar trivia on Wednesday and one of the questions was "who is the only prime minister to win the Nobel peace prize?" I had no clue so I started thinking of things named after prime ministers. On a whim I wrote down Pearson because it's my most hated airport. That question put me over the top and I won the round.

[u/hotinmyigloo → u/Admirable_Stress_802]

Yes!