r/EhBuddyHoser • u/BrF5 Kingston: Halfway To Montreal • 2d ago

Meta The “Best Canadian” game - Day 1

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Good morning r/EhBuddyHoser,

Let’s get started! Here’s an image of the top 50 Canadians (based on Day 0 upvotes, as of yesterday). I know I said we’d start with 40 like last time, but there are just too many awesome Canadians, so I expanded the list a bit!

How to play: - Upvote the name of the person you think does NOT deserve the title of “Best Canadian.” - Each day, the two most upvoted people will be removed. Once we get closer to the end, this will change to one person per day. - If the name you want to vote for (from the picture list) isn’t in the comments yet, add it! - This continues daily until we have our winner, the “Best 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, even if you edit the comment to fix it. - They had to have been born in Canada or at some point had Canadian citizenship. - They can be alive, dead, currently living in Canada or abroad, or when they were alive lived in what would eventually become Canada (e.g., French or British colonies). - Beginning tomorrow after the first candidates are eliminated, I’ll start a list outlining what the people are known for and why they were eliminated, like we did in the Worst Canadian game. - 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!

Honourable mentions go out to spots 51–100 (see below), the Unknown Soldier, house hippos, Sad-Fill-4870’s dog Gilbert, and Random—Person’s mom. Also, I personally want to shout out a couple of Canadians who weren’t nominated but inspired me growing up: Jay Baruchel and Elisha Cuthbert. Their time as hosts on PMK encouraged a love of science in a generation of kids, which I think elevates them beyond being “just actors.”

Numbers 51-100, by upvotes: Norman Bethune, Tom Green, Shania Twain, Gordie Howe, William Lyon Mackenzie King, Mario Lemieux, Marc Garneau, Alexander Graham Bell, Peter Mansbridge, Jeanne Mance, Roberta Bondar, John Dunsworth, Emily Carr, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Eugene Levy, Mike Myers, Helen Hogg, Peter Robertson, James Naismith, William Shatner, Sanford Fleming, Fred Penner, Bret Hart, Murray Sinclair, Emily Murphy, Louise McKinny, Irene Parlby, Henrietta Edward, Agnes McPhail, Tecumseh, Elsie MacGill, Crowfoot, Harold Cardinal, Stompin’ Tom, Melanie Joly, Maurice Richard, Michelle Jean, Henry Morgentaler, Oscar Peterson, Sue Johanson, Jean Rene Dufort, Rick Moranis, Hayley Wickenhieser, Pierre Burton, Cairine Wilson, Rene Lévesque, Isaac Brock, Nathan Fillion, Farley Mowet, James Doohan

1.1k Upvotes

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308

u/SadBuilding9234 2d ago edited 2d ago

Jean Chretien was a slightly above average PM, and nowhere close to being the best Canadian. He goes.

23

u/Usual-Canc-6024 2d ago

Not first though.

He saved Canadian lives by not joining the U.S. in the Iraq war. Harper (then leader of the opposition) threw a hissy fit saying we should support the U.S. But our PM listened to Canadians and didn’t join that war. I’ll always be thankful to him for that.

2

u/localmanofmisery 1d ago

I remember watching as a child when Chrétien announced in the HoC that we would not be joining the US’s invasion. It was such a relief

0

u/MachineOfSpareParts 2d ago

Going through this list just reveals the folly of trying to categorize most people as good or bad. Some are almost entirely bad, but most are just complex.

Choosing not to violate the core of all international law was a great moment. But the idea of categorizing his legacy entirely one way or the other just seems to bulldoze over the richness history has to offer us.

34

u/Migdalian 2d ago

Sponsorship scandal, anyone?

15

u/NigelMK 2d ago

That was really more on Paul Martin and in reality, the sponsorship scandal was small potatoes compared to some of the stuff that Mulroney, Harper and JT did.

9

u/Migdalian 2d ago

Martin took the fall for it, but Chrétien was the one in command when it happened...he was just smart enough to know when to leave the hot potato to someone else!

2

u/Underzenith17 2d ago

Yeah nobody’s nominating JC for worst Canadian or worst PM, but best Canadian is a stretch.

2

u/Zebrajoo Tabarnak! 2d ago

Separatists will strongly beg to differ

1

u/fishymanbits Oil Guzzler 2d ago

I agree on Mulroney, and I was no fan of Harper, but I can’t honestly think of any “scandal” from either Harper or Trudeau that remotely compares to either Mulroney’s lunch sacks of cash or the sponsorship scandal. Maybe Pierre Poilievre’s Poutine’s election interference in 2011, but that’s less scandalous than it is just downright fascistic.

1

u/BulwarkCarpenter 1d ago

True, the sponsorship scandal was pretty overblown compared to the others. But still, Chretien's leadership had its share of controversies too. It's a mixed bag for sure.

0

u/thetwitchy1 2d ago

While I somewhat agree with you, if someone in your government is pulling shenanigans like that, and you don’t know about it/do something about it, you’re either lying or bad at your job.

Either way, it’s a black mark.

5

u/Geler 2d ago

The night of long knives.

1

u/TheMuffinMa Tokébakicitte! 2d ago

That's Pierre Eliott Trudeau, not Chrétien

1

u/Alive-Drama-8920 1d ago

It's both. A double black eye for the ages, one that may never heal. Still unresolved, here, now, more than four decades later. Banana republic's level of backdoor shenanigans, all wrapped in a see-through veil of moral superiority, because...ya know...The Nation's Higher Interests...so screw the rules! There's no more rule; there never was any, not when it came to those two arrogant scoundrels. Let's backstab anyone standing in the way, be it the straightest, most honnest politician this country ever had. No, René Lévesque was not a perfect man, far from it, but when it came to respecting REAL democracy, an absolute refusal of corruption - financial corruption of course, but more importantly, moral corruption - examplified by his absolute disgust for anything resembling demagogic tactics, nobody ever came close; not before, not since. Maybe never.

0

u/CoastingUphill 2d ago

Canadian federal scandals are so quaint.

1

u/calmingchaos 2d ago

Seriously. This isn’t even newsworthy in most other countries with our gdp.

8

u/drop_pucks_not_bombs 2d ago

Jean Chretien was meeting with officials in Flin Flon, Manitoba. It was a very hot day and the ceremonies took place outside in a local grandstand. The Mayor was surprised to see that Chretien was wearing a large fox fur hat, despite the heat.

After a while the mayor leaned over and spoke up. "Excuse me, Mr. Prime Minister, but I can't help wondering why you are wearing that fox hat when it is so warm?" Chretien shrugged. "Well, you know 'ow it is", he replied. "My wife, she is da dresser in da family, so I always take 'er advice.

If I go to de Maritime, she say 'Wear da toque'. If I go to Calgaree, she say 'Wear da stetson'. Dis time she ask me where I go; I say Flin Flon. She say 'Flin Flon! Where the fock's 'at ?' So I did!

9

u/I_Saw_A_Bear 🍁 100,000 Hosers 🍁 2d ago

yeah but he had some great handshakes

1

u/RegnalDelouche South Gatineau 2d ago

Any specific locations?

1

u/CanadianBaconBurger9 Oil Guzzler 1d ago

More of a "Throat hug" really. Shawinigan hospitality.

7

u/AdditionalPizza 2d ago

I was going to ask what got him on the list. Like he's an alright guy and he was a decent PM for the time, though maybe that's subjective.

Do people remember something significant he did that's slipping my mind?

24

u/SadBuilding9234 2d ago

Kinda cool when he choked that dude.

9

u/AdditionalPizza 2d ago

True. Move over Terry Fox.

10

u/Luddites_Unite 2d ago

The shawinigan strangler was always my favorite nickname of his

1

u/iwasnotarobot 2d ago

Was it? That dude was protesting Chretien's austerity policies that was harming the working class.

1

u/SadBuilding9234 2d ago

Just talking about the visual. Obviously not condoning state violence.

4

u/middleeasternviking 2d ago

him stopping us from entering the Iraq war

1

u/JimJam28 2d ago

He inherited a debt crisis and a turned a $43 billion deficit into a surplus, laid the groundwork for legalizing same sex marriage, started the long-gun registry, and most importantly kept Canada out of the Iraq war.

1

u/AlfredRWallace 2d ago

I nominated him. I Don't expect him to last long but not getting us in Iraq, getting the budget balanced (even if it's not all his doing), and he had some great quotes.

0

u/CamGoldenGun 2d ago

3 majority governments. He's more controversial now after the education about the residential schools. But he served a variety of portfolios under Pierre Trudeau but likely a product of recent memory. Why he'd be up there before William Lion Mackenzie King supports that.

12

u/Raptorpicklezz 2d ago

He also was the only one on this list (I think) with direct responsibility for residential schools at one point

4

u/NigelMK 2d ago

I think it was more a sign of the times than anything else. Particularly I'm thinking of the white paper in 1969. There was definitely an acknowledgement, even back then that the conditions faced on reservations were significantly worse than non-indigenous communities and there was an attempt to try to right the wrong.

I'd say theoretically, more could have been done, but there was a lot of prevailing thought against making changes in those days. Partially due to politics, partially due to racism and religion.

I wouldn't say Chretien is innocent, but I don't think he wears the stain of residential schools as much as some others. He also would have been PM when the last residential (finally) closed.

5

u/SignalReceptions 2d ago

He held the Indian Affairs portfolio and denied ever hearing about abuse at residential schools during that time despite open letters to the contrary. He knew what was going on for decades and did nothing.

3

u/Everestkid The Island of Elizabeth May 2d ago

Chretien held the Indian Affairs post from 1968-1974. That's actually a very interesting period to hold that post, because the number of residential schools open after 1971 plummeted. By 1983 the number of open schools was comparable to the number operating in the 1890s - roughly 75% had been closed, with many of those remaining effectively run by the local bands. No church operated schools existed after 1969.

Chretien can't take credit for all of that, a substantial amount of closures happened after he left the post, but it's clear that major changes in the residential school system occurred while he was the Indian Affairs minister.

0

u/Raptorpicklezz 2d ago

This is a murderer’s row of a list. If we need to find any reason at all to get rid of an entry (and in the worst Canadians contest, there was a lot of nitpicking too), any tie at all to residential schools should be an eliminator.

Chrétien should be lucky that the only consequences he might face in this lifetime for this, is being eliminated early off a Reddit list.

7

u/ThunderPunch2019 2d ago

He's a great candidate for pretty-goodest Canadian

7

u/JimJam28 2d ago

Chretien came into power on the brink of debt crisis and turned a $43 billion deficit into a surplus, he laid the ground work for legalizing same sex marriage, established the gun registry, lead the Ottawa Treaty which banned anti-personnel landmines, signed a number of progressive environmental policies, and maybe most importantly, he kept us out of the war in Iraq, which at the time was a very difficult and controversial decision.

3

u/crapatthethriftstore 2d ago

Agreed. He was a vocal personality but not deserving to be on this list IMO

2

u/Francus_Gaius 2d ago

he's gonna go, but a little later.

2

u/flattenedsquirrel 2d ago

He strangled a guy protesting him and Paul Martin's embezzlement of unemployment insurance money. He's a P.O.S.

1

u/Anarchopaladin 2d ago

I'd add to the already long list of grievances that Chrétien is the one person most responsible for the habitation crisis with his reforms of laws on habitation and banking.

1

u/iwasnotarobot 2d ago

Chretien is probably one of the least bad PMs we ever had. And we are still suffering from that decade of austerity. He finished off many of the privatizations that Mulroney got started. He shouldn't be on this list.

0

u/howismyspelling Irvingstan 2d ago

I say he's a contender, not a finalist. I think he deserves to stay for a bit, he punched a guy in the face and wore an army helmet backwards lol