Reply #51: The Canadian Version was great - and educational [View All]

[yvr girl]

The CBC did it. All last summer we could vote on a large list (100 people I think) or nominate our own candidates. By the fall, the list was narrowed down to 10 people. Eight of them were very deserving to be on such a list. (We had two hockey figures as well (Wayne Gretzky told people not to vote for him.))

There was an hour long program about each of the top 10 where an advocate made the case why they should be the Greatest Canadian. There was a huge buzz factor. Everyone was talking about the list, and we could vote each week. The list consisted of 2 scientists, 1 inventor, 2 hockey people, 4 politicians and 1 iconic Canadian hero.

In the final week they had all the advocates making a final pitch for their candidates and engaging in debate.

The CBC also did a great website to go along with the programs and provided downloadable teaching materials for classroom use.