Actor, singer, writer, ?.
A lot of talent to choose from, your pick?

Shania Twain! Talented & Smokin Hot, too!

writers...

Novelist- Anne Marie MacDonald, Robertson Davies, Mordecai Richler, Gabrielle Roy, Margaret Laurence, Timothy Findlay,William Mitchell, and many, many others.

Poets-Irving Layton, Earle Birney, Tom Wayman, Susan Musgrave, DG Jones, Fred Wah and my all-time favourite, Al Purdy...

...the guns, the guns, the smoking guns,

outside Quebec the dead are shoveled... "Sgt. McLeod-The Death of Gen. Wolfe".

...leaving me where I never wanted to be, quite beyond the Peaceable Kingdom...

...Diefenbaker thunders at the Prime Minister, a prophet grown old... from the poem on the "October Crisis", which Purdy told me in Oct. 1972, that he no longer liked and I have always considered brilliant.


Singers-Ben Heppner, fine operatic tenor, Joni Mitchell, Robby Robertson,etc, "The Band" from the days when "Rock" WAS music. Ian Tyson, fine writer/songer, Lightfoot, in his prime, Cohen's fabulous first album, and many others, especially the late Stan Rogers, more a "Bluenoser" than most born in Nova Scotia...and, Rita, may she rest in peace, a real lady.

Political and military leaders....Sir John, Mackenzie-King, Borden, "Tommy" and to some extent, Laurier. Sir Sam and Sir Arthur, mortal enemies, but, they really made the "C.E.F" happen and whatever their personal failings, deserve our respect for that.


Air-Vice Marshals, Sir William, "Billy" Bishop, V.C. and, the REAL "ACE" of WWI, Raymond Collishaw. George Randolph Pearkes, a "Mountie", who led "The Strathcona's" at Passchendaele, VC, DSO, MC. Decades later, an elderly veteran who served under him in that terrible place, was asked if he WOULD FOLLOW him, again. The old boy roared,"Follow Pearkes, I would follow him through Hell!!!"

WWII- General- "Bert" Hoffmeister, best general Canada, ever bred and one who SHOULD have gone on to become P.M.

Others, many, but, these are some names that occur to me immediately.

Lets not forget Hiram Walker.

Chief Clarence Louie...a real life talent.

Rob Ford ~ 2013 entertainer of the year.

Ann Murray...for real.

Celine Dion. Very good voice.

Randy Bachman. Talented guitarist and song writer.

George Beverly Shea -- Billy Graham's soloist.

Stepenwolf.

Russell Peters.

Hiram Walker was an american..

Yep..what he said.

& Neil Young!


Best all time talent with-out doubt #4 Bobby Orr,
with a close 2nd to my wife Great Somethin, Eddie Shore.

Wayne Gretzky.

Chief Dan George,Art Linkletter

Singer / Writer: Neil Young
Humanitarian: Norman Bethune
Artist: Henry Vickers
Coffee: Anything but Timmy's

I cannot believe it...nobody has said Stompin Tom yet....

Wayne and Shuster, Anne Murray

OK then, for you cultured ones....Gene Kiniski

Kute will appreciate this one I bet. ;-)

Ah, "Killer" Gene, one of the nicest, most amiable and friendly guys I have ever met here in Vancity. He, was a customer of the finest gunstore in BC, "Reliable Gun" here and I am also a longtime customer there; the owner had mentioned that Gene, dropped in every so often and one day I met him, as real gentleman.

This, was quite some years ago and while I have never been a fan of wrestling, I knew who he was as I did many years before, with the great "Whipper" Billy Watson.

So, whaddaya say, Jim, when you and I get to Heaven, should we look these dudes up and "tag team" them?!

Keeryst, makes my old bod ache to even think it!

I believe he was born in MASS, moved to Detroit, then moved to Canada to develop his assorted business ventures. My family is from the area and it has been talked about that we are somehow related to Hiram Walker. However, a few years ago I traced the family tree from England to Canada then to MI and couldn't find any link.

Stompin" Tom was one of the "Pure" Canadian talents, in that he stayed home, instead of heading to greener pastures.

Paul Valdemar Horsdal, also known as Valdy...[singer songwriter]

Well Kute, think I'll just watch them go a few rounds....;-)

For singer/songwriter, I gotta go with Gordon Lightfoot.

Even though I'm not a fan, I recognize that for sheer vocal ability, Celine Dion is a superb talent.

In the other categories, I don't really have strong opinions.

wabigoon;
My goodness sir, talk about a subject that I'm less than enthusiastic about......

I was going to answer Banting and Best, but Best was born in Maine.

Actors as a rule don't make much of an impression on me, though if pressed I'd say that Leslie Nielsen usually makes me laugh, but then so does William Shatner lately too since he started doing comedy.

Singers would be Ben Heppner, Shania Twain, Burton Cummings and Celine Dion as far as being able to hit the notes they're supposed to on command.

Whether I like their style of music is another matter entirely, but they can hit the notes time and again. I really like Corb Lund's music, but he's not quite in the same league as Burton Cummings or Ben Heppner for pitch perfect notes.

Canadian writers are just as much a matter of what one likes or doesn't.

For instance I believe that Pierre Berton did a lot to get Canadians interested in our own history, but as others have pointed out he's not the most accurate historian always.

I looked through a list of Canadian authors while attempting to answer this and none stood out head and shoulder above any other for me right now.

Anyway wabigoon, that's my input - such as it is.

All the best to you and yours in the upcoming week wabigoon.

Dwayne

Hank Snow,Wilf Carter,Bob Nolen

Chief Clarence Louie...a real life talent.

Well said and true sir.

George St Pierre
Farley Mowat

Anyone but David Suzuki

Ian Tyson

Dudley Do-Right.


Kiddin'......we all know it's Loren Greene from Bonanza.

Rush
Bob and Doug Mckenzie
April Wine
Gretzky
Catherine St in Montreal


W

No one is claiming Leslie Nielsen? From Regina IIRC.

Jeff Healey was a great Canadian talent.

And, if you like blues Colin James is right up there with the best of 'em.

I agree that Wayne Gretsky was the best forward to lace on a pair of skates and Bobby Orr was the best defenseman.

I hate to say this, but for entertainment value alone....

Rob Ford...Ford Nation...Mayor of Toronto...

I would say >Oil!

either Sargent Preston or Yukon King

John Candy and bcd. bcd is funnier.

Wayne and shuster

Rick Mercer.....political rants!!

Alex Trebec....

Gordon Lightfoot, what an amazing talent! Stan Rogers, who was taken way to young, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Hank Snow. I'm sure there are some I'm forgetting.

There was a girl named Heather, and another one named Sheila, in Brockville who both stimulated my artistic sense, but that was many years ago and I'd long since forgotten both, having been happily married (several times) in the interim.

For great Canadians I'd have to nominate J.P Wiser as somewhere near the top.

Vocal talent-Burton Cummings, for sure. All round musical talent-Rush. Not my favorite ban, but undeniable musical ability in Peart's drumming, Lifesons guitar and Geddy Lee is awesome on the bass.

Ernie Combs -- Mr. Dress Up!

Steve Nash-Jim Carrey-Chris Jericho

John Garand - inventor of the M1 rifle, the finest battle instrument ever devised.

The entire Red/Green crew.

Bobby Orr, Gordy Howe, Wayne Gretsky, and Ivan Cournoyer.

Terri Clark, a singer from Medicine Hat, smoking' hot and featured in the Winchester ammo ads.

In no particular order my FAVOURITE all time Canadians!:
Bill Marion, Gerry Ouelette George Marsh, Rudy Schultz, Herman Webber, John Primrose, Susan Natrass, Barney Hartman, Jim and Gil Boa, Paul Reibin, Bob Pitcairn, Glenn Ellert,and a couple of the Todd family......
Cat

Pamela Anderson's TIts!

Paul Reibin and Bob Pitcairn are two excellent chaps I know very well having shot many matches with.
I'm not familiar with the others you mention...

Mostly Olympic team members, one set a World record with a borrowed gun in 1956- 600/60X, another was a skeet shooter with World records, factory C.I.L. shooter, another is a past North American ( World) silhouette champion, two others were Canadian team members and coaches, all were national champs at one time or another, and all were champions when i was growing up and learning to shoot
Know/knew most them , some very well.
Paul won big at Cannought last year at the Nats, not bad for someone past 80, eh!
he is an icon in the Cnad9an shooting World, and when he is gone we will certainly be diminished!
Cat

SHANIA ! [and Ian Tyson for his longevity]

Lightfoot bar none.

I'm going to enter the contest, and nominate Sir William Van Horne. Building that railway took a lot of talent.
It would have been built at some time by someone else, but where would Canada have been without it?

Have you guys ever heard Gordon Lightfoots song, Canadian railroad trilogy? One of my alltime favourites!

It's his crowning glory in my eyes. (Lightfoots, that is.)

Could you tell the story Brother Keith? I understand Lightfoot was commissioned to write a song about the rail.

Don't know the history, but Google and Wikepedia are your friends.

From Wikepedia:

This song was commissioned by the CBC for a special broadcast on January 1, 1967, to start Canada's Centennial year. It appeared on Lightfoot's The Way I Feel album later in the same year along with the song "Crossroads," a shorter song of similar theme. The structure of the song, with a slow tempo section in the middle and faster paced sections at the beginning and end, was patterned more or less opposite to Gibson and Camp's "Civil War Trilogy" (famously recorded by The Limeliters on the 1963 live album Our Men In San Francisco). In the first section, the song picks up speed like a locomotive building up a head of steam.

While Lightfoot's song echoes the optimism of the railroad age, it also chronicles the cost in sweat and blood of building "an iron road runnin' from the sea to the sea." The slow middle section of the song is especially poignant, vividly describing the efforts and sorrows of the nameless and forgotten navvies whose manual labour actually built the railway.

Session personnel for the 1967 recording were: Gordon Lightfoot (12-string), Red Shea (Lead acoustic guitar), John Stockfish (Fender Bass), and Charlie McCoy (Harmonica).

Lightfoot re-recorded the track on his 1975 compilation album, Gord's Gold, with full orchestration (arranged by Lee Holdridge). A live version also appears on two of his live albums, first on his 1969 album Sunday Concert and again on the 2012 release "All Live", which consists of songs recorded during his live concerts at Toronto's Massey Hall during the period from 1998 to 2001.

According to Lightfoot, Pierre Berton said to him, "You know, Gord, you said as much in that song as I said in my book." Berton was referring to his two books about the building of the railway across Canada, The National Dream and The Last Spike.

In 2001, Gordon Lightfoot's "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" was honoured as one of the Canadian MasterWorks by the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada.

The song has been covered by John Mellencamp and George Hamilton IV, among others. James Keelaghan performed the song on the Lightfoot tribute album, Beautiful. In the summer of 2004, the song was performed by that year's Canadian Idol Top 6.

Red Shea, who was the lead gitarist for Lightfoot for many years also played for Tommy Hunter, a man with little talent. Shea was an amazing guitarist and got a good leg up on "Let's Go" a teen music show in the 60's. He was in Toronto at the time. I loved his guitar playing.

Now now Tommy Hunter was talented. My Dad always said Tommy could sorta sing

I used to laugh when Red Shea carried Tommy's guitar out on stage for him at the end of the show. It should have been the other way around. Tommy was at best a 6 chord man. Red Shea could make a guitar talk.

Saying Hunter was sorta talented is like saying Al Cherney kinda drank too much.

Actor/director Paul Gross
Singer/musician Ian Tyson

Writer would hafta be Guy Vanderhaghie (spelled wrong I'm sure)

Athlete would be Sandra Schmerler
Politician is Dief

Best liar wears the surname Trudeau, whether Justin or Pierre.

I think Cretian would give either a run for the money in a bs contest...

Agree, but for a long term liar, Pierre still ices the cake for me.

Yer probably right, but I was a teenager during the Trudeau dictatorship and wasn't paying attention. Cretian on the other hand I had to suffer thru as an adult (well sort of an adult)

Sounds like we are the same age. I was in University during the Trudeau administration -- the FLQ crisis etc.

Hardy har har, you wish we were the same age. Yer older'n dirt an I'm still a kid..:D The 84 election was the first time I was able to vote,

I've got boots older than either one of young bucks.