Activity: Seeing Stars

Student Sheets

SHEET 8: WHAT MAKES A GREAT CANADIAN?

The Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC) chose 25 "personalities" to include in its newest permanent exhibition, Face to Face: The Canadian Personalities Hall. Choosing which Canadians to include was difficult, so the CMC had to introduce selection criteria.

Selecting Canadians for Face to Face: The Canadian Personalities Hall

Criteria:

• The individual had to have been dead for at least five years, so that his or her lasting impact could be more accurately assessed.
• The individual had to have made a significant and lasting contribution to Canada or Canadians.
• There had to be artifacts relating to them.
• There had to be a critical mass of documented information about them.

Using the personalities section as a resource, fill in the information for all of the names below, using the first example as a guide.

Brother André - man of the people, servant of God, 1845-1937. Founded Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal: one of the world's great Catholic sanctuaries.

Joseph and Mary Brant

Pierre Bourgault

Samuel de Champlain

Alphonse Desjardins

Tommy Douglas

Timothy Eaton

James B. Harkin

Lotta Hitschmanova

Adelaide Hunter Hoodless

Herman Smith "Jackrabbit" Johannsen

Arthur Lismer

John A. Macdonald

Nellie McClung

Thomas D'Arcy McGee

Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm and James Wolfe

Peter Pitseolak

Francis Rattenbury

Mordecai Richler

Gabrielle Roy

Jeanne Sauvé

Joey Smallwood

David Thompson

Jules R. Timmins

Pierre Elliott Trudeau

Do you agree with the CMC’s selection criteria? If not, what criteria would you have used instead?

Compare these Canadians to the list finalized during the CBC's "Greatest Canadian" contest (www.cbc.ca/greatest/top_ten). Are there similarities? What are the differences?

Why do you think these differences occurred?