The Seven Wonders: Did the judges miss the boat… er, canoe?
In case you missed it, the Seven Wonders of Canada, selected by a three-person jury assembled by the CBC, are:
[Ed. note: What?! Didn't they get my William Shatner nomination?!]
CBC received more than 25,000 nominations for the contest, and more than one million votes from viewers and listeners were recorded. One newspaper report profiled a bit about how the selection process worked:
One of the most poignant moments occurred when [Roy] MacGregor offered to give up his personal favourite — the canoe — which judges, by this point, referred to almost personally, as “canoe.”
“The canoe was number one all the way for me,” MacGregor said.
But when push came to shove, and one more wonder had to go, MacGregor — who grew up in the Algonquin Park area — offered the canoe.
“The canoe doesn’t really belong anywhere except in our minds,” he said.
But in a moment of wonder, perhaps inspired by the contest itself, the judges realized that the canoe is “by rights naturally as aboriginal as you can get,” in MacGregor’s words.
So, they gently removed the Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands), confident that the aboriginal heritage was intact.
I’m disappointed by the list. It seems to be confused — is this a list of actual locations, like the original Seven Wonders of the World are — or is this a list of things that represent Canadiana.
Instead, it’s a mish-mash of the two. If they had been a list of places I could have visited (as a few were), I’d have tried to get out to all of them. But how can I visit “the canoe” or “the igloo”? I’m not saying the CBC has an obligation to help tourist companies build tour packages, but would it have hurt?
For the record, the “winners” were those selected by the judges. The most popular selections, via online voting, included Nahanni National Park, Cabot Trail, Bay of Fundy, and the Sleeping Giant.
|
Email This Post |
| Specials |
I agree, I was a little disappointed to see “Items” in the list. I thought it would have been 7 NATURAL wonders of Canada.
What was the point in soliciting listener/viewer votes, and playing it up ‘big time’, when in the end they were completely ignored?
While it was difficult to choose only 7 Canadian Wonders when there’s so many – I was disappointed to see that the final choices were left up to the Personal Choices of the judges.
Near the end, when they started to narrow down the choices, what if they had put the choices in a hat, drawn from it, perhaps the canoe would have been left as a “fond memory” of Canada, perhaps all the choices would have been the 7 Natural wonders of Canada.
I told you at the outset that this thing was rigged
in favour of a predetermined agenda
just like Canadian Idol
another excellent experiment
in how to turn off today’s viewers
another CBC success
now, what’s for lunch
Yes, I think the whole thing should have been NATURAL WONDERS” – even THAT’s “Canadian”! But so is the art of compromise…
That said…I disagreed with the choice of Quebec City (altho it’s a magic place – was just there in April): it’s not unique. There are pre-confederation towns like it in many places, including USA & France etc., etc. (How about DAWSON CITY ?)
And the canoe, tho wonderful – also not uniquely Canadian. The igloo? they build them in other arctic countries too. How about the INUKSHUK? (no, not the one on the Van Olympic logo!)
I live in the arctic; my sneaking suspicion is that the more popular & well-visited wonders got nominated & chosen. Our arctic wonders are still every Canadian’s to enjoy – they just don’t get up here that often.
BTW – my number one choice was Niagara Falls: magic!
The true seven wonders of Canada would be:
* The word “sorry”.
* The shovel, for use on both snow and bullshit.
* A bone, to toss to aboriginal leaders when they threaten to set up a blockade.
* Canadian flags, to hang all over Quebec in hopes that they won’t leave.
* The phrase “At least we’re not as bad as the States”.
* Waiting rooms in the emergency department at the hospital.
* The SUV, for navigating the drive-through at Starbucks.
What a joke contest.
The canoe? The igloo? I’ve seen both and never had any awe inspired by them.
Yes, the canoe is unique, but what about the Red River card or such too?
The fact that the Sleeping Giant didn’t even make the Ontario top 7 much less the Canada top 7 shows just how much of a farce this competition is.
This should be renamed “The judges 7 Wonders ” and give us a chance to have a real Canadian 7 wonders.
Well, it’s not as if the debate’s going to end with the judges’ decisions.
I have to say that I’m not entirely surprised at the way this went. There seems to be a general feeling that what constitutes a Canadian Wonder ought to be something that lasts over centuries if not millenia. A CN Tower or a Confederation Bridge – two that I would’ve considered snap inclusions – may not necessarily survive long enough to be seen as on par with the likes of the Pyramids of Giza.
On Duetche Welle in CBC’s Radios’ Overnight- they mentioned that the ’7 Wonders of the World’ is being re-examined and voted for on the Internet. Apparently the Taj Mahal is slipping out of sight because the sponsors of this contest think that the People of India don’t value it as highly as tourists do. The White Marble is turning to Yellow- showing its age. The three judges of the 7 Wonders of Canada should have had their choices mingled with the publics voting results… or there could have been 7 judges- each with one vote- to broaden the base of credibility.
Well, I’m so disillusioned with this latest CBC debacle, I won’t be tuning in to CBC Radio or the National for a good long time. Let them all sit and “wonder” about that.
How can you possibly compare Mum’s house in Scarborough with the Nahanni? The canoe with the Niagara Falls? The museum with the Rockies?
This project lacked focus and tried too hard to fulfill the CBC mandate to reflect us to us “coast to coast to coast.” Thus we had the judges confessions of “geographical correctness” on Thursday mornings SLC.
The unfiltered, broad trawl across the country brought in too many nominations, a bad case of superlative inflation, too much inconsistency in categories.
That left us with a program that felt more like a boiled-down Pablum than celebration of wonder.
And where on that list was the mullet, people?
Disgusting! CBC really screwed up this one.
This latest “list” takes the cake.
This is a complete parody of the CBC itself – a predetermined cultural agenda runs roughshod over the real cultural points made by Canadians themselves.
Thanks for your ideas Canadians, but the CBC alone knows what is wonderful about this country.
The Star has their own “7 Wonders of Canada”:
http://www.thestar.com/Travel/article/222321
1. The Confederation Bridge linking P.E.I. to the mainland
2. The transcontinental railway
3. The Quebec Citadelle
4. Expo 67 in Montreal
5. The Rideau Canal
6. The CN Tower
7. The St. Lawrence Seaway
8. Beer
(Ok, I made up that last one)
The contest? Well, I guess it was okay, though not particularly playful or inventive. My question: What the heck was it doing on the National, TV’s flagship news and current affairs program?
Dave, that sure shows the bias of The Star, since they selected only eastern wonders. Even the transcontinental railway is still a wonder that half exists in the east, and the part in the west serves to supply eastern industry with the west’s natural resources.
The CBC would have done better to leave the Cypress Hills in, instead of using “Prairie Skies”, since you can get the skies from any part of the west, but the Cypress Hills are unique in Canada.
After some thought, I’m not sure which is crazier: The fact that the CBC would force its politically correct version of the wonders on the ‘judges.’ Or, the slight chance that they think that the canoe and igloo really are top Canadian wonders.
Either way – absolutely nuts. To the tune of about $1Billion a year. What a ripoff!