They should have announced this contest a while back to coincide with the winner being announced on Manitoba's birthday.
I suspect this is really just an attempt to get Izzy listed as # 1 in order to boost donations to the rights museum. Sorry, but the Free Press has proven that they are unabashed cheerleaders and not journalists, with regards to this potential project.
I have no qualms with him finishing anywhere in the top ten 10, but you just know it will all be about another excuse to provide marketing articles for the museum project. Just wait and see.
Good Gawd!! Someone had the nerve to nominate Jenny Gerbasi......surely we can't be that short on great Manitobans! Here is the direct quote from the nomination: Why Jenny Gerbasi should be a Great Manitoban:
"Gerbasi is a terrific City Councillor working to make Winnipeg a better place. She is an articulate advocate of reasonable urban development and critic of unsustainable practices."
As far as Izzy goes people seem to think hes the only philanthropist Wpg ever had, not so says I....I know of several others, not to as great an extent as Izzy but still worth mentioning for their good deeds, Johnny Buhler comes to mind right away, and yet I could not find a vote for him at all, Triniman might just be right on this issue!
I personally hate philanthropists that give a little seed money (deductable by the way) and in turn, burden the taxpayer with perpetuual carrying costs for their "good deed". The contrast between the Aspers and many other philanthropists in Winnipeg in this reagrd is stark.
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That's the problem with a contest like this - "greatest" is subjective and it's more a race of people you've heard There's a lot of average joe's that contributed a lot to Manitoba history - some even more than the people on the list but time has forgotten them. Many who are more recent - I would love to see someone weigh Ashdown against Asper to see who did more. In the end though it's still better to celebrate and promote / remember significan citizens than not to do anything at all. <br> <br> Here's someone I think is a great Manitoban in the sports category. it's a neat story and his record still stands:<br>
Corporal Joseph Benjamin “Joe” Keeper (1886-1971) <br> <I> Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame Website http://www.halloffame.mb.ca/honoured/1984/jKeeper.htm</I><br> <br> Keeper, a member of Norway House Cree First Nation, was born at Walker Lake in 1889. At the age of 3 he was sent to the Indian residential school in Brandon.<br> <br> His very first race was an indoor mile at Brandon in 1909 where he placed second. Seeing his talent, Principal Rev. Joseph Jones offered to be his coach and the following year Keeper was sent to Winnipeg to join an athletic club.<br> <br> In 1911 Keeper set a Canadian ten-mile record of 54:50 and was selected as a member of the 1912 Canadian Olympic Team where he would participate in both the 5,000 m and 10,000 m races.<br> <br> In the 5,000 m he finished second in his semifinal and eighth in the final.<br> <br> In the 10,000 m he finished second in his semifinal and fourth in the final. No Canadian runner has topped his feat of finishing fourth in an Olympic 10,000 m event. His time 32:36 is only 5 minutes off todays Canadian record.<br> <br> Keeper continued to race but there wouldn’t be another Olympics as he joined the army in 1916. While serving in France he would receive the Military Medal. Returning north after the war, Keeper would have a career with the Hudson Bay Co. Since his death on September 21, 1971 he has been inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame, the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and each Spring the Manitoba Runners’ Association hosts the Joe Keeper Memorial Run. <br> <br>
<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3192/2574072986_eaa13d40d3.jpg?v=0"> <I> Image: Keeper won both the one mile and three mile run on the 1918 Dominion Day Canadian Corps sports day races. www.ainc-inac.gc.ca </I>
The ability to play football is hardly qualification to be on the list of greatest anything.(other than football) Please purge all football and hockey players from this list.
The next thing you know we'll have Hal Anderson on the list (38th greatest Canadian) Yeah, sure.
James A Richardson is high on my list, a couple of Victoria Cross winners might be reasonable, but Blue Bombers? Give me a break.