The Canadian 100: The 100 Most Influential Canadians of the 20th Century

R. Matt Bray is a professor of history at Laurentian University and the
co-editor of At the End of the Shift: Mines and Single-Industry Towns in
Northern Ontario.

Each of the 100 short chapters in this book is devoted to one of the 100
most influential Canadians in the 20th century, as determined by
Canadian historians H. Graham Rawlinson and J.L. Granatstein. Their
selections—some predictable, some not—run the gamut from Charles
Saunders (#1) and Terry Fox (#32) to Wayne Gretzky (#81) and Lucien
Bouchard (#100). They are intended to represent Canadians who have had
“the greatest influence, for good or for ill, on Canada and the
world.”

“Influence” is virtually impossible to measure, let alone compare.
By what standards was Mr. Dressup (Ernie Coombs, #12) more influential
than Nellie McClung (#85)? The subjective nature of the selection
process skews the list in other ways as well, biasing it toward central
Canada (more than 70 selections are identified with Ontario or Quebec),
males (87, including Northern Dancer, #64), and politics (15, including
6 of the top 10).

Also debatable (although not surprising, given the nature of the book)
is the authors’ ringing endorsement of the “Great Man”
interpretation of history. Yet many individuals seem to have been chosen
not because of their particular merits, but rather because they
represented a particular field of endeavor. These influential Canadians
cover as many facets of the Canadian experience as possible—politics,
the arts, literature, medicine, law, entertainment, labor, business, and
the military, among others.

The real strength of this book lies not so much in the whole as in the
individual parts. The 100 profiles are well written (though by necessity
not exhaustive) and will serve as a useful reference for both general
readers and students of Canadian history.