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CBC's Seven Wonders of Canada

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wyliepoon

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http://www.cbc.ca/sevenwonders/index.html

What Are Your Seven Wonders of Canada?

Nominate a Wonder

Do you have a treasured spot all Canadians should see?

The National and Sounds Like Canada are searching for the Seven Wonders of Canada and we need your help.

We want you to nominate what you consider to be the most wonderful place and tell us why it's so special.

Maybe it has a natural beauty. Perhaps it's because of the wildlife. It could be the people who live there. It's up to you. In short, tell us why your special place should be one of the 'Wonders of Canada.'

The list of potential Canadian wonders is wide open. You can pick an awesome natural wonder, a beautiful building, that quirky little park at the end of your street, a rock shaped like your favourite prime minister, or even a regular weather phenomenon. Any physical feature in Canada could be a possibility. All we ask is that other Canadians be able to see it somehow.

Seven Wonders will be featured on The National and Sounds Like Canada. Make one of them yours!


How it Works

We're accepting your nominations until May 11th.

Starting May 14th, online voting begins. YOU get to choose your favourites from a shortlist. Your vote will guide a panel of judges as they weigh the nominees. With your help, the judges will ensure the final SEVEN meet the SEVEN WONDERS criteria.

*****

Some of the nominations so far...

Ann McDonell, Long Beach, Vancouver Island

"Spectacular, breath taking, awe inspiring natural beauty. I love watching my dog and daughter frolic in the (freezing cold) waves during our yearly trek to Tofino - unfettered glee. A day at Long Beach washed away all mundane worries, replenishes body and soul."

Joe Cataldo, Wascana Park, Regina, Sask.

"This is a quintessential representation of Canada.It has the longest bridge over the shortest span of water, and has the largest man-made lake in country."

Charles MacInnes, Crowfoot's Grave, Alberta

"Crowfoot, chief of the Blackfoot, was a great leader, who kept his people in peace. I stumbled across his memorial on a high hill over the Bow River, with a stunning view westward up the bends of the river to the Rocky Mountains, over 80 km away."

Ed Feuer, The International Peace Garden, Boissevain, Sask.

"The message of the peace garden can be found if we consider the scrubby aspen bush surrounding it. If the landscape gardeners were not constantly tending to the garden’s magnificent setting, the site would be quickly overrun. Peace itself must be similarly tended to diligently in order to be maintained -- an ever-useful reminder for countries, groups, families and individuals.

Celine Parent, The best milkshake in Canada

"My nomination is for the simple pleasure in life. In this case, a Loonie Shake at Reid's Family Dairy just off the 401 near Belleville. Every time I make the trip from Niagara, I have to stop at the little white castle and buy a large, delicious milkshake (chocolate of course) for a loonie (plus tax!). Only in Canada can you spend $1.14 and receive a cup full of pure, delicious, sinful pleasure."

Bob Flynn, Perce Rock, Que.

"I believe that Perce Rock in Perce Quebec is one of the most captivating sights I have seen. Not only is it eye-catching, but it makes a hell of a calender page!

Rosemary Almas, Confederation Bridge

"When my husband and I took our four children to PEI a few years ago we were all so thrilled to be able to get to the Island by bridge. I was really grateful when we had to stop on the bridge for 15 minutes because of maintenance."

Erin Molloy, Hopewell Rocks, Bay of Fundy

"People come from all over the world to "walk on the ocean floor" at low tide or kayak around the "flower pot rocks" at high tide. They are beautiful, magnificent, and constantly being reshaped by the natural sculptor who created them."

Lynn Turcotte, Snow

"I would like to nominate "SNOW', in all it's forms - ice, freezing rain, fluffy stuff etc. Yes, snow is in other countries - but so are lakes and waterfalls and oceans and hiking trails. We are KNOWN for our snow and ice. It is so beautiful in all it's formations and every snowflake is unique. Snow on a river in winter with the steam rising up from the fast moving water or frosted snow on windows and it's beautiful designs or snow in tufts on fenceposts or ice and snow glistening in the winter's sun. I love it and it is SO CANADIAN."

Brian Reeves, The Bay

"The Hudson's Bay Company....a business that was instrumental in developing our nation, still going strong 337 years later (yes, I am an employee)."

Dan Sokolowski, The Dempster Highway

"It's the most spectacular drive anywhere (although Lake Superior is close).... and Dawson City is the 'Paris of the North' the city of the 'Northern Lights'."
 
I'd say Gros Morne, Banff, perhaps Perce Rock, old town Quebec, maybe that park up on Ellesmere Island which looks quite impressive, the CPR if it could be one wonder, I guess the CN Tower... Most of our wonders are natural.
 
the Hopewell rocks, Niagara Falls, CN Tower and the Rockies definately belong on the list!
 
i nominate queens park....

where money goes in and is never seen again - our very own black hole. :p
 
Well, in that case I'm voting with adma for Pamela and all her unnatural wonders.
 
To say nothing of the natural wonder that's her birthday (July 1 1967)
 
OMG..on the centininal of our independace.

She really a Canadain Wonder. And the best thing about it , is we are sharing her with the whole world..and Tommy Lee and Chris Rock.
 
On a more serious note, this pole would make more sense if it were subdivided by type:

Seven natural wonders, seven engineering wonders, seven historical wonders, etc.

Bill
 
And this may be why "a more serious note" isn't pertaining so far
Why would the national broadcaster waste its time on an inane contest?

JOHN DOYLE

May 7, 2007

I was going to ignore the CBC's Seven Wonders of Canada contest. Really, I was.

The sheer inanity of it pushes it into the ignore-that category. CBC-TV's The National and the radio show hosted by that Rogers woman are asking folks (you gotta be "folks" in this sort of cheesy endeavour) to nominate "what you consider to be the most wonderful place and tell us why it's so special." In typically folksy-earnest terms, the CBC description of the thing continues: "Maybe it has a natural beauty. Perhaps it's because of the wildlife. It could be the people who live there. It's up to you. In short, tell us why your special place should be one of the 'Wonders of Canada.' "

Indeed. Go to the official website and you'll see a picture of three people looking up at the sky, as if all the windy, stuffed shirts who run CBC had become so windy that they'd risen into the air, like giant balloons, and there was something to see up there.

I can ignore this nonsense no longer. People have been sending me mail about it. Pleading, they are. Why, last week I heard from a certain distinguished Canadian author on the subject of the Seven Wonders shebang. The author, who had recently been away, wrote, "I watched The National for the first time since coming home and they devoted 20 minutes on the NATIONAL NEWSCAST promoting a [expletive deleted here] best-of contest they're running, talking about getting 8,000 e-mails a day. So sad. I tell you, one of Canada's wonders used to be the CBC."

Pithily put, you'll agree. And true. It's one thing to have a go at determining the greatest Canadian in our history. It's entirely base and brainless to engage in a gee-whiz competition to determine what CBC calls the "Essential Canadian-ness" of places. It's an act of tin-pot patriotism, better suited to a school essay competition than a national broadcaster.

Two weeks ago in this space, while attacking the CBC's decision to ostentatiously decline to air any of the material made by the Virginia Tech killer, I raised the issue of the culture of avoidance and argued that CBC-TV's decision was part of that woeful trend.

Well, this is another instance. We live in strange times, a time when many of the Canadian institutions whose integrity we take for granted are weakened by scandal and evidence of incompetence. This newspaper has revealed the situation of detainees handed over to other authorities by our troops in Afghanistan. The current inquiry into the Air India bombing has heard evidence of bungling by the RCMP and other security agencies. Writer Yann Martel is getting considerable attention for his effort to get Prime Minister Stephen Harper to read some books, a campaign ignited by Martel's rage at the condescension shown to the Canada Council by the current government.

What links all of these matters is the core issue of "Essential Canadian-ness" of our institutions and what we define as "Canadian-ness" in our actions and behaviours as a country. Presenting a competition that amounts to selecting the best picture-postcard places in Canada is an act of avoidance of these issues.

We are not a nation of school kids. The Seven Wonders of Canada competition is an insult and its existence stands as an indictment of CBC's current mania for brainless, smiley-face content. It's delusional and an avoidance of straightforward confrontation of the issues that face us. It's best ignored and I would, if I could. But I can't.

Durham County (TMN, Movie Central, 9 p.m.) is a six-part Canadian crime drama of which much is expected. It's very clearly an attempt to make an adult, disturbing drama as good as those made for HBO and other U.S cable outlets. It certainly succeeds in being disturbing - the opening few minutes are deeply sinister, as the viewer is required to observe a brutal slaying. Slowly, it gets worse, as viewers realize that they are sharing their perspective with someone else, who chooses to do nothing.

From there, Durham County unfolds rapidly and efficiently, but more in the style of sophisticated British thrillers than U.S.-style crime dramas. We meet Mike Sweeney (Hugh Dillon), a brooding, damaged and secretive homicide detective who is moving with his wife Audrey (Hélène Joy) and daughters Sadie (Laurence Leboeuf) and Maddie (Cecily Austin) to an apparently pleasant suburban community. Soon we learn that Audrey is recovering from cancer and that Mike has a personal secret he cannot divulge.

And then there's the neighbour. He's Ray Prager (Justin Louis), a tense, muscled-up braggart with whom Mike has a tricky history. Louis, a veteran of many mediocre U.S. and Canadian productions, does his best work ever here, exuding male rage and petty rancour.

Soon, Mike has to deal with the work of a serial killer. The highly charged tension mounts as Mike and Ray embark on a collision course.

Durham County is visually sumptuous and the controlling image is that of the huge hydro pylons that loom over the homes and gardens of suburbia. If anything, we see too much of them as the layers of emotional contamination and noxious neuroses are revealed, and we don't need the visual reminder.

Dillon is outstanding as Sweeney. He's obliged to signal all the complex feelings of a superficially cold, disappointed and troubled man who has made so many mistakes and yet longs for warmth. Durham County is written by Laurie Finstad-Knizhnik, directed by Adrienne Mitchell and Holly Dale, and executive produced by Janis Lundman and Adrienne Mitchell and Michael Prupas.

While the series wobbles dramatically at points, the predominantly female perspective on male rage and hurt makes it compelling and, at times, a very fine, sombre and smart drama.

Check local listings. - J.D.

jdoyle@globeandmail.com
 
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