No, it’s not the CBC’s choice, Tommy Douglas. all Tommy did was start the ball rolling for state-funded health care and if he hadn’t come up with the idea someone else would have. after all, what better way is there to show that were not like those "bastards" south of the border than by giving everyone access to free doctors and hospitals? Besides it is bound to come out that Tommy thought up medicare because he had a passionately held view that he had better things to do with his money than to give it to greedy doctors. We all know that they make too much money.
and no, it’s not that guy with one leg who tried to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research before his cancer returned and forced him to stop. For once, not counting airing episodes of Coronation Street and the antiques Roadshow, the CBC got it right; he really is in second place.
The greatest Canadian that ever lived is: David Dingwall.
During Canada’s 138-year history, many people have understood what this country is all about and what Canada stands for. Many of them have or could have written 400-page tomes on exactly what this country of ours is. But no one else could ever express the essence of what Canada and Canadians are all about in a mere five words.
"I’m entitled to my entitlements".
So said the Liberal porker; the former president of the Royal Canadian Mint and former Liberal Cabinet minister who was the Minister of Public Works when the sponsorship scandal first took root, David Dingwall. Dingwall, when questioned by a Parliamentary committee about why he thought he was entitled to severance pay for voluntarily resigning his position with the mint, simply said that he was entitled to it because he was entitled. Dingwall had stepped down when it was revealed that his expenses for the year 2004 reached almost three quarters of a million dollars. There was no expense too small, from chewing gum to bottled water to coffee and doughnuts for the good people of Canada to pick up for the Entitled One. as befitting the greatest Canadian ever, Dingwall saw nothing wrong with all this largesse. He denied that there was a problem and denied that the taxpayers had paid for his expenses. The expenses were paid for out of the profits that he was able to produce for the Royal Canadian Mint. The fact that the mint is owned by the people of Canada seemed to escape him. Which just goes to show that you do not have to be a shallow thinker, let alone a deep one, to be deserving of the title of "Greatest Canadian".
"I’m entitled to my entitlements"--that is what this country is all about. Entitlements are used by the Liberals to stay in power and the Conservatives use them to try and obtain power. and the NDP, well, they’re the NDP. The notion of personal responsibility is all but a historic relic in Canada. Everything is about rights and entitlements and Dingwall has shown that this sort of thinking goes right up to the top. Productivity, both individually and collectively, don’t matter as much as being entitled to free health care and other government provided goods and services. Canadians are entitled to their entitlements because, like Dingwall, they deserve it. and they have no particular responsibility to act in a certain way in order to receive them.
David Dingwall should not become ostracized for his copious spending or his performance before the Parliamentary committee. Rather, Dingwall should become immortalized. There is no greater symbol than the former head of the Royal Canadian Mint that exemplifies the sense that too many Canadians have that they are entitled to a certain lifestyle without having to earn it. Statues should be erected all across the country of Dingwall holding a package of Dentyne, his taxpayer-funded chewing gum of choice, to remind Canadians of what this country has now become. When the government eventually issues a $5 coin, it should bear David Dingwall’s likeness. Perhaps we could call it a `buffooney’.
Much like the day that Pearl Harbour was attacked, "I’m entitled to my entitlements" will live on in infamy.