Who Is This Scotsborn Hero Of Canada?

Camelon lad Tommy Douglas, grandfather of actor Kiefer Sutherland, was a force for justice and compassion.

- Kenny MacAskill

WHO’s the greatest Canadian? It’s provoked much debate down the years. More than a decade ago, the national broadcaster CBC decided to try and resolve the argument.

A TV programme, The Greatest Canadian, had the public voting on a long list of 50, whittled down to the top 10. More than a million votes were cast.

Three and a half Scots made the top 10. The half, in third place, was Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the former Liberal Premier. As his name discloses, his mother Grace Elliott was partly of Scots descent. His son, Justin Trudeau, is the current Premier and the great-great-grandson of a Scot.

In ninth place was Alexander Graham Bell. The inventor of the telephone was born in Edinburgh, going to Canada in his early 20s. Much of his research was based on his work on addressing deafness, a disability that afflicted both his wife and mother.

A plaque adorns the house in South Charlotte Street, Edinburgh, where he grew up, and national sites are preserved in his honour in both Ontario and Nova Scotia.

In eighth place was Sir John Macdonald, the first premier of the newly established Dominion of Canada who presided over the construction of the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway that united the country.