12 Canadian medalists from the 2012 World Beer Cup

By Blog of Lists - Monday, July 16, 2012 at 3:23 PM - 0 Comments

MacKinnon Photography/Flickr

In May, the biennial World Beer Cup was held in San Diego. Once again Canadian craft breweries had a strong showing.

Here were the winners:

1. Amsterdam Framboise
Brewery: Amsterdam Brewing Co., Toronto
Category: Fruit wheat beer
Number of Entries: 28
Prize: Bronze

2. Boréale Dorée
Brewery: Les Brasseurs du Nord, Blainville, Que.
Category: Special honey beer
Number of Entries: 23
Prize: Gold

3. Glutenberg Rousse
Brewery: Brasseurs Sans Gluten, Montreal
Category: Gluten-free beer
Number of Entries: 15
Prize: Gold

4. Glutenberg Pale Ale
Brewery: Brasseurs Sans Gluten, Montreal
Category: Gluten-free beer
Number of Entries: 15
Prize: Silver

5. Glutenberg Blonde
Brewery: Brasseurs Sans Gluten, Montreal
Category: Gluten-free beer
Number of Entries: 15
Prize: Bronze

6. Central City Oaked Porter
Brewery: Central City Brewing Co., Surrey, B.C.
Category: Wood- and barrel-aged beer
Number of Entries: 34
Prize: Bronze

7. Belle Gueule Originale
Brewery: Brasseurs RJ, Montreal
Category: Vienna-style lager
Number of Entries: 41
Prize: Bronze

8. King Dark Lager
Brewery: King Brewery, Nobleton, Ont.
Category: European-style dark/Munchner dunkle
Number of Entries: 34
Prize: Silver

9. Cameron’s Dark 266
Brewery: Cameron’s Brewing Co, Oakville, Ont.
Category: German-style schwarzbier
Number of Entries: 40
Prize: Bronze

10. Saison Station 55
Brewery: Hopfenstark Brewery, L’Assomption, Que.
Category: French- and Belgian-style saison
Number of Entries: 44
Prize: Silver

11. IP’Eh!
Brewery: Russell Brewing Co, Surrey, B.C.
Category: English-style India pale ale
Number of Entries: 48
Prize: Silver

12. Red Racer ESB
Brewery: Central City Brewing Co, Surrey, B.C.
Category: Extra-special bitter
Number of Entries: 49
Prize: Gold

See also Most expensive houses

Have you ever wondered which cities have the most bars, smokers, absentee workers and people searching for love? What about how Canada compares to the world in terms of the size of its military, the size of our houses and the number of cars we own? The nswers to all those questions, and many more, can be found in the first ever Maclean’s Book of Lists.

Buy your copy of the Maclean’s Book of Lists at the newsstand or order online now.

The cheapest detached houses in Canada’s 7 biggest cities

By Blog of Lists - Friday, July 13, 2012 at 4:09 PM - 0 Comments

photo: realestate.canada.oodle.com

2. Montreal: $170,000
11750 Ave. Bellevois—2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, mostly hardwood flooring

3. Vancouver: $538,000
1862 Marine Dr.—2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms

4. Calgary: $169,000
23 Doverdale Mews SE—“Brand new carpet”

5. Edmonton: $114,900
12231 93 St.—No details given, you’re buying it for the land

6. Ottawa: $151,500
38 Boyce Ave.—Unfortunately, no access to existing house due to flood plain

7. Quebec City: $159,000
176 Ave. Bélanger, Les Rivières—3 bedrooms, “needs some repair”

Listings as of mid-May 2012.

See also Most expensive houses

Have you ever wondered which cities have the most bars, smokers, absentee workers and people searching for love? What about how Canada compares to the world in terms of the size of its military, the size of our houses and the number of cars we own? The answers to all those questions, and many more, can be found in the first ever Maclean’s Book of Lists.

Buy your copy of the Maclean’s Book of Lists at the newsstand or order online now.s

Most expensive houses in the 7 biggest cities in Canada

By Blog of Lists - Thursday, July 12, 2012 at 5:30 PM - 0 Comments

1. Toronto: $28 million
1400—155 Cumberland St., Toronto—A Yorkville condo with 5,000 sq. ft. of terraces

2. Montreal: $12.7 million
3956 Ch. de la Côte-des-Neiges—An Edwardian manor with stunning views of the city

3. Vancouver: $34 million
5365 Seaside Place, West Vancouver—A waterfront property with indoor parking for your 10-m boat

4. Calgary: $12 million
44 Aspen Ridge Heights St.—It’s a castle, with 14,500 sq. ft. of living space

5. Edmonton: $15 million
5620 Whitemud Rd—A three-hectare backyard right on the North Saskatchewan River

6. Ottawa: $6.9 million
390 Buena Vista Rd.—An English country manor with vast landscaped garden

7. Quebec City: $2.9 million
650 Ave. Wilfrid-Laurier—A penthouse apartment with seven-metre-high windows

See also: Cheapest houses

Have you ever wondered which cities have the most bars, smokers, absentee workers and people searching for love? What about how Canada compares to the world in terms of the size of its military, the size of our houses and the number of cars we own? The answers to all those questions, and many more, can be found in the first ever Maclean’s Book of Lists.

Buy your copy of the Maclean’s Book of Lists at the newsstand or order online now.

10 memorable but cheesy hockey player product pitches

By Blog of Lists - Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 12:37 PM - 0 Comments

1. Wayne Gretzky: Pro Stars. At the height of his stardom, the Great One had his very own cereal, which he plugged on Late Night with David Letterman. More recently, he has been pitching his own line of Bigelow green tea—“one great tea.”

2. 1979 New York Rangers Phil Esposito, Ron Duguay, Anders Hedberg and Dave Maloney: Sasson Jeans. The teammates perform a painfully unsexy on-ice dance routine, in overly tight jeans, while singing: “Ooh la la, Sasson.”

3. Alexander Ovechkin: Eastern Motors. “At Eastern Motors, your job, your credit,” sings the gap-toothed star, in flip-flops and shorts, for
a local Washington car dealership. “It’s going to be on YouTube for sure.” Correct.

4. Maurice Richard: Grecian Formula 16 hair dye. “The change was so gradual and so natural, no one even noticed,” the retired legend says. The infamous kicker? A referee opens the penalty box door saying: “Hey Richard, two minutes for looking so good!”

5. Ron Hextall: Canada Dry ginger ale. A simple message from the tough-guy goalie and MVP: “You don’t have to be sweet to be good.”

6. Mark Messier: Lays potato chips. In a long-running series of ads, Messier flashes both his familiar grin and scowl, while driving home the message, “Betcha can’t eat just one.”

7. Doug Gilmour: Head & Shoulders. He doesn’t “score points for how my
hair looks.” But after the game, “when the cameras are just inches away and millions of fans are watching, my hair has to look great.”

8. Billy Smith: Steelback beer. Smith and other former NHL greats make locker-room chat with Steelback’s CEO, while generally looking like they’d rather be anywhere else in the world.

9. Sidney Crosby: Dempster’s. The superstar pitches his favourite sandwich: “Dempster’s WholeGrains and turkey sandwich.” Awkward smiles abound.

10. Mats Sundin: Chunky soup. The beloved Maple Leaf surely took plenty of on-ice abuse for the memorable Campbell’s Soup ad featuring his mother yelling, “Mats, did you eat your Chunky Soup?”

Have you ever wondered which cities have the most bars, smokers, absentee workers and people searching for love? What about how Canada compares to the world in terms of the size of its military, the size of our houses and the number of cars we own? The answers to all those questions, and many more, can be found in the first ever Maclean’s Book of Lists.

Buy your copy of the Maclean’s Book of Lists at the newsstand or order online now.

10 (fictional but not wholly unbelievable) Canadian sex acts

By Blog of Lists - Tuesday, July 10, 2012 at 1:43 PM - 0 Comments

In an episode of the American sitcom How I Met Your Mother, several characters try to guess the sexual exploits of one of their friends and a certain “Canadian celebrity.”

Here are just a handful of sex acts from www.canadiansexacts.org, a website created by the show’s producers, but which claims to have been developed by the “Informational Advancement Directorate of Ontario (ADO) and Bureau des Renseignements de Quebec (BRQ), two branches of the Ministry of Community Wellness and Public Service”:

 1.    Saskatoon Totem Pole

 2.    Sticky Flapjack

 3.    Manitoba Milk Bag

 4.    Two-Handed Zamboni

 5.    Reverse Rick Moranis

 6.    Montreal Petting Zoo

 7.    Northwest Passage

 8.    One-Tusked Walrus

 9.    Full Mountie

 10.    Musty Goaltender

See also: 10 cities leading Canada in adult toy sales

Have you ever wondered which cities have the most bars, smokers, absentee workers and people searching for love? What about how Canada compares to the world in terms of the size of its military, the size of our houses and the number of cars we own? The nswers to all those questions, and many more, can be found in the first ever Maclean’s Book of Lists.

Buy your copy of the Maclean’s Book of Lists at the newsstand or order online now.

10 cities leading Canada in adult toy sales

By Blog of Lists - Tuesday, July 10, 2012 at 1:23 PM - 0 Comments

Andrew Morrell Photography/Flickr

According to PinkCherry, a Toronto-based adult novelty retailer, customers in these 10 cities are the biggest buyers of sex toys in the country.

1. Toronto

2. Edmonton

3. Calgary

4. Montreal

5. Vancouver

6. Ottawa

7. Winnipeg

8. Victoria

9. London, Ont.

10. Halifax

See the complete list of 50 cities.

See also: 10 (fictional but not wholly unbelievable) Canadian sex acts

Have you ever wondered which cities have the most bars, smokers, absentee workers and people searching for love? What about how Canada compares to the world in terms of the size of its military, the size of our houses and the number of cars we own? The nswers to all those questions, and many more, can be found in the first ever Maclean’s Book of Lists.

Buy your copy of the Maclean’s Book of Lists at the newsstand or order online now.

8 pieces of toast auctioned for big dough

By Blog of Lists - Monday, July 9, 2012 at 4:53 PM - 0 Comments

Francois Roche/Flickr

It’s a truism that we are what we eat. But a lengthening list of uneaten, or partially eaten slices of toast auctioned for sizable amounts of money seems to say a lot about the times we live in, too.

1. Prince Charles’ wedding day toast. Slated for auction for July 19, this unbuttered slice was apparently served to Prince Charles on the morning of his wedding to then-Lady Diana Spencer. It may sell for as much as £500.
Source: Daily Mail

2. Tim Tebow grilled cheese. One slice of an otherwise ordinary grilled cheese sandwich made by eBay member Carlspackler76 fetched a hundred dollars, thanks to its uncanny resemblance to the genuflecting football star.
Source: Yahoo Sports.

3. Sarah Palin lookalike toast. A search for ‘Sarah Palin toast’ turns up all kinds of references to the former Vice-Presidential candidate’s political career—and, if you look hard enough, brief mention of a slice of toast bearing her likeness, which drew eBay bids of at least $31.
Source: SlashFood

4. Runaway bride tribute toast. After runaway bride Jennifer Milbanks faked her own abduction to duck out of her extravagant wedding, Perry Lonzello carved a rudimentary portrait of her into a slice of Wonder Bread, then put it up for auction. Unfortunately, the winner was a runaway bidder, and Lonzello—who said he had planned to donate the money to charity—got burned.
Sources: CNET, Chicago Tribune

5. Niall Horan’s Vegemite toast. A half eaten piece of toast smeared in Vegemite, discarded by Niall Horan of the boy band One Direction after trying a bite on an Australian TV show, was put up for auction for charity. Bids rose to nearly $100,000 before the toast was withdrawn, apparently due to suspicions about the authenticity of the bids.
Source: Digital Journal

6,7. Justin Timberlake’s uneaten French toast. Why Justin Timberlake didn’t eat two slices of French toast one morning in March of 2000 may forever remain a mystery. But surely the greater mystery is why N’Sync fan Kathy Summers paid $1025 for the pair in a charity auction.
Source: Entertainment Weekly

8. The Virgin Mary toast. Truly the Mother of all toast auctions was the one in which a decade-old toasted cheese sandwich bearing a (vague) resemblance to the face of the Virgin Mary was bought at auction for $28,000 by the Internet casino GoldenPalace.com, for whom the publicity generated by the purchase was probably a bargain. The sandwich with a single bite out of it was said to have brought good luck to its previous owner, Diane Duyser, from Florida, who had kept the relic for ten years.
Source: BBC

Have you ever wondered which cities have the most bars, smokers, absentee workers and people searching for love? What about how Canada compares to the world in terms of the size of its military, the size of our houses and the number of cars we own? The answers to all those questions, and many more, can be found in the first ever Maclean’s Book of Lists.

Buy your copy of the Maclean’s Book of Lists at the newsstand or order online now.

12 things you didn’t know were invented by Canadians

By Blog of Lists - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 at 1:20 PM - 0 Comments

threeseamonsters/Flickr

1. Kitchen garbage bags: Three men—Harry Wasylyk, Larry Hansen and Frank Plomp—all separately came up with the idea in the 1950s.

2. Lawn sprinkler: Invented in 1920 by Elijah McCoy, the son of runaway slaves in Ontario. McCoy was one of Canada’s most prolific inventors. Among his other 56 creations: the ironing board.

3. Odometers: In 1854, Nova Scotia’s Samuel McKeen put a device on his carriage to measure wheel turns.

4. Robertson square-headed screwdriver: Invented by P.L Robertson in 1908.

5. Walkie-talkie: Alfred Gross invented the walkie-talkie in 1938.

6. Instant replays: In 1955, CBC producer George Retzlaff introduced the world to
the first in-game sport replays.

7. Bloody Caesar: Invented in 1969 by restaurateur Walter
Chell in honour of a new Italian restaurant that opened in Calgary.

8. Wonderbra: Invented by Louise Poirier who, in 1963, was working for a Montreal-based lingerie company.

9. Five-pin bowling: Invented by T.E. Ryan of Toronto in 1909.

10. Paint roller: Invented by Norman Breakey of Toronto in 1940.

11. Pablum: Created by researchers at the University of Toronto in 1930. Royalties from its sales continue to support research at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children.

12. Road lines: Yes, there was a time when drivers had no lanes to stay
in, until 1930 when John Millar, an Ontario engineer, thought up the simple idea of painting lines on roads.

Sources: Library and Archives Canada, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, various websites

Have you ever wondered which cities have the most bars, smokers, absentee workers and people searching for love? What about how Canada compares to the world in terms of the size of its military, the size of our houses and the number of cars we own? The answers to all those questions, and many more, can be found in the first ever Maclean’s Book of Lists, hitting stands in time for Canada Day.

Buy your copy of the Maclean’s Book of Lists at the newsstand or order online now.

8 Canadian books people have sought to ban in Canada

By Blog of Lists - Monday, July 2, 2012 at 12:49 PM - 0 Comments

Over the decades people have sought to ban from libraries numerous books by Canadian authors because they didn’t like what was contained within their pages. Here are some attempts, listed in reverse chronological order, compiled by the freedom of expression committee at the Book and Periodical Council:

1. Contes pour buveurs attardés by Michel Tremblay: In 2010, a mother in Laval, Que., sought to have the book removed from a school reading list because she didn’t want her son exposed to “such promotion of Satanism and pedophilia.” The school board rejected her demand.

2. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood: In 2008, a parent in Toronto sought to have the novel taken off a Grade 12 English class because of “profane language,” anti-Christian overtones and “sexual degradation.” A Toronto District School Board review recommended the book be kept.

3. New American and Canadian Poetry edited by John Gill: In 1994, the school board in Sechelt, B.C., removed the book from a high school after a parent complained it offered anti-establishment views and presented sex in a positive light. The board later reversed its decision, but the sole copy was stolen and never replaced.

4. Dance Me Outside by W.P. Kinsella: In 1994, the library at a Barrie, Ont., Roman Catholic school pulled the book after complaints from an Onkwehonwe anti-racism alliance because parts of it “might be objectionable if taken out of context.”

5. The Wars by Timothy Findley: In 1991, a Lambton County, Ont., high school student asked for the novel to be taken off the curriculum, arguing a passage about the rape of a Canadian soldier encouraged students to accept homosexuality. The school board chose to keep the book.

6. Canadian Poetry: The Modern Era edited by John Newlove: In 1987, the book, along with several novels by Margaret Laurence, including The Stone Angel and The Diviners, came under attack from a parents group in Victoria County, Ont. The school board refused to remove the books.

7. Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro: In 1982, Toronto parents sought to have the book removed from the high school curriculum because of the “language and philosophy of
the book” but the school board rejected their demand.

8. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler: In 1982, in Etobicoke, Ont., the school board was asked to stop teaching the book, but refused.

Have you ever wondered which cities have the most bars, smokers, absentee workers and people searching for love? What about how Canada compares to the world in terms of the size of its military, the size of our houses and the number of cars we own? The nswers to all those questions, and many more, can be found in the first ever Maclean’s Book of Lists, hitting stands in time for Canada Day.

Buy your copy of the Maclean’s Book of Lists at the newsstand or order online now.

3 versions of ‘O Canada’ that almost became our national anthem

By Blog of Lists - Sunday, July 1, 2012 at 12:35 PM - 0 Comments

mariacasa/Flickr

The music and French lyrics for Canada’s national anthem were originally written to celebrate St. Jean-Baptiste Day in 1880, but by 1939 the country had settled on O Canada as the de facto national anthem (though not officially until 1980). In the early years of the last century it still wasn’t clear what the English lyrics should be, and a flurry of competitors soon emerged:

1. Version by Toronto doctor Thomas Bedford Richardson, 1906

O Canada! Our fathers’ land of old
Thy brow is crown’d with leaves of red and gold
Beneath the shade of the Holy Cross
Thy children own their birth
No stains thy glorious annals gloss
Since valour shield thy hearth
Almighty God! On thee we call
Defend our rights, forfend this nation’s thrall
Defend our rights, forfend this nation’s thrall

2. Version by Mercy E. Powell McCulloch, winner of Collier’s Weekly competition, 1909

O Canada! in praise of thee we sing
From echoing hills our anthems proudly ring
With fertile plains and mountains grand
With lakes and rivers clear
Eternal beauty, thou dost stand
Throughout the changing year
Lord God of Hosts! We now implore
Bless our dear land this day and evermore
Bless our dear land this day and evermore

3. Version by Ewing Buchan, manager of the Bank of Hamilton in Vancouver and vice-president of the Vancouver Canadian Club, 1908.
This version seemed like it had a lock when prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King’s secretary, after hearing it sung at the Vancouver Board of Trade, wrote a letter saying King “was struck with the singing of O Canada at the Board of Trade meeting. I shall be much obliged if you will let me have a copy of the words used. We have listened to a great many versions of O Canada during the present tour and I know of none which sounded so fine.”

O Canada, our heritage, our love
Thy worth we praise all other lands above
From sea to sea throughout their length
From Pole to borderland
At Britain’s side, whate’er betide
Unflinchingly we’ll stand
With hearts we sing, “God save the King”
Guide then one Empire wide, do we implore
And prosper Canada from shore to shore

In the end, after some 14 bills dealing with adopting O Canada as the national anthem were unsuccessfully introduced between 1962 and 1980, Parliament voted to formally adopt the version that had been written by Montreal judge and poet Robert Stanley Weir for the diamond jubilee of Confederation in 1927.

Well, almost. The government changed three lines from the original, in part replacing “O Canada, glorious and free” with “God keep our land, glorious and free,” much to the chagrin of Weir’s descendents, who had owned the copyright for the lyrics until only a decade earlier. They handed over the rights on condition they have a say on any amendments. “We gave up the copyright because we did not wish to appear to obstruct or delay parliamentary action,” said Robert Weir Simpson, an advertising executive in Montreal in 1980. “We believe it has a moral obligation to honour the agreement.”

See and hear a unique rendition of O Canada in an extraordinary setting, from the Canadian Moments project.

Have you ever wondered which cities have the most bars, smokers, absentee workers and people searching for love? What about how Canada compares to the world in terms of the size of its military, the size of our houses and the number of cars we own? The nswers to all those questions, and many more, can be found in the first ever Maclean’s Book of Lists, hitting stands in time for Canada Day.

Buy your copy of the Maclean’s Book of Lists at the newsstand or order online now.

8 things you probably didn’t know about the Trans-Canada Highway

By Blog of Lists - Thursday, June 28, 2012 at 12:30 PM - 0 Comments

The Trans-Canada Highway is the longest highway in the world, stretching from St. John’s to Victoria. Both cities consider themselves the starting point; journalist Walter Stewart once observed it is the only road on which you can drive 7,714 km just to get back to the beginning again.

Here are some other facts about Canada’s national road from Mark Richardson, who is driving across Canada this summer to mark the highway’s 50th anniversary and blogging about it for Maclean’s at Trans-Canada Trek.

1. For most of its length, there are alternative highways that are also considered the Trans-Canada. In the Maritimes, for example, you can drive on the TCH through Prince Edward Island, or you can stay on the highway and completely avoid the island province. In Ontario, you can follow the popular scenic route beside Lake Superior, or head deep into the woods through Kapuskasing. And in the West, the Yellowhead Highway that links Manitoba to Edmonton and Prince Rupert is also considered TCH. In total, about 12,800 km of road are classified as Trans-Canada Highway.

2.To qualify as Trans-Canada Highway, the paved road must be at least 6.7 m wide with unpaved shoulders of at least another 3.3 m on either side. Hills cannot exceed six degrees of slope angle, and drivers must always be able to see at least 183 m down the road ahead. It took until 1971 for the full length of the road to be completed to this standard.

3. It may link the nation, but the feds are only responsible for sections of highway that pass through national parks. The provinces look after every-
thing else.

4. It was opened officially by prime minister John Diefenbaker in 1962 when the road was completed through the Rogers Pass in British Columbia. There was no playing of O Canada at the start of the ceremony, though, because the bus carrying the instruments of the band of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry had taken a wrong turn out of Calgary. It arrived in time for the band to play God Save The Queen at the end.

5. The opening ceremony was boycotted by the governments of New Brunswick (nobody available to attend, apparently) and Newfoundland (upset that the feds weren’t paying more money toward construction, which was still mostly gravel across the province). B.C. premier W.A.C. Bennett skipped the event too; he also wanted more federal construction money and had officially opened the road through the pass himself a month earlier at a nearby spot, calling it B.C. Highway No. 1 and never once mentioning Canada.

6. It was only in 1942 it became possible to drive completely across the country on Canadian roads, when a final 246-km stretch of gravel highway was constructed in northern Ontario. The first people to make this drive were R.A. Macfarlane with Kenneth MacGillivray in 1946. Macfarlane was awarded a motoring medal for doing so.

7. Construction costs were highest in British Columbia’s mountains and northern Ontario’s swamps, but also in flat Prince Edward Island, where all the rock for the highway’s base had to be shipped into the province across the Northumberland Straight.

8. There are three ferries that are considered to be part of the official Trans-Canada Highway: between Horseshoe Bay and Nanaimo in British Columbia; Port-aux-Basques, Nfld., to North Sydney, N.S.; and Caribou, N.S., to Woods Island, P.E.I. There’s also a giant bridge—Confederation Bridge, which links P.E.I. to New Brunswick—and the Canso Causeway, connecting Cape Breton to the mainland.

Sources: Trans-Canada Highway; Canadian Encyclopedia

Have you ever wondered which cities have the most bars, smokers, absentee workers and people searching for love? What about how Canada compares to the world in terms of the size of its military, the size of our houses and the number of cars we own? The answers to all those questions, and many more, can be found in the first ever Maclean’s Book of Lists, hitting stands in time for Canada Day.

Buy your copy of the Maclean’s Book of Lists at the newsstand or order online now.

10 best Canadian Olympians

By Blog of Lists - Tuesday, June 26, 2012 at 7:02 PM - 0 Comments

Kevin Frayer/AP Photo

With the 2012 Summer Games in London now on the horizon, here are Canada’s greatest Olympians:

1. Clara Hughes (speedskating and cycling: 1 gold, 1 silver, 4 bronze)
Six medals in two sports, five Olympic appearances (three Winter, two Summer) and a class act on top of it all. No one else comes close.

2. Gaétan Boucher (speedskating: 2 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
Who could forget his double gold and bronze in Sarajevo? Or those quadriceps? He also won silver in Lake Placid.

3. Kathleen Heddle & Marnie McBean (rowing: 3 gold, 1 bronze)
Canada’s greatest ever rowing duo left the field in their wake three times, in Barcelona and Atlanta, and grabbed a bronze to boot.

4. Hayley Wickenheiser (ice hockey: 3 gold, 1 silver)
Led three Olympic championship teams and one runner-up. Only a shortage of competition in women’s hockey keeps her out of the top three.

5. Cindy Klassen (speedskating: 1 gold, 2 silver, 3 bronze)
Another powerhouse on the ice, Klassen won five medals in Turin (one gold), breaking Boucher’s record for most by a Canadian in a single Games.

6. Victor Davis (swimming: 1 gold, 3 silver)
A four-medal colossus in the pool, and a cut-up outside of it; one of the first
to tattoo the maple leaf over his heart, launching a men’s team tradition.

7. George Hodgson (swimming: 2 gold)
Won two golds in 1912 in Stockholm and was the last Canadian swimmer to stand atop the podium until 1984; competed for only three years and retired undefeated. Now that’s mystique.

8. Percy Williams (track: 2 gold)
Another early-century enigma, Williams won the 100- and 200-m in Amsterdam in 1928, and received a gun as a prize for his efforts. He used the weapon to commit suicide in 1982.

9. Nancy Greene (alpine skiing: 1 gold, 1 silver)
They called her “Tiger,” and her gold and silver in 1968 established Canada on the skiing scene. We never looked back.

10. Carolyn Waldo (synchronized swimming: 2 gold, 1 silver)
Plug your nose, hang upside down in the water and turn dance moves for three minutes. Do it better than anyone else at the Olympics. Twice. You are now Carolyn Waldo in 1988.

Sources: Maclean’s, International Olympic Committee

Have you ever wondered which cities have the most bars, smokers, absentee workers and people searching for love? What about how Canada compares to the world in terms of the size of its military, the size of our houses and the number of cars we own? The answers to all those questions, and many more, can be found in the first ever Maclean’s Book of Lists, hitting stands in time for Canada Day.

Buy your copy of the Maclean’s Book of Lists at the newstand or order online now.

What colour is your Christmas?

By Andrew Potter - Sunday, December 13, 2009 at 10:20 AM - 4 Comments

This is the season of lists. And, thanks to Kottke,  of lists of lists. There are so many lists on offer that it’s hard to make a list that gets above the fray, stands out from the crowd.  So maybe it is understandable, in that narrowest of ways, that the New York Times saw fit to publish of list of Christmas gifts by, and for, people of colour:

Somali fashion, do-it-yourself henna kits, children’s books that draw inspiration from the lives of Barack Obama and Sonia Sotomayor: it’s not hard to find gifts created for and by people of color this holiday season…

Not to mention a book called ‘The Mocha Manual to Military Life: A Savvy Guide for Wives, Girlfriends and Female Service Members’, hair de-kinking products, and a makeup guide for “Asian Faces”. Mediate calls it “borderline racist”; I suspect it is more an unfortunate combination of runaway competition in the the world of list-making combined with excessive Obama-era self-consciousness about race.

Christmas List

By Andrew Potter - Tuesday, December 23, 2008 at 10:59 PM - 6 Comments

I’m bad at these, but here we go….

It was a very good year for low culture. In film, I really dug both JCVD and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. In books, I read far too many Ian Fleming novels, and Russell Brand’s My Booky Wook is outstanding. Seriously, it’s up there with Stephen Fry’s The Liar as one of the great examples of England’s ability to churn out funnyman actors who, infuriatingly, can also write up a storm (see also: Richard E. Grant). I didn’t watch a heck of a lot of TV, but when I did, it consisted of probably too many episodes of Two and a Half Men, consumed along with cold pizza and a half-read copy of the previous weekend’s NYTimes magazine. I also fell hard for Gossip Girl late in the season (and I’m not done with you yet, my dears Blair and Serena.) The internet probably counts as one big low-culture entry, and I definitely spent too much time on hanging out on blogs by the microfamous. But that should get better with the elections done (knock wood), though no matter what happens I think I’ll be returning here (Warning: Crude and NSFW! ), which contains probably my favourite single blog post of the year. 

Moving on up the brow, Man on Wire was the best movie of the year, no question. Just see it. It was a good year for non-fiction, but  Yaroslav Trofimov’s underrated Siege of Mecca was the most important book I read. Concertwise, The Dodos kicked ass at PopMontreal, but nothing compared to Leonard Cohen’s transcendent turn at the Place des Arts in June. (Speaking of, this is a very happy turn of events). I stuck with Mad Men, even though the writers too often took it to places I didn’t really approve of in the second season. Galactica I bailed on completely though — I couldn’t see it turning out satisfactorily. All told, I  need to devote more time to people and events on planet Earth and less time to the giant suckhole of time that is the web, but as long as good old Blog Central remains the most vibrant and exciting online destination in the country, I’m sure we can find some time to spend together. 

Thanks to all my readers, online and in the mag, loyal and otherwise, for giving me your attention and feedback. Being here is an absolute honour, not to mention a total hoot. Over at the OC, Kady and Scott and I have a bberry roundtable coming your way next Sunday, but in the meanwhile happy hols to everyone. Back in a few days.