I have had my blogging wrist slapped by Colby Cosh, and rightly so. I indiscriminately threw out a war death figure that was very wrong, which only goes to prove his point.

I am put in the position of somehow diminishing the “courage, duty, and sacrifice” of Canadians in a century’s wars if I point out that even Canadians don’t much have a clue as to why the poppy is worn. It would be nice, perhaps, if they shared the rather fantastic idea that “millions” of Canadians had perished fighting Jerry (in fact, Canadian battle deaths from the two World Wars don’t quite come to 100,000). If your point is that the practice of wearing poppies on November 11 may make for an amusing footnote in some historical journal 250 years from now, fair enough.

What bothers me is how hard it is to find the number of Canadian war dead in the 20th century or any other century. (we’ve only been a country since 1867)
I’ve spent nearly an hour in search engines trying to come up with an accurate figure. I’ll go with Cosh’s since he was a history major and I wasn’t. I’ve digressed. Back to the quest at hand.

History isn’t just cold dry facts. Those facts and people of history can evoke strong emotion or ’sentiment’ and well they should in some cases. The comments in Part Deux are in favour of leaving John Mc Crae in the debate for now. I will not give up Mc Crae yet.

Robert Munch. I threw that out to see if you were paying attention. (He is)

To date the following stand: Lucy Maud Montgomery. John Mc Crae. James Naismith. Marshall McLuhan. John Grierson. Glen Gould.

Mark Byron compiled a list of the 100 top Americans in the 20th century. There is a book out on top 100 Canadians in the 20th century. I can’t find a list on the net.

Dr. Byron weighs in on our quest for the eternal Canadian, which appears to be an almost impossible excercise. It’s fun trying though. This goes beyond linear thinking. Comments section is open people, any ideas? Your turn Mr. Cosh.

Blogging is so cool! A Canadian blogger found the Canadian war stats. Thanks Richard. (see comments) I’m more determined than ever to keep Mc Crae in the running. We have 2 votes for Tim Horton(s).