A few years
ago, the late, great
Peter Gzowski of the CBC asked his listeners to nominate the best
Canadian songs of all time. He played many of the nominations on his
show, and had a small panel that whittled down the nominations to a top
ten list. I don't recall all ten, but believe #1 was a Nova Scotian
song called "Rise Again".
I thought it might be interesting to try a blog version of the contest,
so I'm inviting all Canadian bloggers, and all Canadian readers, to
help me come up with a list of nominees. I'll then circulate the list
to any Canadian who wants to be a judge, and winnow it down, first to a
list of 12 finalists, and then in a second ballot to a ranked list. If
there's sufficient interest I may try to get the CBC (possibly the
program Sounds Like Canada)
to air the final
twelve, or even make a compilation CD. Whatever we come up will surely
beat the hell out of the ghastly (Enter
Your Nationality Here) Idol.
Here's how to participate:
To nominate or judge, you must be a Canadian citizen or
resident.
Nominations can be e-mailed to me, or posted in the
comments thread below.
To qualify for nomination, songs must be written and
performed by Canadians, and refer at
least peripherally to Canada (see
examples below).
If you want to be a judge, please notify me by e-mail or
in the comments thread below by March 21. Judges must be willing to
try to audition every song
nominated. How you obtain or access copies is up to you.
On March 28 nominations will close and a ballot of all
nominees will be sent to everyone volunteering to be a judge.
On April 11, I will tabulate all ballots received and
publish the list of 12 finalists. Judges will have a week to rank the
12 finalists and the ranked list will be re-published, and publicized
to interested Canadian media, on April 18.
Obvious nominees:
Canadian Railroad Trilogy and
Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (Gordon Lightfoot)
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
A few years
ago, the late, great
Peter Gzowski of the CBC asked his listeners to nominate the best
Canadian songs of all time. He played many of the nominations on his
show, and had a small panel that whittled down the nominations to a top
ten list. I don't recall all ten, but believe #1 was a Nova Scotian
song called "Rise Again".
