Daily BrewHelp choose the Canadian Newsmaker of the year!
From Scott White, Editor-in-Chief at The Canadian Press
The Canadian Press has been naming Newsmakers since 1946. The very first was Igor Gouzenko, a lowly cipher clerk at the Soviet Union's embassy in Ottawa who came forward with details about spying that caused a Cold War sensation at the time.
The news service asks newspaper editors, broadcasters and, for the last few years, the news chiefs at web sites like Yahoo! Canada to make their choice for the top Canadian Newsmaker, the top Canadian news story, the Male and Female Athlete of the Year and the Team of the Year. A few years ago, we also added the top Business Newsmaker and the top business story of the year.
There is no exact criteria for the Newsmaker other than it should be a Canadian who dominated news coverage during the year. And we never say someone "won" the Newsmaker, because sometimes someone makes headlines for all the wrong reasons.
For the most part over the years, editors have chosen politicians. The all-time Newsmaker is Pierre Trudeau, who was selected 10 times—including one time posthumously — and he was also named the Newsmaker of the Century in a special survey taken in 1999.
There have been heroes — Terry Fox in 1980 and 1981, and Rick Hansen a few years later — and star athletes like marathon swimmer Marilyn Bell. A few times, editors have not chosen a person as the Newsmaker. In 1992, it was the Constitution (due to raucous debate over the Meech Lake accord) and in 2006, as the mission in Afghanistan began to turn deadly, it was the Canadian Soldier.
We want your opinion. Tell us what stories and which newsmakers should be on the ballot for 2011.
Starting next month you'll get a chance to vote.
We're still going to conduct the survey of Canadian newsrooms, but we want to know if the choice of professionals matches up with the people's choice.
Here's your chance to have a say. Let us know what you think.
Click here to submit your nominations for the story and newsmakers of the year
