Toronto, ON – If they had a chance to be an Olympic Torchbearer and could choose any Canadian (living or deceased) to pass the torch to, nearly one half (44%) of Canadians would choose to relay the torch to Terry Fox, the heroic Canadian who was unable to complete his cross-Canada Marathon of Hope in 1980. Terry Fox topped the list across the country, among all age categories, and for both men and women. Receiving the next-most votes is hockey-legend Wayne Gretzky (14%), followed by former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (12%), pop-star Celine Dion (7%), hockey-legend Gordie Howe (5%), and jazz-pianist Oscar Peterson (3%).
Rounding out the top-ten are Nancy Greene (3%), Tommy Douglas (3%), Emily Carr (3%) and a three-way tie among Margaret Atwood (2%), Hayley Wickenheiser (2%), and Maurice Richard (2%).