Joey Shithead has a social media posse (and *is* the most influential BC-er) sorry Terry Fox/Red Robinson/Bruno Gerussi – read more:
From Miss 604’s post Most Influential British Columbians in History:
Last night on the Vancouver Sun’s site I came across a list of “British Columbia’s Best: A quest to determine the most influential person in BC’s history.” In November 2008 a poll including hundreds of names was setup and the results were then revealed in early January 2009 (while we were away in Iowa).
According to VancouverSun.com voters, the most influential British Columbian is musician, Joey Keithley, lead singer of the punk rock band DOA. And while that is interesting, does it truly represent the province’s most influential citizen, greater than, say, Terry Fox or Emily Carr or W.A.C. Bennett, to name just a few?
The results aroused our curiosity, and we found that Sudden Death Record’s web site included a link to our voting form and urged Keithley fans to “vote once, vote often.” How often? Well, out of 2,912 votes cast for Keithley, some 1,268 votes were from IP addresses that registered multiple votes. In fact, one single IP address alone recorded 843 votes for Keithley. [Vancouver Sun]
Turns out, the Vancouver Sun realized there’s no fool-proof way to run a poll online unless you restrict votes for a single IP address, which helps a bit (like I did for the Best of 604 Awards). It also seems like they’re a bit annoyed that Joey “Sh*thead” Keithley of the legendary DOA tops their list, but I think it’s great. Online polls are going to end up being a popularity contest and although we all love some of the nominees, they aren’t around to post messages on their websites to encourage supporters to vote.
All the more power to Keithley, who is not only in DOA but he owns Sudden Death Records, ran for the BC Green Party, and plays events for peace or environmental causes around the globe. December 21st, 2003 was also declared “DOA Day” in Vancouver in honor of the band’s anniversary.
So just who exactly did he beat out for the top spot in our province’s history? Terry Fox came in second, followed by David Suzuki then Michael J. Fox and Ross Rebagliati who round out the top five. Emily Carr was sixth, then Rick Hansen, Peter ‘Dr. Peter’ Jepson-Young, Joni Mitchell, and founder of the BC Marijuana Party, Marc Emery, rounded out the top ten.
Further down the list I found Trevor Linden (who lives in Vancouver but is originally from Medicine Hat, Alberta), Jimmy Pattison (who owns… well everything), Captain George Vancouver (explorer and namesake of our City), Libby Davies (long-running MP for Vancouver East), Chief Dan George, Douglas Copeland (author, coined the term ‘Generation X‘), Atom Egoyan (award-winning film maker), and Red Robinson all in the top fifty.
