In the second of two Our Times episodes looking back on Canadians who galvanized public opinion before going on with their lives. Watch (9pm ET / 6pm PT) for exclusive interviews with five figures who helped write Canada's contemporary political history.
Holly Doan discusses the look at personalities from the past in this interview with CPAC.ca:
Here's more background on the Canadians profiled this Sunday and the issues they symbolized:
Bill Clennett
Bill Clennett was famously throttled by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien on Feb. 15, 1996 in a Hull, Que. park. Clennett was protesting unemployment, and continues activist work to this day.
He was also a provincial candidate for Québec solidaire in Hull in 2007, 2008, and 2012.
Baltej Singh Dhillon
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police changed its dress code in 1990 to allow recruits who could not wear the traditional Stetson. Sikhs could wear their turban while on active duty.
Dhillon was the first turbaned Sikh to join the RCMP. There were protests, petitions with tens of thousands of signatures, lawsuits, and even death threats.
Dhillon's place on the force was upheld by a federal judge in 1994. He served on the RCMP's Air India Task Force in B.C. investigating the 1985 terrorist attack, and continues with the force.
Felix Holtmann
Felix Holtmann served nine years as a Manitoba MP on Brian Mulroney's backbench. The Progressive Conservative chaired several standing committees.
His best-known role was as head of the communications and culture committee, where he symbolized opposition to a $1.76-million purchase completed by the National Gallery in March 1990 after a three-year process.
He famously compared the American work by Barnett Newman to two cans of paint and two rollers.
"Voice of Fire" became known as the most famous stripe in Canada in a time of recession and constitutional discord. Gallery curators were called before Holtmann's committee. Cabinet ministers mulled an intervention to cancel the purchase. Gallery defenders derided Holtmann's pig farming background.
But the painting remains on permanent exhibit.
Mel Hurtig
Mel Hurtig has been a bookstore owner and publisher who made the Canadian Encyclopedia a success.
The National Party fielded 171 candidates in the 1993 federal election. Their platform was anti-free trade, nationalist, and populist.
Hurtig finished third in Edmonton Northwest, known more for the 12-vote victory by Liberal Anne McLellan over the Reform party. His was the most successful National campaign. The party later disbanded.
It wasn't Hurtig's first campaign. He ran as a Liberal in Edmonton West in 1972, finishing second to longtime Tory Marcel Lambert.
Hurtig also founded the Council of Canadians in 1985 and is an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Rita Johnston
"Premier Mom" became Canada's first woman to lead a provincial government when she took on leadership of the B.C. Social Credit party in 1991. She replaced resigning premier Bill Vander Zalm.
Social Credit was defeated in that October's election. Johnston lost her own seat to the NDP. She resigned the leadership in early 1992.
-Andrew Thomson
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