Would you believe ... ANOTHER Hall of Fame Award

[Auburn Annie]

This time it's the Canadian Railway Hall of Fame, honoring Gord with a special award for CRT. Excerpt below:

******************************************
2003 Inductees to Railway Hall of Fame Announced

EDMONTON, Oct. 15 /CNW/ - Historical and contemporary railway industry
leaders, singer and songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, communities, tunnels and
bridges where the steel wheels roll have been selected for induction in this
year's Canadian Railway Hall of Fame.
The annual Industry Achievement Award will go to Serge Belzile who
recently retired as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Quebec
Railway Corporation. He grew it from one small short line in the Charlevoix
Region of Quebec to a major regional railway in Ontario, Quebec and the
Maritimes.
Gordon Lightfoot, whose Canadian Railroad Trilogy fired the imagination
of a generation, will receive the Hall of Fame's Special Award this year. The
original ballad tells the tale of the building of the Canadian Pacific
Railway, and is one of 400 songs that he's written and recorded, said Bill
Rowat, President and CEO of the Railway Association of Canada.
Public nominations are made in four categories: Leaders, Heroes,
Communities and Technologies, through the Internet, and an annual selection
process, said Les Kozma, Chair of the virtual Hall of Fame. The project
originated with the Canadian Northern Society, a registered charity
incorporated in Alberta and based in Big Valley. It has been implemented with
the support of the RAC's 60 freight and passenger railways, communities,
museums, corporate sponsors and the public at large.


The complete article is at http://www.newswire.ca/releases/Octo.../15/c1040.html

[brink]

Thanks Annie, that is so cool. CRT has been sited so many times as important to the history of Canada, it is great that he is being recognized. Just for a selfish moment here, it's going to be bad for us when you go back to work you won't have time to let us know what is happening.
THANKS!!

[Auburn Annie]

Thanks, brink - unfortunately there's no employment on the immediate horizon but there are compensations to having time, if no money, and I'm enjoying my first break in almost 30 years.

[brink]

Good for you, as long as you are doing okay financially and don't have to work right yet, everyone deserves a break now and then. I for one will take advantage of your time and talent for the Gord info.

Why didn't he get an award earlier than this? Sometimes (as I found in US History) that people like Abe Licoln and Martin Luther King are considered ordinary people unless they are killed. They might be considered important to people in their day, but only if they die an early and noble death do they get recognized so well by later generations.
And I guess that's sort of the case here. Only when he misses death by a few inches does he get recognized. Oh well, better late than never .

[christinefrommichigan]

I wish Gordon could be in the Rock N' Roll hall of fame in Cleveland,oh.

He has done so much for music especially for folk music I trully think he deserves it. Just as much as anyone else that was involved in the folk music movement that is already in.

[SomewhereupinMichigan]

I agree Christine on the RnR HofF. As a matter of fact that has been discussed several times on this board in the past. The H of F's induction process is so tightly controlled that it doesn't allow much opportunity for input from those of us who are the fans. That's my biggest criticism and disappointment with the Hall. Not to detract from any of the current inductees, but certainly GL is every bit as deserving, and more so than many, of a place in the Hall. Please see my separate posting on this topic for more!

[gwen snyder]

Speaking on this topic, some people that I know in this area hve begun a boycott of the Rock n Roll Hall of Shame due to them not following what should have been protocol regarding rock music anyway. Let's see the most hated aspest of this that Brenda Lee should have been absolutely one of the first inductees. Other first people who literally birthed the idea of Rock and Roll have been forgotten. This issue burns our local buns to the point of non support.