Guy Laliberté vs. Norman Bethune

Guy Laliberté

Why he’s famous: For making the circus cool with the Cirque du Soleil Why he deserves to win: Laliberté didn’t just take out the goofy animal stunts from the circus when he decided to class up the tent a little. He brought in a focus on character-driven narrative to replace them, effectively hybridizing the circus with theatre and opera. Thanks to him, acrobats no longer have to fear being mauled by a lion or bear while on the job.

Norman Bethune

Why he’s famous: Bethune revolutionized battlefield medicine. Why he deserves to win: During the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Bethune invented a mobile blood transfusion service which could collect blood from donors and deliver it wherever it was needed. His "mobile blood bank" is considered the greatest medical innovation from the war. Later, Bethune would take his battlefield medicine expertise to China, where he became the Red Army’s Medical Chief and taught his techniques to new doctors and nurses. Think of Bethune as the Canadian Florence Nightingale.

Next: Alexander Graham Bell vs. Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best

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