Canada’s Walk of Fame recently announced their first round of 2023 inductees, and Degrassi (the brand) was included as one of the recipients. This is a huge honour for the Degrassi team.
Canada’s Walk of Fame (CWOF) is a walk of fame that acknowledges the achievements and accomplishments of Canadians who have excelled in their respective fields. As CEO Jeff Latimer puts it, CWOF aims to celebrate “Canadian changemakers, trailblazers, and influencers who have a lasting cultural impact on the fabric of Canadian identity.” The walk itself is a series of maple leaf-shaped plagues embedded in several blocks worth of sidewalks in downtonwn Toronto.
New inductees are inducted annually at an unveiling ceremony. This year the ceremony will take place on December 2, 2023 and will be broadcast on CTV on a later date. Since it’s Degrassi as a brand that is getting its own star (rather than a specific person), it’s not clear yet who from the Degrassi team will attend. I would assume Linda Schuyler and Stephen Stohn will be there, but it will be exciting to see if anyone else attends with them.
The vast majority of stars on CWOF are for specific people rather than brands, so the decision to give a star to “Degrassi” rather than Linda and/or Stephen is an interesting one. I would guess that this was done to acknowledge all of the talented people who worked on Degrassi, rather than just the people at the top. In any case, Degrassi will be one of only 6 Canadian TV shows inducted in CWOF. The others are Coach’s Corner, Just for Laughs, Kids in the Hall, Royal Canadian Air Farce, and SCTV. And it is the only drama and children’s series to ever receive this award!
It’s interesting to me that this has happened now. Outside of a small number of fans, Degrassi is all but dead in Canada. None of the major Canadian networks have shown any (public) interest in reviving the show, even though WildBrain seems to be interested in doing so. I would guess there is some politics behind this CWOF decision, like maybe some connections between folks at WildBrain and people at CWOF. Not that there is anything wrong with that (this is afterall how most enterainment awards work), I’m just pointing it out because the timing of this is interesting to me.
Overall, this is a huge honour for the Degrassi team and so well deserved. It’s nice to see Degrassi continue to win awards and receive recognition even though it has been off the air for so many years.