Stompin' Tom Connors

Born into poverty in New Brunswick and raised in foster care, Connors hitchhiked across Canada for thirteen years, working on farms, tobacco fields, and nickel mines while writing songs about ordinary Canadian workers. In Timmins, Ontario, he got his break singing at the Maple Leaf Hotel, stamping his boot so vigorously that the bar manager gave him a piece of plywood.

Connors recorded over three hundred songs celebrating Canadian places and workers. In 1978, in a famous act of cultural defiance, he returned his six Juno Awards to protest the commercial Americanization of the Canadian music industry. His 1973 anthem The Hockey Song ('The good old hockey game') is played in every NHL arena.