Which Great Lake is the greatest? Donovan Woods ranks them again — for charity | CBC News

In southwestern Ontario, we all have our favourite places to go for a swim on the shore. But which one is superior?

Every year, folk country singer Donovan Woods releases his Great Lake Rankings to find out which is the greatest. And the results are in for 2024. Spoiler alert: It’s not looking good for Lake Erie. 

The folk country singer-songwriter who grew up in Sarnia on the shores of Lake Huron, started the practice about six years ago, and hasn’t slowed down since. 

His results caused a stir on social media, with accusations and insults like “doing Lake Michigan dirty” and “Lake Ontario literally stinks.” 

From Lake Huron, Erie, and Michigan to Ontario and Superior, the Great Lakes have an impressive footprint — with a combined shoreline equal to almost 44 per cent of the circumference of the Earth, or halfway around the world.

To unpack his rankings, Donovan Woods spoke to CBC’s Colin Butler on Afternoon Drive. 

LISTEN: Which Great Lake is the greatest? Donovan Woods weighs in

Colin Butler: Let’s rip the Band-Aid off, though. What Great Lake came in first this year?

Donovan Woods: Lake Huron. It’s never not been first. It’s first every year.

CB: Why is Lake Huron first every year?

DW: It’s the best Great Lake, that’s why. 

CB: Well, make the case for us.

DW: I’m a little bit reticent to give my reasons. It’s sort of more of a feeling that I have in my body. I think that most people feel that if they find a really quiet spot and just meditate on it for a while. Just the swimming quality, just the lore of Lake Huron, it’s the best one.

CB: I was gonna say,  I feel it when I jump in. I can feel it in my bones. It’s so cold. How did the other lakes do? 

DW: Superior got second, which is really good and I don’t know why everyone so upset about it, but second is second. It’s really good. And then Michigan and then Ontario and Erie brought up the back end this year.

CB: Now, what yardsticks do you use to measure each lake?

DW: Well, that’s all proprietary information, but I think that you know, I gather up information all year long. I hear stories. People who love the lakes tell me stories of concerts, and they tell me stories about the cottages and the places they love on the lakes. I take all those in and then I sit quietly and I let the ranking just come out of me. And every year, it appears just as it should.

CB: Now I understand you’ve actually taken a dip in each.

DW: Oh, certainly. Every year I try to do that. All five in one year. I wouldn’t like to rank them the way I do without having experienced all five every year.

CB: Lake Erie. It’s a bit of an underdog, right? It seems to be struggling on your ranking. It came in last. How could it climb the ladder next time around? What can it do better?

DW: Lake Erie is a tough spot. It’s a business lake. A lot of Ohio attached to it. I’ll tell you, and I don’t know if you spent much time in Ohio, but I wouldn’t be in my top 25 states. I’ll tell you that. I think it’s going to be a rough road for Erie, but I would like to say that 5th is not really last place. There’s only five lakes, so I don’t think we can look at it that way.

They’re all great from a starting point, we can all agree that they’re all great. Being the worst of the Great Lakes, I don’t think it’s so bad.

CB: Still though, we saw this eclipse and and thousands of people headed down to the lake right to get on to the north shore of Lake Erie to get a glimpse at this thing, that cosmic ballet. That didn’t give Lake Erie any bonus points in your books?

DW: Wasn’t enough. Wasn’t enough. 

CB: You do you do this every year. Why do you rank the lakes?

DW: Well, I think somebody should do it. And in lieu of an official board doing something more official, I sort of took the reins upon myself to do it. And I think it’s important that we keep in touch with these lakes in this way and honour the natural terrain as best we can and just to be reminded that there is all five of them.

I think it’s important every year and, I don’t know, I really think the government should do it, but Doug Ford is not taking a hold of it, so I’ll do it. I’ll do it.

CB: How long you been doing it for?

DW: I did it for several years without anyone noticing. I’ve been doing it for I would say 6-7 years. Really. This is the third year that anybody noticed.

CB: You sell T-shirts with the rankings, right? And you give a dollar from each sale to the Lake Erie Foundation.  Why is protecting Lake Erie the underdog, the business lake, important to you?

DW: I think protecting all the lakes is important. I know it’s a tough pill to swallow, being last in the ranking. I wanna throw them a bone and do something positive, make sure it’s got a positive connotation. 

CB: Well, Donovan, I’m glad you do it. It’s very generous of you and and thanks for spending some time with us today.

DW: Thanks for being curious about it. I appreciate it.