So just who is the best of the best ...

For years now our colleagues at AM 600 CKAT have wondered who has the best pizza, best breakfast, best mechanic and so on basically they want to know who the best of the best in the city.

“It‘s called the CKAT best of awards,” explains morning man Dean Belanger.

“In a nutshell people will have the opportunity to vote on a list of 20 questions and finally after years of coffee shop talk and hallway water cooler chats we’re finally going to find out in North Bay and area who has the best chicken wings, who’s the best car dealer, who’s got the best cup of coffee, who’s the got the best golf course, best grocery store and on and on we go with a list of 20 questions.”

Belanger says that he and his coworkers have been kicking the idea around for a while but said now is the time to see who residents consider to be the tops in their respected fields.

“We’ve toyed with this idea for a couple of years, we actually had this idea a couple of years ago, they do this in other markets in the States and in Toronto they’ve done this ... the list is exhaustive in those markets, we’re keeping it to 20 questions,” he says.

“I think it will be fun to see who’s going to take some of these prizes.”

The morning man says the show will also hit the road once all the winners are figured out.

“Breakfast with Belanger ... we’re going to go to all of these places and physically award them the prize, take pictures, and give them a plaque they can hang on their wall for a year until the 2009 list of awards.”

“We are hoping to do this annually,” he adds.

Belanger says the process of scaling down to 20 questions proved more difficult than originally anticipated so he wants everyone to get online at 600ckat.com and vote.

“It took a lot of work to come up with 20 (questions) we had about 40 and we had to whittle it down,” he explains.

“Maybe next year other categories will be on, but we had to whittle it down to 20 and then we tested it out with people around the radio station and it’s amazing the answers that people came up with ... little known places that aren’t well known that have a great breakfast, or the best mechanic tucked away somewhere, all of these things can be voted on and we’ll find out who’s going to win.”

“But the fun part about it is that I hope it does spur on some coffee shop talk … “hey who did you vote for … what are you are you crazy they’re not the best this the best!” and I think it will just be fun for a month and a half around the city to just really for people to just take part in this and have fun with it.”

Belanger also hopes that the folks who have businesses in the categories like golf courses, grocery stores, mechanics, florists, and pizza places will put them on notice.

“I hope they say hey this poll’s out there and we’ve got to be on our game, we’ve got to be the best.”

“And in the long run it will honour the best of the best that are existing in North Bay, and it will spur on some others to try just that little bit harder.”

Not all the questions are as easy as who makes the best pizza the crew has tossed in what they consider to be the quirkiest question at the end.

“That’s got to be who will be the best next mayor,” says Belanger.

“There’s the best of local politician -- it’s North Bay and Area so it doesn’t have to be North Bay, but we thought hey let’s throw another one in another political one in there … best next mayor, because the scope is wide open.

“It can be someone currently on council, it could be the current mayor, could be the deputy mayor, it could be someone who has never stepped into the political ring … like you know who would be a great mayor so and so … how many times have you said that? They won’t run or they are not interested but they would make a great mayor fun North Bay that’s what the question 20 is all about and I’m really interested to see how that one turns out.”

The event kicked off at the beginning of September with voting open until 11:59 pm on October 5, 2008 Eastern Daylight Time.