SASKATOON—He was named the greatest Canadian. Could Tommy Douglas also be Saskatchewan's biggest hoot?

A non-profit organization based in Alberta is conducting a census of the most humorous people of the past 100 years in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

"We're not looking for a comic," said Derek Wilken, the executive "dictator" of the Cheers Project Humour-Language Society. "We're looking for someone who created the most humour."

Wilken will tally the nominations and announce a winner from each province after the Jan. 23 federal election.

"We've got names like Tommy Douglas out of Saskatchewan just because of the cartoons that were created of this guy, all the editorials and that kind of stuff and the fact that he really was a very funny man in his speeches," said Wilken, who was born in Saskatchewan but raised in Alberta.

In November 2004, Douglas was named the greatest Canadian in a contest run by the CBC.

Other nominees for the most humorous person from Saskatchewan include Jeanne Sauvé, former governor general; comic actor Brent Butt; ex-premier Grant Devine; journalist Allan Fotheringham; musician Joni Mitchell; and actor Leslie Nielsen. There's even a bit of a blast from the past, Regina gas bar owner Dick Assman, whose surname became grist for David Letterman's mill in the '90s.

So far, Douglas and Butt are running neck-and-neck in the Saskatchewan race.

In Alberta, Premier Ralph Klein is heading the pack by a big margin, said Wilken.