Here's a gallery of our favourite Canadian celebrity dads — and some of their most memorable parenting quotes.
"Always be available to your kids. Because if you say, 'Give me five minutes, give me 10 minutes,' it'll be 15, it'll be 20. And then when you get there, the shine will have worn off whatever it is they wanted to share with you. I've never gotten up to see something one of my kids wanted to show me and not been rewarded."
~Michael J. Fox, actor, on children Sam, Aquinnah and Schuyler
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"When I was 25 and Jane was born, I realized I had to live for someone else. As you grow up you realize it's more fun not to be thinking about yourself all the time. My daughter is smarter than I ever thought of being. She's amazing and talented beyond belief, so I can't wait to see what happens with her."
~Jim Carrey, actor, on daughter, Jane
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“I want my son to wear a helmet 24 hours a day. If it was socially acceptable I’d be the first one to have my kid in a full helmet and a cage across his facemask. I make my wife crazy with it because I’m constantly worrying, just because I know what an idiot I was when I was little …and he’s going to find me and my wife incredibly unfunny. He’ll be over us by the age of five.”
~Will Arnett, actor, on son, Archie (also father of Abel)
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“When I was a boy, my father was a bigger-than-life figure, a wonderful storyteller who enchanted people with his outgoing personality. He was my hero. He took me camping and fishing, and instilled in me a love of nature and the outdoors. When he came home from work, he always asked me what I had learned in school, and as I recounted my lessons, he seemed genuinely interested, often amplifying my information or correcting me …Both of my parents are now dead, and in my own dotage, I think about the important lessons I want to pass on to my children and grandchildren — and I realize they are the same lessons I got from Dad. I can't help thinking they are not quaint ideas from the past but very modern ones that we need desperately today.”
~David Suzuki, environmentalist, on his father and being a father
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“Rowan occasionally picks up a guitar and writes a song. Any time a microphone is on in the studio they all need their turn at recording themselves singing. It’s also getting to the point where sitting down for a meal with them is mind-blowing. The questions are fascinating as you could imagine from curious five and six year olds.”
~Raine Maida, musician, on quality time with Rowan and Lucca
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"In the beginning the hard part is the technical part. The nap and the feeding and the schedule and the play dates and this and this. Then when they get older and when they can wipe their own behind and you're not busy with that, you're busy with other emotional issues and developmental issues. But I never viewed what I was doing as anything other than what my instinct was telling me. I did live every day believing that kids really need one good parent. I had had a very, very happy childhood …I just wanted my kids to have that."
~Rick Moranis, actor/comedian, on being a widowed, single father to two children
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"You gotta be involved. The other day I had her (Ava) on my chest and she peed on me. But babies are like bunny rabbits. When they pee on you, it means they like you. The first time I saw her, time stood still. It took my breath away."
~Jason Priestley, actor, on daughter, Ava (also father of Dashiell)
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“I could talk about [fatherhood] forever …I was 20 years old when I had a child and I was too young. I remember apologizing to my daughter when she was about 14 and saying, ‘I'm sorry we had to raise each other.’ She said, 'Dad, it's all right. I wouldn't want it any other way,' and I just lost it outside of Hamburger Hamlet. I was just really lucky. We have always been really close.”
~Kiefer Sutherland, actor, on daughter, Sarah Jude
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