There's no question the Internet is a powerful tool. And the results of grass-roots campaigns can be amazing.

Just look at the Sun's quest for the most influential British Columbian in all history.

It started as a no-holds-barred open poll where anyone could be nominated. A large and eclectic list developed, including lots of people who had truly been B.C. pioneers, and those who had spent just some time here but had made an impact in the sporting world or elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the online nomination form became a place for spiteful people to make rude comments and proffer spoof candidates, so we decided to take it down and start the process over again.

We took a large number of candidates -- nearly 220 -- as suggested by our reader panel and online submissions, and again opened the vote.

And voters responded enthusiastically. In fact, more than 31,300 votes were cast.

We knew there would be some multiple voters, but the passion evoked by some of the candidates truly caught us off guard.

According to VancouverSun.com voters, the most influential British Columbian is musician, Joey Keithley, lead singer of the punk rock band DOA.

And while that is interesting, does it truly represent the province's most influential citizen, greater than, say, Terry Fox or Emily Carr or W.A.C. Bennett, to name just a few?

The results aroused our curiosity, and we found that Sudden Death Record's web site included a link to our voting form and urged Keithley fans to "vote once, vote often."

How often?

Well, out of 2,912 votes cast for Keithley, some 1,268 votes were from IP addresses that registered multiple votes. In fact, one single IP address alone recorded 843 votes for Keithley.

So here is our list, warts and all.

What does it say about us?

It says we like musicians, truly heroic people like Terry Fox, environmentalists, entertainers, athletes and iconoclasts.

Paul Bucci is The Sun's deputy managing editor, multimedia. Reach him at pbucci@vancouversun.com

1. Joey Keithley 2912

2. Terry Fox 1703

3, David Suzuki 1405

4. Michael J. Fox 1131

5. Ross Rebagliati 1033

6. Emily Carr 974

7. Rick Hansen 733

8. Peter 'Dr. Peter' Jepson-Young 730

9. Joni Mitchell 713

10. Marc Emery 684

11. Nelly Furtado 671

12. Michael Buble 625

13. David Foster 579

14. Chief Dan George 549

15. Bill Reid 522

16. Bryan Adams 473

17. Libby Davies 430

18. Steve Nash 407

19. Jimmy Pattison 405

20. W.A.C. Bennett 354

21. Mel Lehan 354

22. Trevor Linden 336

23. Captain George Vancouver 330

24. Robert Bateman 328

25. Arthur Erickson 325

26. Simon Fraser 325

27. Pamela Anderson 323

28. Rosemary Brown 290

29. Svend Robinson 284

30. Diana Krall 251

31. Dave Barrett 241

32. Jack Webster 229

33. Harry Rankin 215

34. Randy Bachman 213

35. Thomas Berger 189

36. Margaret Mitchell 187

37. Atom Egoyan 185

38. Shashi Assanand 183

39. Mike Harcourt 183

40. Albert 'Ginger' Goodwin 167

41. Bruce Allen 159

42. H.R. MacMillan 152