Toronto fan urges Oprah to visit Canada

Thepower of the internetput Betty White on Saturday Night Live and it may bring Oprah Winfrey to Canada.

A Toronto fan is hoping a groundswell of online support will persuadethe Chicago-based megastar to bring The Oprah Winfrey Show to Canada during its final season on the air. After 25 years, the show will end on Sept. 9, 2011.

Tanya Lee, a 39-year-old life coach, said the 56-year-old talk show host has long been an inspiration to her family and fans across Canada, but she has never broadcast a show here.

"Canada is a great country. She should come up here," Lee said in a telephone interview. "I think she's an exceptional role model. For anybody who has wanted to have dreams come true, Oprah is the person to listen to."

To get Winfrey's attention, Lee has written a poem called Our Oprah Wish List. She has also created a Facebook group that has amassed 2,000 members in its first few weeks.

Lee is hoping to have two million people join the group in a bid to lure Winfrey to Toronto for a Mother's Day show in May.

"Most mothers and daughters have watched Oprah, many of them together, and it's like a rite of passage," she said. "With those numbers, it will be pretty hard to turn us down."

Earlier this year, a half-a-million-strong Facebook campaign put White, the popular 88-year-old actor and comedian, on Saturday Night Live.

Lee said the success of that campaign made her think that she could get Oprah's attention."I'm encouraged that it actually worked, and that's why I started it," she said.

Winfrey visited Toronto in 2009 to promotethe movie Precious at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Lee said persuadingOprah to broadcast a show from Canada's largest city would be a major boon for the tourism industry. Winfrey made a highly publicized visit to Australia this month to film a series of shows.

On Jan. 1, she is launching a cable channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network.