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CA-K711Culture & sport

Harold Innis, historian of staples and communications

Harold Adams Innis, one of Canada’s great scholars, joined the University of Toronto in 1920 and headed its Department of Political Economy from 1937. Through works such as The Fur Trade in Canada, The Cod Fisheries and Empire and Communications, he deeply influenced the study of economics, history, geography, politics and communications.

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Photo: Unknown photographer (1910s) · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K699Economy & trade

Sir Samuel Cunard and transatlantic steamships

Samuel Cunard, born in Halifax of Loyalist parents, built a Maritime empire in banking, lumber, land, coal and above all shipping. A pioneer of transatlantic steam navigation, he won an Admiralty contract in 1839 for scheduled Liverpool–Halifax–Boston mail service, and in July 1840 the Britannia, the first regular Cunarder, crossed in 13 days.

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Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K686Institutions

Sir Charles Tupper, Father of Confederation and prime minister

Charles Tupper of Amherst, a physician, became premier of Nova Scotia in 1864 and, allied with John A. Macdonald, advocated Confederation despite substantial opposition in Nova Scotia. After federal cabinet posts and 11 years as High Commissioner in London, he succeeded Bowell as prime minister in 1896, then led the opposition after his party’s defeat that year.

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Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K656Culture & sport

Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, father of English-Canadian poetry

Charles G. D. Roberts, born in Douglas, New Brunswick, grew up near the Tantramar Marshes that shaped much of his writing. His early poetry inspired the generation of writers known as the Confederation Poets and laid the foundations of a Canadian poetic tradition, earning him the title of father of English-Canadian poetry.

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Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K642Institutions

Sir Wilfrid Laurier, first francophone prime minister

Wilfrid Laurier of Saint-Lin, Quebec, was Canada’s first francophone prime minister, an MP for 45 years and Liberal leader for 32. As prime minister from 1896 to 1911 he presided over the settlement of the West, created Alberta and Saskatchewan and founded the Canadian Navy, and he worked to win greater autonomy for Canada and common ground between English and French Canadians.

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Photo: Topley Studio · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K616Institutions

John Diefenbaker, 13th prime minister

John Diefenbaker, a charismatic orator raised in Saskatchewan, was a defence lawyer and MP for some 40 years and Canada’s 13th prime minister from 1957 to 1963. He revived the Progressive Conservative Party, winning a landslide in 1958, and his government extended social programs, promoted Northern development and championed human rights at home and abroad.

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Photo: Gar Lunney · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K593History

William Hall, first Black recipient of the Victoria Cross

William Neilson Hall of Hantsport, Nova Scotia, serving with the Royal Navy in India in 1857, became the first person of African descent and the first Nova Scotian awarded the Victoria Cross. He became a source of pride for Black Canadians.

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Photo: Unknown photographer · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K579Culture & sport

J. E. H. MacDonald, painter of the Group of Seven

J. E. H. MacDonald, painter, designer and poet, was a founding member of the Group of Seven and a key figure in creating a national style of landscape painting. A talented graphic designer of Canadian motifs, he painted southern Ontario farmland, Algoma’s autumn colours, Nova Scotia shores and the Rockies, and inspired students at the Ontario College of Art.

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Photo: Unknown photographer; Archives of Ontario · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K574Culture & sport

A. Y. Jackson, painter of the Group of Seven

A. Y. Jackson, born in Montréal, studied painting there and in Paris, served overseas in the First World War and was a member of the Group of Seven from 1920 to 1933. His simple, rounded forms in wilderness landscapes gave a powerful image of Canada, and he greatly influenced a generation of Canadian artists.

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Photo: Unknown photographer (1930); Archives of Ontario, I0007815 · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K568History

Sir Leonard Tilley, New Brunswick Father of Confederation

Samuel Leonard Tilley of Gagetown led New Brunswick’s government and was a delegate to the Charlottetown, Québec and London conferences, an architect of the British North America Act and leader of the province’s pro-Confederation forces. As federal Minister of Finance he drafted the National Policy, and he twice served as lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick.

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Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K566Culture & sport

Captain Angus Walters of the Bluenose

Captain Angus J. Walters of Lunenburg, a legendary sailor and fisherman, won five consecutive International Fishermen’s Races at the helm of the schooner Bluenose between 1921 and 1938, a great source of pride during the Depression. A top fishing captain, he brought international attention to the Atlantic Canadian fishery.

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Photo: W.R. MacAskill (1890-1956) · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K555Economy & trade

Charles Saunders and Marquis wheat

Charles Edward Saunders of London, Ontario, was Dominion Cerealist at the Experimental Farm in Ottawa from 1903 to 1922. There in 1904 he developed the famous Marquis wheat, first grown by farmers in 1910, along with other varieties suited to the Prairies such as Ruby, Garnet and Reward.

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Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K554Economy & trade

Donald Smith, Lord Strathcona, and the CPR

Donald Smith, born in Scotland, joined the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1838 and rose to be its governor in Canada. An MP for Selkirk who broke with the government over the Pacific Scandal, he joined his cousin George Stephen in the Canadian Pacific Railway syndicate and risked his fortune to see the line completed in 1885; he became Baron Strathcona in 1897.

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Photo: Unknown photographer; Wellcome Collection, L0040025 · Photo licence: CC BY 4.0 · Credit & context

CA-K538Culture & sport

Louis-Philippe Hébert, sculptor

Louis-Philippe Hébert was a Canadian sculptor known for public monuments. After carving wood figures for churches in Ottawa and Montréal, he made bronze statues such as Cartier on Parliament Hill and won renown for the sculptures on the façade of the Quebec legislature, his Maisonneuve monument in Montréal and the Macdonald monument in Ottawa.

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Photo: William Notman & Son · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K491Culture & sport

Marshall McLuhan, “the medium is the message”

Marshall McLuhan, a University of Toronto professor and pioneer of media studies, became famous in the 1960s for his theories about how print and electronic media shape human perception and behaviour. His ideas of the “global village” and “the medium is the message” made him one of the most celebrated scholars in the Western world.

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Photo: Josephine Smith · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K484Culture & sport

Frederick Varley, painter of the Group of Seven

Frederick Varley, a founding member of the Group of Seven, helped establish a national style of painting the Canadian landscape. A masterful portraitist and an official First World War artist, he moved to teach on the West Coast in 1926, and his unconventional use of colour to convey emotion is a singular contribution to Canadian art.

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Photo: John Vanderpant · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K470History

Sir William Logan, first director of the Geological Survey

Sir William Edmond Logan of Montréal, a mapmaker and geologist in the mining districts of Wales, became the first director of the Geological Survey of Canada in 1842. He led much of the early scientific mapping of the province, built the mineral collection that became the basis of the National Museum, and earned international recognition for his geological work.

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Photo: William Notman · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K457Culture & sport

Healey Willan, composer of sacred music

Healey Willan came to Canada in 1913 to teach at the Toronto Conservatory of Music, now the Royal Conservatory. As organist and choirmaster of St. Mary Magdalene in Toronto from 1921 to 1968, he composed the sacred music for which he is particularly remembered.

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Photo: Unknown photographer (1930); Archives of Ontario, I0001735 · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K443History

Laura Secord’s walk in 1813

On 22 June 1813, during the War of 1812, Laura Secord set out from her home in Queenston to warn the British of a planned American attack at Beaver Dams. She walked alone more than 30 kilometres behind enemy lines to the De Cew farmhouse and told Lieutenant FitzGibbon of the plan. Later in the 19th century, the first generation of women historians championed her deed to make women’s contributions to Canadian history known.

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Photo: Anonymous (photographer unidentified) · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K440Culture & sport

Stephen Leacock, humorist

Stephen Leacock spent most of his career at McGill University teaching history and political science, but he is chiefly known as a humorist. Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912) made his reputation across the English-speaking world, and his work finds humour in ordinary people in everyday situations through exaggeration and incongruity.

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Photo: The Arts & Letters Club of Toronto · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K436History

Sir Sandford Fleming, engineer and champion of standard time

Sir Sandford Fleming, born in Scotland, came to Canada in 1845 and became survey and construction engineer for the Intercolonial Railway and the Canadian Pacific. A man of wide interests and an ardent imperialist, he advocated the Pacific telegraph cable, designed the first Canadian postage stamp in 1851, and was an early champion of standard time.

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Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K435Economy & trade

Joseph-Armand Bombardier and the snowmobile

Joseph-Armand Bombardier of Valcourt, Quebec, developed snow vehicles that helped reduce winter isolation in rural areas of Canada and elsewhere. He patented the snowmobile in 1937 and the smaller Ski-Doo in 1960, both designed and built in Valcourt, and after his death the company he founded became a world leader in transportation.

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Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K425History

Wilder Penfield and the Montreal Neurological Institute

Wilder Penfield founded the Montreal Neurological Institute and directed it for over 25 years, becoming a world leader in neurosurgery and neurology. His pioneering work on epilepsy led to a new surgical procedure and advanced understanding of how the human brain works, and his institute became a renowned centre for research and treatment of nervous system disorders.

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Photo: Bain News Service · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

CA-K409Indigenous peoples & reconciliation

Isapo-Muxika (Crowfoot), Siksika peacemaker

Isapo-Muxika (Crowfoot), born Kainai and raised among the Siksika (Blackfoot), became a leading chief known as a warrior, orator and peacemaker. Convinced that peace served his people best, he made peace with the Plains Cree, adopting Poundmaker as his son, and persuaded the Siksika to sign Treaty 7 in 1877.

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Photo: Alex Ross · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context

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Keywords: Record types

Harold Innis, historian of staples and communications

Sir Samuel Cunard and transatlantic steamships

Sir Charles Tupper, Father of Confederation and prime minister

Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, father of English-Canadian poetry

Sir Wilfrid Laurier, first francophone prime minister

John Diefenbaker, 13th prime minister

William Hall, first Black recipient of the Victoria Cross

J. E. H. MacDonald, painter of the Group of Seven

A. Y. Jackson, painter of the Group of Seven

Sir Leonard Tilley, New Brunswick Father of Confederation

Captain Angus Walters of the Bluenose

Charles Saunders and Marquis wheat

Donald Smith, Lord Strathcona, and the CPR

Louis-Philippe Hébert, sculptor

Marshall McLuhan, “the medium is the message”

Frederick Varley, painter of the Group of Seven

Sir William Logan, first director of the Geological Survey

Healey Willan, composer of sacred music

Laura Secord’s walk in 1813

Stephen Leacock, humorist

Sir Sandford Fleming, engineer and champion of standard time

Joseph-Armand Bombardier and the snowmobile

Wilder Penfield and the Montreal Neurological Institute

Isapo-Muxika (Crowfoot), Siksika peacemaker

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Keywords: Record types