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As explained in our Mission, Citizen.ca focuses on knowledge closely connected to Canadian identity and Canadian spirit, rather than every fact about Canada. Some topics will therefore be absent. If you believe a missing topic belongs within this focus, please contact us.

The groups below show how published records are distributed and offer a convenient way to browse. Counts include distinct records assigned to each group or its narrower keywords. A record may appear in more than one group.

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Francis H. Clergue.
CA-K644Economy & trade

Francis Clergue and industrial Sault Ste. Marie

Francis Hector Clergue, a promoter from Maine, transformed Sault Ste. Marie into a major industrial centre. After buying an unfinished hydroelectric station and canal there in 1894, he created his own linked industries to use the power, including a pulp and paper mill, a copper company, Algoma Steel and the Algoma Central Railway.

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Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Wilfrid Laurier, about 1890 (Topley Studio, McCord Museum).
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
Margaret Duley, 1941.
CA-K637Culture & sport

Margaret Duley, Newfoundland novelist

Margaret Iris Duley of St. John’s, who wrote mainly in the 1930s and 1940s, was the first Newfoundland novelist to gain international recognition, with readers in Canada and England as well as at home. Novels such as Cold Pastoral and Highway to Valour vividly portray the beauty and harshness of early 20th-century Newfoundland and Labrador.

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Photo: Anonymous (photographer unidentified) · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Rodolphe Lemieux, April 1917 (Topley Studio).
CA-K628Institutions

Rodolphe Lemieux and the Lemieux Act

Rodolphe Lemieux, MP for Gaspé and Rouville, served as Solicitor General, Postmaster General, Minister of Labour and Minister of Marine, and was Speaker of the House of Commons from 1922 to 1930. His Lemieux Act of 1907 introduced arbitration to Canadian labour relations, and as Laurier’s principal Quebec lieutenant he opposed conscription while urging voluntary enlistment.

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Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
J. A. D. McCurdy, 1911 (Library of Congress).
CA-K626History

J. A. D. McCurdy, pilot of the Silver Dart

John A. D. McCurdy of Baddeck, an early associate of Alexander Graham Bell, piloted the Silver Dart on 23 February 1909 in Canada’s first successful powered flight. A pioneer of the aircraft industry, he later oversaw aircraft production in the Second World War and served as lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia.

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Photo: Miscellaneous Items in High Demand, PPOC, Library of Congress · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
George Mercer Dawson, June 1891 (William Notman and Son, McCord Stewart Museum).
CA-K625History

George Mercer Dawson, geologist of the Northwest

George Mercer Dawson of Pictou, Nova Scotia, was geologist for the North American Boundary Commission in 1873 and for the Geological Survey of Canada, becoming its director in 1895. He explored much of the Canadian Northwest, served on the Bering Sea commission in 1892 and was president of the Royal Society of Canada in 1893.

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Photo: William Notman and Son · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Sir Richard William Scott (Library and Archives Canada).
CA-K620Institutions

Sir Richard Scott and the Separate School Act of 1863

Richard William Scott of Prescott, an Ottawa lawyer, sponsored the Separate School Act of 1863 in the legislature of the Province of Canada. Appointed to the Senate in 1874, he was Secretary of State under Mackenzie, responsible for the Canada Temperance Act of 1878, and again under Laurier, and led the Liberals in the Senate.

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Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker, 1957 (Gar Lunney).
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
John George Bourinot, 1888 (Topley Studio).
CA-K613Institutions

Sir John Bourinot, Clerk of the House of Commons

John George Bourinot of Sydney, Nova Scotia, a journalist and legislative reporter, joined Parliament’s staff in Ottawa in 1868 and was Clerk of the House of Commons from 1880 to 1902, a recognized authority on parliamentary procedure. A founding member of the Royal Society of Canada, he wrote widely on history and the constitution.

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Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Alice Ravenhill in 1917.
CA-K610Institutions

Alice Ravenhill, educator and reformer

Alice Ravenhill, an educator and social reformer prominent in public health and home economics in Britain, came to Canada in 1910 and worked with the University of British Columbia, Victoria College, the Women’s Institutes and the province on educational reform. Later she wrote a pioneering school text on Indigenous societies and founded a society to promote British Columbia Indigenous arts and crafts.

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Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
John Wesley Dafoe, April 1885 (Topley Studio).
CA-K609Culture & sport

John W. Dafoe of the Winnipeg Free Press

John Wesley Dafoe, one of Canada’s leading journalists, became editor-in-chief of the Manitoba Free Press in Winnipeg in 1901 and influenced Canadian opinion until his death. A Liberal who helped form the Union government in 1917, he championed an active Canadian role in world affairs and served on the Rowell-Sirois Commission from 1937 to 1939.

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Photo: Topley Studio · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
John Carling, Minister of Agriculture, December 1885 (Topley Studio).
CA-K604Economy & trade

Sir John Carling and the Experimental Farms

John Carling of London, Ontario, succeeded his father as president of Carling Brewing and Malting and sat as a Conservative in the provincial and federal legislatures for decades. His most significant contribution came as federal Minister of Agriculture from 1885 to 1892, when he founded the system of Dominion Experimental Farms.

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Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Gustave Francq, portrait published in 1924.
CA-K601Economy & trade

Gustave Francq, labour leader

Gustave Francq, a typographer and journalist, was a key figure of international unionism in Quebec and Canada, campaigning for a minimum wage for women, better workers’ compensation and free compulsory education. In 1916 he founded Le Monde ouvrier/The Labor World, which became the official newspaper of the Quebec Federation of Labour.

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Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Lieutenant-Colonel William George Barker, VC, 1918–1919.
CA-K595History

Billy Barker, VC, air ace

William “Billy” Barker of Dauphin, Manitoba, joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1914 and later the Royal Flying Corps, becoming one of the great air aces of the First World War. He downed 50 enemy aircraft, was the leading fighter pilot on the Italian front, and with the Victoria Cross and eight other gallantry medals is one of Canada’s most decorated servicemen.

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Photo: not identified · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
William Hall, VC, photographed after 1857 (Nova Scotia Museum).
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
Peter Verigin, 1922.
CA-K590History

Peter Verigin and the Doukhobors

Peter Verigin, known to his followers as “Lordly”, developed a Christian communalism rooted in Doukhobor teachings and, with Leo Tolstoy’s support, organized Doukhobor immigration to Canada in 1898–1899. He built communal villages on the Prairies and later led his followers’ mass migration to British Columbia.

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Photo: E.J. Campbell · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Frederick W. G. Haultain, May 1884 (Glenbow Archives).
CA-K589Institutions

Sir Frederick Haultain, premier of the North-West Territories

Frederick Haultain, a Fort Macleod lawyer, sat in the North-West Territories council and assembly from 1887 to 1905 and led the push for responsible government and provincial status. He was premier of the Territories from 1897 to 1905, then opposition leader in Saskatchewan and chief justice of Saskatchewan from 1912.

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Photo: Sproule, G. B. · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Peter Mitchell, April 1883 (Topley Studio).
CA-K587History

Peter Mitchell, New Brunswick Father of Confederation

Peter Mitchell of Newcastle, New Brunswick, attended the Charlottetown, Québec and London conferences and, as premier in 1866–1867, negotiated New Brunswick’s entry into Confederation. He was Canada’s first Minister of Marine and Fisheries from 1867 to 1873 and later owned the Montreal Herald.

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Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
John Hamilton Gray (William Notman, Library and Archives Canada).
CA-K586History

John Hamilton Gray, who chaired the Charlottetown Conference

John Hamilton Gray of Charlottetown served in the British cavalry before becoming premier of Prince Edward Island from 1863 to 1865. An ardent supporter of Confederation, he presided over the Charlottetown Conference and attended the Québec Conference; when the Island rejected the Québec Resolutions he returned to military life.

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Photo: William Notman · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Stephan G. Stephansson, before 1909.
CA-K583Culture & sport

Stephan G. Stephansson, Icelandic poet of Alberta

Stephan G. Stephansson, born in Iceland, settled near Markerville, Alberta, in 1889 after living in the United States. A pioneer farmer and self-taught scholar of Scandinavian literature, he published seven volumes of poetry from 1900 to 1920 and was ranked among the greatest Icelandic poets since the Middle Ages.

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Photo: Unknown photographer · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
J. E. H. MacDonald (Archives of Ontario).
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
Charles William Jefferys, 1930 (M. O. Hammond, Archives of Ontario).
CA-K578Culture & sport

C. W. Jefferys, illustrator of Canadian history

Charles William Jefferys, who came to Canada from England in 1879, was a writer, artist and illustrator of historical novels and textbooks and taught drawing and painting at the University of Toronto from 1912 to 1939. He is best known for his carefully researched historical drawings, such as those in his three-volume Picture Gallery of Canadian History.

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Photo: Melvin Ormond Hammond · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
David Mills, January 1899 (Topley Studio).
CA-K577Institutions

David Mills, minister and constitutional scholar

David Mills of Oxford, Upper Canada, was a school superintendent before representing Bothwell in the House of Commons from 1867 to 1896. He was Minister of the Interior in 1876–1878 and Minister of Justice in 1897–1902, taught constitutional law at the University of Toronto, and was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1902.

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Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Alexander James McPhail (University of Saskatchewan Archives).
CA-K575Economy & trade

A. J. McPhail and the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool

Alexander James McPhail, who came west from Ontario in 1899, worked to organize Prairie farmers politically and economically. As secretary of the Saskatchewan Grain Growers’ Association he worked tirelessly to create the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, becoming its first president in 1924, and helped form the Central Sales Agency for the three Prairie provinces’ crops.

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Photo: University of Saskatchewan · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context