An independent Canadian knowledge project
Citizen.caCanadian knowledge, focused and verified

Focused and Verified

Canadian knowledge base

Explore the knowledge base

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.

For a more specific search, use the keyword search below. Choose one keyword, or combine two with AND to require both or OR to include either.

Places and geography

671 records

Browse all →

Record types

981 records

Browse all →

People and roles

407 records

Browse all →

Peoples and communities

80 records

Browse all →

Organizations and institutions

216 records

Browse all →

Events and historical processes

201 records

Browse all →

Themes, values and contributions

804 records

Browse all →

Time periods

793 records

Browse all →

Search by keyword

Choose one keyword, or combine two. Broader keywords include their descendants.

Keywords: Themes, values and contributions

Clear search
804 recordsStructured records (JSON) ↗
Maurice Duplessis, 1936 (Studio Dupras et Colas).
CA-K700Institutions

Maurice Duplessis and the Union nationale

Maurice Duplessis of Trois-Rivières formed the Union nationale in 1935, an alliance of Conservatives and dissident Liberals that governed Quebec from 1936 to 1939 and from 1944 until his death in 1959. Known as “Le Chef”, he was a colourful and influential figure whose years in office brought frequent controversy, the assertion of Quebec autonomy and major public works.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Studio Dupras et Colas · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Samuel Cunard, between 1855 and 1865 (Nova Scotia Archives).
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.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Charles Tupper, 1896 (Topley Studio).
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.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Pierre-Amand Landry, MP, February 1884 (Topley Studio).
CA-K685History

Sir Pierre-Amand Landry, Acadian leader

Pierre-Amand Landry of Memramcook, a lawyer, politician and judge, defended Acadians’ rights in the New Brunswick legislature, the House of Commons and the courts, notably during the crisis over the Common Schools Act of 1871. A leader of the Acadian Renaissance who promoted tolerance between French and English, he presided over the first three Acadian National Conventions and was the first Acadian knighted.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Charles Gavan Power, between 1936 and 1942.
CA-K675History

“Chubby” Power and the wartime RCAF

Charles Gavan “Chubby” Power, a First World War veteran and longtime Quebec MP, was Minister of National Defence for Air from 1940 to 1944. He oversaw wartime RCAF expansion, supported distinct Canadian squadrons, helped establish the Air Cadets and advanced the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, which trained more than 130,000 Allied aircrew in Canada.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Statue of Dr. Frank W. Schofield at the Toronto Zoo, 2025.
CA-K671History

Dr. Frank Schofield, veterinarian and friend of Korea

Dr. Frank W. Schofield, a veterinarian at the Ontario Veterinary College, was internationally known for discoveries in animal disease; his research on sweet clover poisoning in cattle led to an anticoagulant widely used in human medicine. He also taught and did missionary work in Korea, where he is honoured for his contribution to the country’s democratic development.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Silver Dovelet · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
Honoré Mercier, around 1880 (J.-E. Livernois).
CA-K668Institutions

Honoré Mercier, premier of Quebec

Honoré Mercier, a lawyer and orator from Saint-Hyacinthe, led the Parti national formed in 1885 by Liberals and Conservatives outraged by the Riel affair. As premier of Quebec from 1887 to 1891 he encouraged agricultural settlement, convened the first conference of premiers and fiercely defended provincial autonomy.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Jules-Ernest Livernois · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Joseph Trutch, June 1870 (Topley Studio).
CA-K663Indigenous peoples & reconciliation

Joseph Trutch and First Nations lands in British Columbia

Joseph Trutch, a British-born engineer who believed Indigenous Peoples inferior, was British Columbia’s chief commissioner of lands and works from 1864 to 1871. Representing settler interests, he cut existing reserves, allotted minimal land to new ones, denied Aboriginal title and refused treaties, denying First Nations access to their territories; he became the province’s first lieutenant-governor in 1871.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: William James Topley (June 1870); Library and Archives Canada · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Modeste Demers, around 1860 (J. E. Livernois).
CA-K659Indigenous peoples & reconciliation

Bishop Modeste Demers in the Pacific Northwest

Modeste Demers, a Catholic priest in the Pacific Northwest from 1838, worked in part to convert Indigenous Peoples, part of the region’s colonization, and in 1847 became the first Bishop of Vancouver Island, New Caledonia and Haida Gwaii. The practices of Demers and his Church, together with colonization and assimilation, had drastic consequences for later generations of Indigenous Peoples.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: J.E. Livernois · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Charles G. D. Roberts, 1904 (Library of Congress).
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.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
George Robert Parkin, 1910.
CA-K655Institutions

Sir George Parkin, imperial federationist and Rhodes secretary

George Parkin of Salisbury, New Brunswick, a school headmaster, became principal of Upper Canada College in 1895 and was organizing secretary of the Rhodes Scholarship Trust from 1902 to 1920. A powerful advocate of a federal union of the British Empire, he lectured and wrote widely, including Imperial Federation (1892).

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Unknown photographer; published by the Empire Club of Canada (1910) · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
George Eulas Foster, around 1920 (Bain, Library of Congress).
CA-K651Institutions

Sir George Foster, Conservative finance minister

George Eulas Foster of Carleton County, New Brunswick, a former classics professor, sat in the House of Commons for most of 1882–1921. A central Conservative figure and orator, he was Minister of Finance under five prime ministers and Minister of Commerce under Borden and Meighen, and supported the League of Nations.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Bain · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Jean-Charles Chapais, April 1870 (Topley Studio).
CA-K646History

Jean-Charles Chapais, Father of Confederation

Jean-Charles Chapais, a merchant of Saint-Denis de Kamouraska, represented Kamouraska as a Conservative from 1851 to 1867 and was Commissioner of Public Works. A delegate to the Québec Conference and Father of Confederation, he became a senator in 1868 and served in Macdonald’s cabinets as Minister of Agriculture and Receiver General.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
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.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Unknown author · 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.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
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.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
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.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
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.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
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.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
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.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
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.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
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.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Sir Richard John Cartwright, December 1908 (Topley Studio).
CA-K606Institutions

Sir Richard Cartwright, Liberal finance minister

Richard John Cartwright of Kingston, grandson of a Loyalist merchant, sat in the House of Commons as a Liberal for 37 years. He was Minister of Finance under Mackenzie (1873–1878) and Minister of Trade and Commerce under Laurier (1896–1904), and as a free trader he designed the Liberals’ 1891 policy of unrestricted reciprocity with the United States.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Bliss Carman, 1903 (Pirie MacDonald, Library of Congress).
CA-K605Culture & sport

Bliss Carman, poet of the Confederation group

Bliss Carman, born in Fredericton, wrote lyrical, mystical poetry reflecting his love of nature and the Maritimes. As a literary editor in New York and Boston he promoted many Canadian authors, and as a member of the Confederation group of poets he was one of Canada’s most recognized poets at home and abroad.

Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

Contributor: Citizen.ca

Verified against cited sourcesVerified on 2026-10-26↗
Photo: Pirie MacDonald · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context