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Lee Maracle was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada in 2017. The appointment recognizes an Indigenous writer and teacher recognized for her literary contributions.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: rmajzels · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 · Credit & context
William Ogilvie of Ottawa became a Dominion Land Surveyor in 1872. He worked on the Canada–Alaska boundary survey and explored the Mackenzie River, contributing to mapping Canada’s northwest. He wrote The Klondike Official Guide (1898) and served as Commissioner of the Yukon from 1898 to 1901, during the Klondike Gold Rush.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
John William Ritchie, a gifted lawyer, legislator and judge, helped pave the way for Nova Scotia’s reluctant entry into Confederation. A member of the colony’s legislature and solicitor general (1864–67), he was a delegate to the London Conference of 1866–67, which finalized the terms of union. After championing Confederation in the Legislative Council, he was named to the first Senate and later sat on the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Unknown artist · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Joseph-Israël Tarte, a brilliant polemicist, journalist and politician, took part in every major political battle of his time, working under various banners to protect French and Catholic minorities and strengthen Canada’s place in the Empire. Elected in 1891, he engineered Laurier’s 1896 triumph in Quebec. As Minister of Public Works (1896–1902) he improved St. Lawrence navigation and made Montréal the country’s leading port.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Jules-Isaïe Benoît · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Ernest Alexander Cruikshank, born in Bertie Township, Ontario, was a journalist and translator before joining the militia in 1877, rising to brigadier-general in 1915 and directing the general staff’s historical section. He chaired the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada from its creation in 1919 until his death, and wrote many papers and books on Ontario and Canadian history.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
John Skirving Ewart, a noted constitutional lawyer born in Toronto, practised in Winnipeg from 1882 to 1904, founding the Manitoba Law Journal and serving on Louis Riel’s appeal defence team. He was counsel for Manitoba’s Roman Catholic minority in the schools dispute of the 1890s, then argued cases before the Supreme Court and Privy Council from Ottawa. He was an early, ardent advocate of Canadian autonomy at home and abroad.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Unknown photographer · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Percy Erskine Nobbs, a Scottish-born architect, educator, writer and critic, helped advance architecture in early 20th-century Canada. He taught at McGill and wrote on town planning, public housing design and Canadian architecture as a national art. His remarkable, finely built designs, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, reflect his strong commitment to fine craftsmanship.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Wm. Notman & Son · Photo licence: CC0 · Credit & context
Margaret Charlton, librarian at McGill University’s Medical Library (1895–1914) and Toronto’s Academy of Medicine Library (1914–22), advanced modern library methods in the profession’s formative years. In 1898 she co-founded the Medical Library Association, which became an international leader in specialized librarianship. She also wrote on the medical history of New France, and her success in a male-dominated field opened the way for other professional women.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Unknown photographer · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Augustin-Norbert Morin, lawyer and journalist, entered Lower Canada’s Assembly for Bellechasse in 1830, helped write the Parti patriote’s 92 Resolutions and took part in the Rebellion of 1837. In the Province of Canada he was co-premier with Francis Hincks and Allan MacNab, and in 1854 his government abolished the seigneurial system in Canada East. As a Superior Court judge from 1855, he helped draft the Civil Code of Lower Canada.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Jules-Isaïe Benoît · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres, a military engineer of Huguenot descent, took part in the capture of Louisbourg in 1758 and Quebec in 1759. From 1763 to 1773 he surveyed and charted the coasts of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, contributing to marine surveying. He was the first Lieutenant Governor of Cape Breton and founder of Sydney, and later governed Prince Edward Island; he died in Halifax at 102.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Hantsheroes · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
Louis Henry Davies, born in Charlottetown, was premier of Prince Edward Island from 1876 to 1879, defending tenant farmers while working to settle the land question. He served as counsel to the International Fisheries Commission at Halifax in 1877, sat in the House of Commons and became Minister of Marine and Fisheries in 1896. Named to the Supreme Court in 1901, he became Chief Justice of Canada in 1918.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Robert Tait McKenzie, born in Lanark County, Ontario, graduated in medicine at McGill and became its medical director of physical training in 1894. A pioneer of physical education, he served as a surgeon in the First World War and developed widely adopted rehabilitation methods. He won international acclaim for sculptures of athletes; his medallion The Joy of Effort was set in Stockholm’s Olympic Stadium in 1912.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Bain News Service · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Andrew Macphail, born at Orwell, Prince Edward Island, became a distinguished doctor and writer and McGill’s first professor of the history of medicine (1907–37). Knighted for his service with the Canadian Army Medical Corps in the First World War, he founded and edited the University Magazine and wrote books, plays and poems sharply criticizing the modern age, contrasting the rural life of his childhood with urban industrialism.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Peter Fidler, born in Bolsover, England, joined the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1788 and founded posts such as Chesterfield House (1800). As a surveyor, he mapped about 5,000 miles of waterways in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba and surveyed the Selkirk settlement and the boundaries of Assiniboia. His maps and journals remain basic historical sources.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Andyplummer · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
John McLoughlin, born in Rivière-du-Loup, was a physician before joining the North West Company in 1806, becoming a wintering partner in 1814. When the company merged with the Hudson’s Bay Company he became a Chief Factor and was put in charge of the Columbia District, with headquarters on the lower Columbia River. He stayed there after retiring, in what became American territory, and is known as the Father of Oregon.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
John Clarence Webster, born at Shediac, trained in medicine and held posts at Edinburgh, McGill and Chicago, becoming chief obstetrician and gynecologist at Chicago’s Presbyterian Hospital. After retiring he turned to history, writing many articles on New Brunswick and helping found museums at Saint John and Fort Beauséjour. He served on the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: New York : J. T. White Company · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine, a jurist and reformer born at Boucherville in 1807, was one of the architects of responsible government in Canada. With Robert Baldwin he led the reform governments of the Province of Canada in 1842 and 1848. He left politics in 1851, became Chief Justice of Lower Canada in 1853 and was made a baronet in 1854.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Indéterminé · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
James Layton Ralston, born in Amherst, Nova Scotia, was a lawyer, provincial legislator and decorated First World War veteran. He became Minister of National Defence in Mackenzie King’s government in 1926 and again in 1940. His support for conscription for overseas service was opposed by King, and he was forced to resign from cabinet in 1944.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Harris & Ewing · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
William Francis Ganong, born in Saint John, was a scientist, cartographer, geographer and historian. During 38 years as professor of botany at Smith College in Massachusetts (1894–1932), he gathered and published historical and scientific material on New Brunswick and became a leading authority on the mapping of North America’s east coast. He died in Saint John in 1941.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: White · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Arthur Doughty became the second Dominion Archivist in 1904 and saw the Archives as vital to Canadians’ sense of their history. He collected every form of documentation, served both historians and the public, and through energetic acquisitions at home and abroad and the publication of documents greatly expanded the Archives and Canadian historical writing. He was knighted in 1935.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Adam Shortt, born near London, Ontario, founded the department of political economy at Queen’s University and advised governments. In 1908 he joined the first Canadian Civil Service Commission. In Ottawa he worked with Dominion Archivist Arthur Doughty to build the national archives’ collections, and from 1913 to 1917 the two co-edited the historical series Canada and Its Provinces.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Bain News Service, publisher · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Edward Blake, a lawyer born in Middlesex County, Upper Canada, and a leading member of the Canada First movement, was the second premier of Ontario (1871–72). In 22 years in the House of Commons he was Minister of Justice under Alexander Mackenzie and led the federal Liberals from 1880 to 1887. A constitutional authority, he later sat in the British Parliament as an Irish Nationalist.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Ewing · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Louis St. Laurent, born in Compton, Quebec, was a leading corporate lawyer before entering politics as Minister of Justice in 1941. He served as Secretary of State for External Affairs and then as Prime Minister from 1948 to 1957. A strong advocate of national unity, he helped shape the new Commonwealth, signed the United Nations Charter and promoted NATO.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: George Nakash · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Édouard-Gaston Deville, a former French Navy hydrographer, came to Canada in 1874, took part in the Dominion survey of the North-West, and became Surveyor General in 1885. A pioneer of photogrammetry, he used it to map the Canadian Rockies between 1888 and 1896 and earned an international reputation for his writing, instruments and map reproduction methods. Mount Deville in Yoho National Park bears his name.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context