Focused and Verified
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.
671 records
981 records
407 records
80 records
Browse all →216 records
201 records
804 records
793 records
Browse all →Choose one keyword, or combine two. Broader keywords include their descendants.
Discover Canada asks learners to know their own representatives and government leaders. These answers depend on where they live and can change; official directories are more reliable than a fixed list copied into a study record.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: DXR / Daniel Vorndran · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
Discover Canada highlights obeying the law, caring for oneself and one’s family, jury service when legally required, voting, helping the community, and protecting Canada’s heritage and environment.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: William B. Grice · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
Exporail, the Canadian Railway Museum in Saint-Constant, Quebec, was founded in 1961 by the Canadian Railroad Historical Association and opened to the public in 1965 with 25 trams, 20 steam locomotives and 5 passenger cars. In 2007 the House of Commons recognized it as the National Railway Museum.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Fraccle · Photo licence: CC BY 3.0 · Credit & context
James Cockburn came to Montréal from England in 1832, was educated in Toronto and set up a law practice in Cobourg. Elected for Northumberland West in 1861, he attended the Quebec Conference of 1864 as a cabinet minister and is one of the Fathers of Confederation. When the first Parliament of Canada met in November 1867, he was elected Speaker of the House of Commons, serving until 1874.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · 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
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 Fréchette, born at Lévis, was a noted polemicist and a prominent French-Canadian poet of the 19th century. His collections Les Fleurs boréales and Les Oiseaux de neige won the Académie française’s Prix Montyon in 1880, and he also wrote the epic La Légende d’un peuple. He sat in the House of Commons for Lévis and later was Clerk of the Quebec Legislative Council.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Royal Society Portraits · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Henri Bourassa, a noted orator and writer, sat in the House of Commons and the Quebec Legislative Assembly. He broke with Laurier and the Liberals over the Boer War, founded the Montréal daily Le Devoir in 1910 and edited it until 1932. Throughout his career he championed a nationalism based on Canada’s autonomy and cultural duality.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
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.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
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.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Bain · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
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.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
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.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
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.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
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.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Richard Bedford Bennett, born at Hopewell Hill, New Brunswick, moved to Calgary in 1897 and sat in the North-West Territories and Alberta legislatures before entering the House of Commons in 1911. Conservative leader from 1927, he was prime minister from 1930 to 1935, and his government’s association with the Depression contributed to its defeat.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Library and Archives Canada / C-008098 · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Alexander Mackenzie came to Canada from Scotland in 1842 and worked as a building contractor in Kingston and Sarnia. Elected for Lambton in 1861 and to the first House of Commons in 1867, he was Canada’s second prime minister from 1873 to 1878 and worked to consolidate the new Dominion.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Lionel “Big Train” Conacher excelled at six professional sports and was voted Canada’s all-round male athlete of the half-century in 1950. A star of football and lacrosse who helped win the 1921 Grey Cup, he played in the National Hockey League from 1925 to 1937 on two Stanley Cup-winning teams, then was elected to the Ontario legislature and, in 1949, to the House of Commons.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Jeanne Sauvé (1922–1993), a Fransaskois journalist and commentator from 1952 to 1972, was elected to the House of Commons in 1972 and served as minister of several departments. She became the first woman Speaker of the House of Commons and the first woman appointed Governor General of Canada.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: proacguy1 from Montreal, Canada · Photo licence: CC BY 2.0 · Credit & context
Agnes Macphail (1890–1954), a rural schoolteacher, became the first woman elected to the House of Commons when she won Grey County as a Progressive in the 1921 federal election. In Ottawa she fought for penal reform, disarmament and social welfare, and later sat in the Ontario legislature from 1943 to 1951.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Yousuf Karsh · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Thérèse Casgrain (1896–1981), a pioneer of Quebec feminism, led the Ligue des droits de la femme from 1928 to 1942 and played a pivotal role in winning women the right to vote in Quebec provincial elections in 1940. The Fédération des femmes du Québec, founded under her guidance in 1966, launched a new wave of organized feminism.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: George Nakash (1892-1976) · Photo licence: CC BY 2.0 · Credit & context
Charlotte Edith Anderson Monture (1890–1996), a Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) woman from Six Nations of the Grand River, was among the first generation of hospital-trained professional nurses from First Nations in Canada. After nursing with the American Expeditionary Force in the First World War, she was among the female veterans granted the federal vote in 1917, and returned home in 1919 as a nurse and midwife.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: JFVoll · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
Elections Canada is an independent, non-partisan agency of Parliament, headed by the Chief Electoral Officer. The position of Chief Electoral Officer was created in 1920 by the Dominion Elections Act, largely to end political partisanship in the administration of federal elections.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Can Pac Swire · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 2.0 · Credit & context
Many women gained the federal vote in 1918 when the gender barrier was removed. Other eligibility restrictions still excluded some women, so the change did not establish universal voting rights.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: John.B.Codrington · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & contextEach member of Parliament represents a constituency in the House of Commons. Members consider legislation, work on committees and carry out duties in their constituencies as well as in Parliament.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: DXR / Daniel Vorndran · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context