Meet the people who shaped a nation.

First Prime Minister; led Confederation and the building of the CPR. His government also created policies, including residential schools, that harmed Indigenous peoples, so his legacy is debated.

Leader of French Canada who allied with Macdonald and brought Quebec into Confederation.

Founder of The Globe newspaper (1844) whose “Great Coalition” with rivals (1864) made Confederation possible.

Métis leader of the Red River Resistance who negotiated Manitoba’s entry (1870); executed after the 1885 North-West Resistance; now honoured as Manitoba’s founder.

First francophone Prime Minister (1896–1911), known for compromise (“sunny ways”); Alberta and Saskatchewan joined during his time.

Won the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize for UN peacekeeping; as Prime Minister (1963–68) oversaw the maple leaf flag, the Canada Pension Plan and national medicare.

Prime Minister (1957–63) who passed the Canadian Bill of Rights (1960) and extended the federal vote to Status First Nations without loss of status.

Prime Minister who brought in the Official Languages Act (1969), multiculturalism (1971) and the Charter (1982).

Canada’s first woman Prime Minister (1993).

Saskatchewan premier (1944–61) who introduced public medical insurance; voted “The Greatest Canadian” in a 2004 CBC poll.

Prime Minister (1984–93) who signed the Canada–U.S. free trade agreement and the 1991 Air Quality (acid rain) Agreement.

Businesswoman who challenged racial segregation in a Nova Scotia theatre (1946); pardoned in 2010 and featured on the $10 note.

Author and activist who led Manitoba’s fight for women’s votes (won 1916) and was one of the Famous Five.

First woman magistrate in the British Empire (1916) and leader of the Persons Case. Some of her views, like support for eugenics, are now criticized.

Escaped slavery to Upper Canada (1830) and helped found the Dawn settlement and a school for Black refugees.

First Black woman in North America to publish a newspaper, the Provincial Freeman (1853).

Oji-Cree member of Manitoba’s legislature who, holding an eagle feather, blocked the Meech Lake Accord in 1990 because Indigenous peoples had been left out.

Led the fight for Quebec women’s right to vote, won in 1940.

Co-discovered insulin with Charles Best; shared the 1923 Nobel Prize.

Inventor of the telephone, conceived in Brantford, Ontario; later worked on aircraft and hydrofoils at Baddeck, Nova Scotia.

Engineer who proposed standard time zones and designed Canada’s first postage stamp (the Threepenny Beaver, 1851).

Neurologist and Canada’s first woman astronaut (1992).

First Canadian to command the International Space Station (2013); shared science with millions online.

Physicist who shared the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics for a method of making short, powerful laser pulses.

Pioneer in understanding congenital heart disease; one of Canada’s first women medical graduates.

First woman elected to the House of Commons (1921); campaigned for prison reform and equal pay.

First woman Speaker of the House of Commons (1980) and first woman Governor General (1984).

First woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada (1982).

First Black woman elected to a Canadian provincial legislature (British Columbia, 1972).

Mohawk poet and performer whose work celebrated her Indigenous heritage.

Founded Eaton’s department stores, introducing fixed prices, cash sales, money-back guarantees and a famous mail-order catalogue (1884).

Quebec inventor of snow vehicles and the Ski-Doo snowmobile (1959); his company became a global maker of trains and planes.

Built Rogers Communications into a major cable and wireless company.

Co-founded Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry; donated to create the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (1999).

Co-founded Shopify in Ottawa (2006), helping millions of businesses sell online.

Author of Anne of Green Gables (1908), one of the world’s most loved children’s books.

Novelist and poet; author of The Handmaid’s Tale; two-time Booker Prize winner.

Montreal poet, novelist and singer-songwriter; wrote “Hallelujah.”

Singer-songwriter and painter from Saskatchewan, known for deeply personal songs.

Montreal jazz pianist who won eight Grammy Awards.

Toronto pianist famous for his 1955 recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations.

BC painter and writer inspired by West Coast forests and Indigenous art.

Abenaki filmmaker who has made over 50 documentaries about Indigenous lives with the National Film Board.

“The Great One,” who scored 894 NHL goals and set over 60 NHL records.

Ran 5,373 km on an artificial leg in his 1980 Marathon of Hope for cancer research.

Montreal Canadiens star, first to score 50 goals in 50 games (1944–45).

Won four Olympic golds in women’s hockey, later became a doctor.

Won Olympic medals in both cycling and speed skating and became a mental health advocate.

Soccer player with the most international goals in history (190).

Born in Almonte, Ontario; invented basketball in 1891.

Multi-sport star who won Olympic gold and silver in 1928; named Canada’s female athlete of the half-century.

Wheelchair racer with 14 Paralympic gold medals; later appointed to the Senate.

Onondaga distance runner who won the 1907 Boston Marathon and served as a dispatch runner in WWI.

Wheeled about 40,000 km through 34 countries in his Man in Motion tour (1985–87) to raise awareness for spinal cord injury.

Doctor who pioneered mobile blood transfusion in war and served in Spain and China.

Scientist and broadcaster who hosted CBC’s The Nature of Things for over 40 years.

Commanded the UN mission during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, then worked to end the use of child soldiers.

Mohawk leader who allied with Britain and led his people to the Grand River lands in 1784.

Shawnee leader who allied with Britain in the War of 1812 to defend Indigenous lands; killed at the Battle of the Thames.

Inuk leader and diplomat who became Canada’s first Indigenous Governor General in 2021.

Anishinaabe judge and senator who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Became the first woman elected chief of a First Nation in Canada (Curve Lake, 1954).

Northern Secwépemc survivor whose story of a taken orange shirt inspired Orange Shirt Day.

Attawapiskat youth who campaigned for a safe school; “Shannen’s Dream” continues her work for equal education.