| Jacques Cartier | The first European to explore the St. Lawrence River | |
| Pierre de Monts and Samuel de Champlain | First European settlement north of Florida was established by French explorers | |
| Jean Talon, Bishop Laval, and Count Frontenac | Built a French Empire in North America | |
| Thayendanegea or Joseph Brant | Led thousands of Loyalist Mohawk Indians into Canada | |
| Lieutenant-Colonel John Graves Simcoe | Upper Canada’s first Lieutenant Governor and founder of the City of York (now Toronto), In 1793, Upper Canada, led by Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, a Loyalist military officer, became the first province in the Empire to move toward abolition. | |
| Mary Ann Shadd Cary | In 1853, first woman publisher in Canada helping to found and edit The Provincial Freeman, a weekly newspaper dedicated to anti-slavery, black immigration to Canada, temperance (urging people to drink less alcohol) and upholding British rule | |
| Chief Tecumseh | In war of 1812, Leader of First Nations (Shawnee) who supported British soldiers in Canada’s defence | |
| Major-General Sir Isaac Brock | Captured Detroit but was killed while defending against an American attack at Queenston Heights | |
| Lieutenant-Colonel Charles de Salaberry and 460 soldiers, mostly French Canadiens | Turned back 4,000 American invaders at Châteauguay, south of Montreal | |
| Major-General Robert Ross | In retaliation of the Americans burned Government House and the Parliament Buildings in York (now Toronto), in 1814, Led an expedition from Nova Scotia that burned down the White House and other public buildings in Washington, D.C. | |
| Duke of Wellington | Chose Bytown (Ottawa) as the endpoint of the Rideau Canal and therefore played a direct role in founding the national capital, defeated Napoleon in 1815 | |
| Laura Secord | Made a dangerous 19-mile (30-km) journey on foot to warn Lieutenant James FitzGibbon of a planned American attack and contributed to victory at the Battle of Beaver Dams | |
| Lord Durham | When armed rebellions occurred in 1837–38, an English reformer sent to report on the rebellions, recommended that Upper and Lower Canada be merged and given responsible government | |
| Sir Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine Robert Baldwin Joseph Howe in Nova Scotia | worked with British governors toward responsible government | |
| Lord Elgin | The governor of United Canada who introduced responsible government | |
| Sir Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine | The first head of a responsible government | |
| King George V | Assigned Canada’s national colors (white and red) in 1921 Dominion of Canada $1 bill, 1923, showing | |
| Sir Leonard Tilley | Suggested the term Dominion of Canada in 1864, inspired by Psalm 72 in the Bible which refers to “dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth” | |
| Sir Étienne-Paschal Taché, Sir George-Étienne Cartier, Sir John A. Macdonald Sir Leonard Tilley and other 33 | Fathers of Confederation Full List: https://www.ourcommons.ca/About/HistoryArtsArchitecture/fine_arts/historical/609-e.htm | |
| Sir John Alexander Macdonald | Canada’s first Prime minister Portrait is on the $10 bill | |
| Sir George-Étienne Cartier | Key architect of Confederation from Quebec and led Quebec into Confederation A railway lawyer, Montrealer, close ally of Macdonald and patriotic Canadien | |
| Louis Riel | Led an armed uprising and seized Fort Garry Defender of Métis rights and the father of Manitoba | |
| Major-General Sir Sam Steele | One of Canada’s most colorful hero came from the ranks of the Mounties | |
| Sir Wilfrid Laurier | The first French-Canadian Prime Minister Portrait is on the $5 bill Seventh prime minister of Canada | |
| Sir Arthur Currie | Canada’s greatest soldier during First World War | |
| Dr. Emily Stowe | The first Canadian woman to practice medicine in Canada Founder of women’s suffrage movement (women to achieve the right to vote) | |
| Sir Robert Borden | Prime Minister of Canada when the federal government gave women the right to vote in federal elections | |
| Agnes Macphail | A farmer and teacher, became the first woman MP | |
| Thérèse Casgrain | Working with others for women right to vote, and Quebec granted women the vote in 1940 | |
| Canadian medical officer Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae | Composed the poem “In Flanders Fields” in 1915 | |
| Emily Carr | Painted the forests and Aboriginal artifacts of the West Coast | |
| Les Automatistes of Quebec – Jean-Paul Riopelle | Pioneers of modern abstract art in the 1950s | |
| Louis-Philippe Hébert | Celebrated sculptor of historical figures | |
| Kenojuak Ashevak | Pioneered modern Inuit art with etchings, prints and soapstone sculptures | |
| Denys Arcand | Film Maker who have been popular in Quebec and across the country, and have won international awards | |
| James Naismith | in 1891, Basketball was invented by | |
| Donovan Bailey | In 1996 at the Olympic Summer Games, world record sprinter and double Olympic gold medalist | |
| Chantal Petitclerc | World champion wheelchair racer and Paralympic gold medalist | |
| Wayne Gretzky | One of the greatest hockey players of all time played for the Edmonton Oilers from 1979 to 1988 | |
| Terry Fox | The “Marathon of Hope,” raise money for cancer research British Columbian who lost his right leg to cancer at the age of 18 | |
| Rick Hansen | Circled the globe in a wheelchair to raise funds for spinal cord research | |
| Gerhard Herzberg John Polanyi Sidney Altman Richard E. Taylor Michael Smith Bertram Brockhouse | Nobel Prize-winning scientists | |
| Marshall McLuhan and Harold Innis | Pioneer thinkers | |
| Alexander Graham Bell | Hit on the idea of the telephone at his summer house in Canada | |
| Joseph-Armand Bombardier | Invented the snowmobile, a light-weight winter vehicle | |
| Sir Sandford Fleming | Invented the worldwide system of standard time zones | |
| Matthew Evans and Henry Woodward | Invented the first electric light bulb and later sold the patent to Thomas Edison | |
| Reginald Fessenden | Contributed to the invention of radio, sending the first wireless voice message in the world | |
| Dr. Wilder Penfield | A pioneering brain surgeon at McGill University in Montreal, and was known as “the greatest living Canadian” | |
| Dr. John A. Hopps | Invented the first (External) cardiac pacemaker | |
| Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best | The discovery of insulin, a hormone used to treat diabetes, by Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best has saved 16 million lives worldwide. |
