Order of Canada
Catherine Anne O'Hara
Catherine Anne O'Hara, actor, writer, singer (born 4 March 1954 in Toronto, ON; died 30 January 2026 in Los Angeles, California). Catherine O’Hara was one of Canada’s most acclaimed comedic actors. She is perhaps best known for her work in television on SCTV (1976–79, 1981–83) and Schitt’s Creek (2015–20), as well as for her roles in Beetlejuice (1988), Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), and her many collaborations with director Christopher Guest. The winner of Emmy, Golden Globe, Gemini, Genie and Canadian Screen Awards, she was an Officer of the Order of Canada and...
Kenneth Wayne Dryden
Kenneth Wayne Dryden was one of Canada’s most influential public figures, distinguished not only as an elite hockey goaltender but also as a thoughtful nation‑builder through public service, writing, and advocacy. Born in Hamilton and raised in the Toronto area, Dryden combined academic excellence with athletic greatness, earning a history degree from Cornell University while leading his team to a national championship. His intellectual curiosity and commitment to public life would define his broader legacy, shaping how he later contributed to Canadian society beyond sport. Dryden rose to prominence with the Montreal Canadiens, becoming a cornerstone of one of hockey’s...
Joseph Hector "Toe" Blake
Toe Blake was one of the defining figures in the formative dynasty years of the Montreal Canadiens, first as a player and later as a coach who helped shape one of hockey’s greatest runs of success. Born in Victoria Mines (now Kirkland Lake), Ontario, in 1912, Blake came up through senior hockey before joining the Canadiens in 1935. He quickly became known for his intelligence on the ice, his strong two-way play, and his ability to elevate the players around him. Blake’s playing career is most closely tied to the legendary “Punch Line,” alongside Maurice Richard and Elmer Lach. Together,...
Gord Downie
Gordon Edgar Downie was born on 6 February 1964 in Amherstview, just west of Kingston. He grew up in Kingston, a limestone city steeped in Loyalist history, penitentiaries, and Lake Ontario winds. His father was a travelling salesman; his mother a schoolteacher. The household was comfortable but not gilded. Downie attended Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute, where he met classmates Rob Baker and Gordon Sinclair. Before he became the voice of a nation, he was a lanky kid obsessed with hockey and poetry. He enrolled briefly at Queen’s University, studying film, and it is worth pausing here: Downie’s lyrical instincts...
Dan George, Geswanouth Slahoot
Dan George was a chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, a Coast Salish band located on Burrard Inlet in North Vancouver, British Columbia. He was also an Academy Award-nominated actor and an author. Dan George, Geswanouth Slahoot, Tsleil-Waututh (Salish), 1899-1981 From the New Federation House series Indigenous Leaders of Canada Chief Dan George is an instantly recognizable national figure to practically all Canadians over the age of forty. Born as Geswanouth Slahoot in 1899 on the Burrard Native Reserve near Vancouver, British Columbia, this famous Native Canadian was an actual Native chief, an Academy Award nominated actor, an orator, a raconteur,...
Barbara Ann Scott
Barbara Ann Scott, figure skater. One of Canada's best-remembered athletes, Scott endeared herself to Canadians in winning the 1948 St Moritz Olympic Games figure-skating title. At age 9, she had begun a daily 7-hour training routine; a year later, she became the youngest Canadian to earn a gold medal for figures. She was Canadian senior women's champion 1944-48, N American champion 1945-48, and European and world champion 1947-48. Her capture of the coveted Olympic gold medal on 6 Feb 1948 made her a celebrity; in Ottawa she was honoured by adoring crowds and showered with gifts; she was the object...
Percy Alfred Williams
Percy Williams was an Olympian who won 2 gold medals for Canada in the 1928 Olympic games. In 1930 he set a world record for the 100 yard dash at the British Empire Games (now known as the Commonwealth Games).
Herbert Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan's work is viewed as one of the cornerstones of the study of media theory. He is popularly known for the expressions "the medium is the message" and "global village". From Wikipedia:McLuhan was born in Edmonton, Alberta, to Methodist parents Elsie Naomi (née Hall) and Herbert Ernest McLuhan. His brother, Maurice, was born two years later. "Marshall" was a family name: his maternal grandmother's surname. Both of his parents were born in Canada. His mother was a Baptist schoolteacher who later became an actress. His father had a real estate business in Edmonton. When war broke out, the business...
Margaret Laurence
Margaret Laurence was a Governor General Award winning novelist for A Jest of God (1966) and The Diviners (1974). Her novel Stone Angel (1964) is also widely read in schools across Canada.She is interred in the Neepawa Cemetery, Neepawa Manitoba.
Ben Weider
Born: 1 February 1923 Died: 17 October 2008 (Jewish General Hospital, Montreal) Interred: Victorian Cemetery Association, de la savane WEIDER, BENFebruary 1, 1923 – October 17, 2008Ben Weider, sports leader, scholar, businessman, and philanthropist, known and honored worldwide for his pioneering work promoting and organizing the sport of bodybuilding and groundbreaking work as a self-taught but hugely influential and popular Napoleonic historian and author, died suddenly Friday in Montreal, city of his birth and lifelong home. He was 85 years old.Beloved husband of Huguette Derouin for 49 years. Devoted father and father-in-law of Louis and Linda, Eric and Renee, Mark...