Search for "New France"

​Ashleigh McIvor, freestyle skier (born 15 September 1983 in Vancouver, BC). At the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, McIvor won the gold medal for Canada in women’s ski cross, the first female Olympic champion of the sport.

Francis Clarence McGee (One-Eyed Frank McGee), hockey player, army officer (born 4 November 1882 in Ottawa, ON; died 16 September 1916 near Courcelette, France).

Cynthia Maria “Cindy” Nicholas, marathon swimmer, lawyer, politician (born 20 August 1957 in Toronto, ON; died 19 May 2016 in Scarborough, ON).  Cindy Nicholas was one of Canada’s most dominant marathon swimmers. In 1977, at the age of 20, she became both the first woman and youngest swimmer to complete a return crossing of the English Channel, setting a new world record of 19 hours and 55 minutes. She completed 19 crossings of the Channel between 1974 and 1982, including a record five return-trips, and earned the nickname “Queen of the Channel.” Nicholas was named the women’s world marathon swimming champion in 1976 and won the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as Canada’s female athlete of the year in 1977. She also practiced law and served as a Member of Provincial Parliament with the Ontario Liberal Party from 1987 to 1990. She is a Member of the Order of Canada, Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame  and the International Swimming Hall of Fame.  

Tessa Virtue, figure skater (born 17 May 1989 in London, ON) and Scott Moir, figure skater (born 2 September 1987 in London, ON). Virtue and Moir are the most successful Canadian ice dance team of the early 21st century, and were the first North Americans to win the Olympic Gold Medal for ice dance, at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. At the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, they won silver in ice dance and in the team competition. They won gold in ice dance and in the team competition at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, becoming the most decorated figure skaters in Olympic history. They have also won four world championships (three senior and one junior), three Four Continents championships, nine Canadian championships (eight senior and one junior) and multiple Grand Prix events, including a Grand Prix Final.

Winnie Roach-Leuszler, swimmer (born 3 February 1926 in Port Credit, ON; died 1 May 2004 in Surrey, BC). Winnie Roach-Leuszler was a successful marathon swimmer. In 1951, after serving with the Canadian Women’s Army Corps during the Second World War, she became the first Canadian to swim the English Channel. She also won the French long-distance championship in 1962. A recipient of the Order of Ontario, Roach-Leuszler was inducted into the Canadian Forces Sports Hall of Fame, the Ontario Aquatic Hall of Fame and the Mississauga Sports Hall of Fame.

Vincent “Manny” Churchill McIntyre, baseball player, hockey player, railway porter (born 4 October 1918 in Gagetown, New Brunswick; died 13 June 2011 in Candiac, QC). Manny McIntyre was the first Black Canadian to sign a professional baseball contract — just six weeks after American Jackie Robinson broke the pro baseball colour barrier. McIntyre played as a shortstop for the St. Lous Cardinals farm team, the Sherbrooke Canadians. A multisport athlete, he was also a member (with brothers Ossie and Herb Carnegie) of the first all-Black line in pro hockey, known as the “Black Aces.” McIntyre was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, the Black Ice Hockey and Sports Hall of Fame, the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame and the City of Fredericton Sports Wall of Fame.

Meagan Duhamel, figure skater (born 8 December 1985 in Sudbury, ON) and Eric Radford, figure skater (born 27 January 1985 in Winnipeg, MB). Figure skaters Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford have been competing together in pairs competitions since 2010. Known for their technical excellence, they have won two world championships (2015, 2016) and three Olympic medals: bronze in the pairs competition (2018) and a gold (2018) and silver medal (2014) in the team event. They have also won gold medals at nine other international competitions. They were Canadian champions from 2012 to 2018, the longest consecutive streak for Canadian pairs.

Eugenie Bouchard, tennis player (born 25 February 1994 in Montréal, QC). At Wimbledon 2014, Bouchard became the first Canadian singles player to reach the final of a senior Grand Slam singles tennis tournament. Although she lost to Petra Kvitova, the match was watched by over a million Canadians and helped make Bouchard a media sensation. Two years earlier, Bouchard had won the Wimbledon 2012 girls’ tournament, becoming the first Canadian to win a Grand Slam singles title at any level. A two-time winner of the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award (2013 and 2014), she was the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Newcomer of the Year in 2013 and won a WTA title in Nuremberg, Germany, in 2014.

Eldridge “Gus” Eatman (also known as Eastman), sprinter, soldier, entertainer (born 12 March 1880 in Zealand Station, NB; died 15 August 1960 in St. John, NB). Eldridge Eatman was a Black Canadian athlete. He was one of the fastest men in the world between 1904 and 1908. In 1905, he set a Canadian record in the 100-yard sprint with a time of 9.8 seconds. He also served with distinction in the British Army during the First World War. Eatman later became an entertainer and an activist. He has been inducted into the Saint John Sports Hall of Fame, the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame and the Maritime Sports Hall of Fame.

Christa Deguchi, judoka (born 29 October 1995 in Nagano, Japan). Christa Deguchi is the only Canadian ever to win a gold medal at the World Judo Championships. The Japanese Canadian judoka won the bronze medal at the 2018 World Judo Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, and a gold medal at the 2019 World Championships in Tokyo, Japan. Deguchi competes in the women’s 57 kg weight class and is a member of the Kyodokan Judo Club in Lethbridge, Alberta. She was considered one of Canada’s top athletes heading into the postponed 2020 Olympic Summer Games in Tokyo.

​Ryder Hesjedal, cyclist (born 9 December 1980 in Victoria, BC). Ryder Hesjedal is a retired Canadian professional cyclist, and the first Canadian to win a Grand Tour race with his victory at the 2012 Giro d’Italia. He competed in international races between 1998 and 2016, first in mountain biking and then in road racing, and represented Canada at three Olympic Summer Games.

​Claude Ferragne (born 14 October 1952 in Montréal, Québec) is an athlete who competed in the high jump at the track and field events of the Olympic Summer Games.

Kurt Browning, figure skater (b at Rocky Mountain House, Alta 18 June 1966).

Félix Auger-Aliassime, tennis player (born 8 August 2000 in Montreal, QC). Félix Auger-Aliassime is one of the world’s rising tennis stars. In 2015, he became the youngest player ever to win a professional match and the youngest player ever to reach the Top 800 in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rankings. In 2015, he and Denis Shapovalov won Canada’s first Junior Davis Cup title, as well as the junior boys doubles title at the US Open. By the age of 20, Auger-Aliassime had reached the final of five ATP Tour events. During the 2019 ATP Tour season, he rose 91 places in the world rankings, from No. 108 to No. 17.

“Respectfully dedicated to the memory of the late ‘Buster’ Thorsteinson, a sportsman and gentleman.”

Bianca Vanessa Andreescu, tennis player (born 16 June 2000 in Mississauga, Ontario). Romanian Canadian tennis player Bianca Andreescu won 19 junior singles titles and 13 junior doubles tournaments between 2012 and 2017, when she turned professional. In August 2019, she became the first Canadian since Faye Urban in 1969 to win the Rogers Cup. Andreescu then won the US Open in September 2019, making her the first Canadian singles tennis player to win a grand slam title. In 2019, she received the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as Canada’s female athlete of the year and became the first tennis player to win the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s athlete of the year.

In 2005, to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War, Canadian celebrities spoke about the meaning of remembrance as part of the Stories of Remembrance Campaign, a project of CanWest News Service (now Postmedia News), the Dominion Institute (now Historica Canada) and Veterans Affairs Canada. This article is reprinted from that campaign.

Maëlle Ricker, snowboarder (b at North Vancouver, BC, 2 Dec 1978). Maëlle Ricker is the first Canadian woman to win an Olympic gold medal in SNOWBOARDING and the first Canadian woman to win Olympic gold on Canadian soil.

Hervé Filion, harness-racing trainer and driver (born 1 February 1940 in Angers, QC; died 22 June 2017 in Mineola, New York).