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Charles Hamelin

Charles Hamelin, short track speed skater (born 14 April 1984 in Lévis, QC). Hamelin has won three Olympic gold medals for Canada in short track speed skating. With five Olympic medals in total, he shares the record for the most medals won by a Canadian male Olympian. At the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, he won the men’s individual 500m event and men’s 5000m team relay event (with Guillaume Bastille, François Hamelin, Olivier Jean and François-Louis Tremblay). At the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, he won a gold medal in the men’s 1500m short track speed skating event. Hamelin also won a silver medal in the men’s relay at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin and a bronze medal in the relay at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, in PyeongChang. As of March 2018, Hamelin has won 12 gold medals at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships. He became overall world champion in 2018, the first Canadian to hold that title since Marc Gagnon in 1998. Hamelin has been named Male Short Track Athlete of the Year 10 times by Speed Skating Canada.

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Cowboys and Cowgirls in Canada

Cowboys and cowgirls are people employed to tend cattle or horses. The first cowboys to work on the Canadian prairies arrived in the 1870s. The traditional cowboy lifestyle has since given way to a more contained, corporate model of ranching. But the romanticized image of the cowboy on the “open range” lives on as a symbol of the prairies. Today, the terms cowboy and cowgirl can refer to ranch workers or rodeo competitors.

Click here for definitions of key terms used in this article.

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Rick Hansen

Richard (Rick) Marvin Hansen, CC, OBC, Paralympian, wheelchair racer, humanitarian (born 26 August 1957 in Port Alberni, British Columbia). In the 1980s, Rick Hansen won six Paralympic medals and three world championships in wheelchair racing. He was named Canada’s Disabled Athlete of the Year three times and, in 1983, received the Lou Marsh Trophy for Canadian Outstanding Athlete of the Year — an honour he shared with Wayne Gretzky. Hansen is perhaps best known for his Man In Motion World Tour. From 21 March 1985 to 22 May 1987, Hansen wheeled more than 40,000 km in 34 countries to raise awareness, public support and finances for spinal cord research, rehabilitation and wheelchair sports. The tour raised more than $26 million.

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John Turner

John Napier Turner, PC, CC; politician, lawyer, prime minister, athlete (born in Richmond, England, 7 June 1929; died 19 September 2020 in Toronto, ON). John Turner is best known for his early political service as federal justice minister (1968–72) and finance minister (1972–75) in the cabinet of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and for the 1988 election battle with Brian Mulroney over free trade. Turner's 11-week term as prime minister in 1984 is the second shortest in Canadian history, after Sir Charles Tupper (10 weeks).

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Don Cherry

Donald Stewart “Grapes” Cherry, hockey broadcaster, coach, player, team owner (born 5 February 1934 in Kingston, ON). Don Cherry is best known as the former hockey analyst and commentator on the Hockey Night in Canada segment, “Coach’s Corner.” As a hockey player, Cherry won a Memorial Cup with the Barrie Flyers in 1953 and had a long career in the American Hockey League (AHL), winning the Calder Cup four times. He won coach of the year honours in both the AHL and National Hockey League (NHL) and coached the Boston Bruins to two Stanley Cup Finals before retiring from coaching. His 39-year stint on “Coach’s Corner” made him a Canadian icon, albeit a controversial one. Nicknamed “Grapes” (a play on his last name and the term “sour grapes”), Cherry’s blunt opinions made him a lightning rod for controversy. He faced accusations of bigotry and racism throughout his broadcasting career and was fired in 2019 for comments that were widely regarded as being racist toward immigrants. Also in 2019, he was inducted into the American Hockey League Hall of Fame.

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Tim McIsaac

Timothy (Tim) McIsaac, swimmer, public servant (born 10 January 1959 in Winnipeg, MB). McIsaac has won the most medals of any Canadian Paralympian, with 28 medals in swimming (including 14 gold) at the Paralympic Games between 1976 and 1988, as well as 17 medals at the World Games in 1979 and 1986. He was the first blind swimmer to use the tumble (or flip) turn, using a “tapping” technique that later became compulsory in competitions for swimmers with visual impairments. McIsaac was named Canadian junior male athlete of the year in 1976 and Manitoban athlete of the year in 1982. He is a member of the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame, the Canadian Paralympic Hall of Fame and Swimming Canada’s Circle of Excellence. He was named to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2022.

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Damian Warner

Damian David George Warner, men’s decathlete (born 4 November 1989 in London, Ontario). Damian Warner is regarded as Canada’s all-time best decathlete. At the 2020 Olympic Summer Games in Tokyo, he won the gold medal and set an Olympic record in decathlon with 9,018 total points. He is one of only four decathletes to reach 9,000 points in international competition. Warner also holds the men’s decathlon world records in the 100 m (10.12 seconds), long jump (8.28 m), and 110 m hurdles (13.36 seconds). He has won many medals in international competition, including a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympic Summer Games and a record six titles at the prestigious Hypo Meeting in Götzis, Austria. In 2021, he was awarded the Lionel Conacher Award and the Lou Marsh Trophy and was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame.

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Andre De Grasse

Andre De Grasse, sprinter, philanthropist (born 10 November 1994 in Scarborough, ON). Andre De Grasse is the first Canadian to break both the 10-second barrier in the 100 m dash and the 20-second barrier in the 200 m dash. He burst onto the international stage at age 20, winning double gold at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, followed by a bronze medal in the 100 m at the 2015 World Track and Field Championships. At the 2016 Olympic Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, De Grasse won silver in the 200 m, bronze in the 100 m and bronze in the 4x100 m relay. At the 2020 Games in Tokyo, he won gold in the 200 m and bronze in both the 100 m and the 4x100 m relay. He is the first Canadian sprinter to win three medals at a single Olympic Games. He also holds the Canadian record in the 200 m (19.62 seconds).

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Harry Jerome

Harry Winston Jerome, OC, track and field athlete, consultant, teacher (born 30 September 1940 in Prince Albert, SK; died 7 December 1982 in Vancouver, BC). Three-time Olympian Harry Jerome won the bronze medal in the 100 m race at the 1964 Olympic Summer Games in Tokyo, Japan. He also won gold medals at the 1966 Commonwealth Games and the 1967 Pan American Games. Jerome broke the Canadian record in the 220-yard dash when he was only 18 years old and set or equalled world records in the 60-yard indoor dash, the 100-yard dash, the 100 m sprint and the 440-yard relay. Following his retirement from competition, he promoted amateur and youth sport through national and provincial programs. Jerome also advocated for better support of Canadian athletes and for greater representation of racialized Canadians on Canadian television and advertising. He was the recipient of numerous honours and awards, including the Order of Canada.

Macleans

Jacques Villeneuve (Profile)

In the select fraternity of race-car drivers - men who squeeze behind the wheel of the "tub" and turn a skeleton of thin carbon fibre into a howling, fuel-slurping, rubber-sizzling bullet - talk among the brethren sometimes turns to fear.

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Canada’s Walk of Fame

Canada’s Walk of Fame is a non-profit organization dedicated to honouring Canadians who have achieved excellence in the fields of arts and entertainment, science and technology, business, philanthropy and athletics. Modelled after the Hollywood Walk of Fame, it stretches along 13 city blocks in Toronto’s Entertainment District. Each inductee’s name and signature are etched onto a plaque embedded on the sidewalk, along with a star resembling a maple leaf. Inductees are honoured at an annual, nationally broadcast gala in Toronto. More than 210 people have been inducted since the Walk was founded in 1998.