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William George Richardson Hind, artist (born 12 June 1833 in Nottingham, England; died 18 November 1889 in Sussex, NB). British-born Hind was an illustrator, painter and watercolourist who produced sketches and paintings of landscapes and people in Canada. He accompanied expeditions to the Moisie River in 1861 and to the Cariboo gold fields in 1862.

Ryan Rodney Reynolds, actor (born 23 October 1976 in Vancouver, BC). Charming, affable and boyishly handsome, Ryan Reynolds is one of the most recognized Canadian actors in Hollywood. He established his persona as a charismatic, quirky and quick-witted smart aleck in a wide range of Canadian and Hollywood films. They include the college comedy National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002); the heist movie Foolproof (2003); the romantic comedies Definitely, Maybe (2008) and The Proposal (2009); and the action movies X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), Green Lantern (2011), Deadpool (2016) and Deadpool 2 (2018). He has a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He has won two People’s Choice Awards, including Favourite Movie Actor in 2017, and has pursued a variety of successful business ventures.

André Gagnon, OC, OQ, pianist, composer, conductor, arranger, actor (born 2 August 1936 in St-Pacôme-de-Kamouraska, QC; died 3 December 2020). André Gagnon was renowned for an eclectic mix of pop and classical music. He worked as accompanist, conductor or arranger for some of the great Quebec chansonniers before his career as a soloist. His compositions span a wide variety of musical styles and were especially popular in Japan. He won Juno Awards for his records Saga (1974) and Neiges (1975), and as best instrumentalist (1977 and 1995). He received the Prix Félix for instrumental album of the year 12 times between 1978 and 2017 and was awarded SOCAN’s William Harold Moon Award for his contribution to Canadian music. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and an Officier of the Ordre National du Québec.

Arthur Lamothe, film director, producer, editor (born 7 December 1928 in St-Mont, France; died 18 September 2013 in Montreal, Quebec). Lamothe immigrated to Canada in 1953 and joined the National Film Board in the late 1950s as a researcher and writer. His first film was Bûcherons de la Manouane, a documentary made in 1962 about lumber camps.

​Carl Beam (Carl Edward Migwans), artist (born 24 May 1943 in West Bay, Manitoulin Island, ON [now M’Chigeeng First Nation]; died 30 July 2005 in M’Chigeeng First Nation). The first contemporary Indigenous artist whose work was acquired by the National Gallery of Canada, Beam was one of Canada’s most ground-breaking Indigenous artists. (See also Contemporary Indigenous Art in Canada.)

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.

Lennie Gallant, CM, folk musician (born 1955 in Rustico, PEI). Lennie Gallant is an Acadian singer-songwriter who has released 13 albums, ten in English and three in French. He has toured extensively in North America and has won numerous awards and prizes. He has won 18 East Coast Music Awards (ECMA) and was named the Fan’s Choice Entertainer of the Year in 2017. His 1994 song “Peter’s Dream” was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2019. Gallant was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2003.

Frère Marie-Victorin (born Conrad Kirouac), member of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, botanist, teacher (born 3 April 1885 in Kingsey Falls, QC; died 15 July 1944 in St-Hyacinthe, QC). A self-taught botanist, Frère Marie-Victorin was the first chair of botany at Université de Montréal, founder of the Institut de Botanique and the Montréal Botanical Garden, and author of Flore laurentienne (1935). He also co-founded the Association canadienne-française pour l'avancement des sciences, the Société canadienne d'histoire naturelle, and the Cercles des jeunes naturalistes, and actively promoted science in popular as well as academic publications. A French Canadian nationalist, Marie-Victorin believed that knowledge of Québec’s natural world would inspire pride in French Canadians and enable them to take possession of their land.

René Dionne, professor, bibliographer, historian of Québec literature (born 29 January 1929 in Saint-Philippe-de-Néri, Quebec; died 29 December 2009 in Ottawa, Ontario).

Lucy Maud Montgomery, OBE, writer (born 30 November 1874 in Clifton (now New London), PEI; died 24 April 1942 in Toronto, ON). Lucy Maud Montgomery is arguably Canada’s most widely read author. Her first novel, Anne of Green Gables (1908), became an instant best-seller. It has remained in print for more than a century, making the character of Anne Shirley a mythic icon of Canadian culture. Montgomery produced more than 500 short stories, 21 novels, two poetry collections, and numerous journal and essay anthologies. Her body of work has sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide. Anne of Green Gables alone has been translated into at least 36 languages as well as braille. It has been adapted dozens of times in various mediums. Montgomery was named an Officer of both the Order of the British Empire and the Literary and Artistic Institute of France. She was the first Canadian woman to be made a member of the British Royal Society of Arts and she was declared a Person of National Historic Significance in Canada.

Elnora Ruth Collins (née Procter), CM, singer, actor (born 21 November 1919 in Edmonton, Alberta). Vancouver’s “first lady of jazz,” Eleanor Collins was the first Canadian woman to have her own national television show, CBC TV’s The Eleanor Show (1955) and Eleanor 1964). Often compared to American singer Lena Horne, Collins performed on many television and radio variety shows, as well as in clubs. Collins is a member of the Order of Canada, the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame and the recipient of numerous lifetime achievement awards.

Alpha Flight is a Canada-based superhero team created by John Byrne (b 1950) and published by Marvel Comics.

Joe Shuster, cartoonist (born 10 July 1914 in Toronto, ON; died 30 July 1992 in Los Angeles, California). In 1933, along with writer Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster created the Superman comic book character.

​Aubrey Drake Graham, rapper, singer, songwriter, actor (born 24 October 1986 in Toronto, ON).

Pitseolak Ashoona, CM, artist (born between 1904 and 1908 on Nottingham Island (Tujajuak), NWT; died 28 May 1983 in Cape Dorset, NWT). Among the first generation of Inuit printmakers, Pitseolak Ashoona was born en route from Nunavik in arctic Québec to the south coast of Baffin Island (Qikagtaaluk). She is known for her lively prints and drawings, which show "the things we did long ago before there were many white men" and for her imaginative renderings of spirits and monsters.

Donald McKellar, CM, actor, screenwriter, director (born 17 August 1963 in Toronto, ON). One of Canada’s most acclaimed and prolific stars, the multi-talented Don McKellar has enjoyed success as an actor, writer and director in film, television and theatre, often assuming multiple roles in a production. Equal parts laconic and loopy, he is best known for playing quirky, unconventional leading men and collaborating on unique, visionary independent films. He was a key player in the Toronto New Wave, collaborating with Bruce McDonald and Atom Egoyan on such films as Roadkill (1989), Highway 61 (1991), The Adjuster (1991) and Exotica (1994). He received the Prix de la Jeunesse at the Cannes Film Festival for his directorial debut, Last Night (1998), and won a Tony Award for co-writing the hit musical The Drowsy Chaperone. He is a Member of the Order of Canada and has won multiple Genie and Canadian Screen Awards.

Sandra Miju Oh, actor, producer (born 20 July 1971 in Nepean, ON). Sandra Oh is a versatile actor whose performances in film and television have won popular and critical acclaim. She won Genie Awards for her performances in Double Happiness (1994) and Last Night (1998) before gaining international recognition for her role in the successful ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy (2005–14). Her work has been groundbreaking for the visibility it has brought to roles for Asian actors in North America. With her lead role in the BBC America drama Killing Eve (2018–), Oh became the first actor of Asian heritage to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for best actress  and the first to win a Golden Globe in that category since 1981. She was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2011 and won a Governor General's Performing Arts Award in 2019.

​Merrill Beth Nisker (a.k.a. Peaches), singer, songwriter, musician, performance artist, filmmaker (born 11 November 1968 in Toronto, ON).

Tatiana Gabrielle Maslany, actor (born 22 September 1985 in Regina, Saskatchewan). Versatile film and television actor Tatiana Maslany is perhaps best known for her multiple performances as various clones in the hit sci-fi series Orphan Black (2013–17). In 2016, she became the first Canadian actor to win a Primetime Emmy Award for a Canadian television series. She has also won five Canadian Screen Awards, two Gemini Awards, two ACTRA Awards and numerous other honours.

Wendy Jane Crewson, actor (born 9 May 1956 in Hamilton, ON). One of Canadian television’s best-known and most honoured actors, Wendy Crewson has won multiple Gemini Awards for her work in Canadian TV series and TV movies. She has also enjoyed a prolific film career and has acted opposite such Hollywood stars as Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, Robert Redford, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rachel McAdams, Elliot Page and Arnold Schwarzenegger. An outspoken advocate for Canadian film and television, she has been inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame and received the Gemini Humanitarian Award, ACTRA’s Award of Excellence, and the Earle Grey Award for lifetime achievement in Canadian television.