Profiles of Some Famous Canadians
What Canadian Athletes, Scientists and Authors Have Given the World
Nov 23, 2008
Their accomplishments have been exceptional, especially in the fields of science and literature. This article will focus on a special group of Canadians from the past and present who have made an impact not only in their own country but all over the world.
Terry Fox (1958-1981)
He was an ordinary kid from Winnipeg, Manitoba who loved sports. While living in British Columbia in the late '70s he discovered he had cancer and doctors amputated his right leg six inches above the knee. What followed this grim setback was his Marathon of Hope.
Determined to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research, he began his cross country journey in St. John's Newfoundland in the spring of 1980. Before his illness forced him to stop near Thunder Bay, Ontario he had travelled more than 5,000 kilometres. Today, Terry Fox runs take place in countries all over the world.
Dr. Norman Bethune (1890-1939)
This native of Gravenhurst, Ontario served in the First World War as a stretcher bearer and was wounded at Ypres. During the Spanish Civil War he set up a mobile blood transfusion service. During China's civil war with invading Japanese troops, he gained fame and recognition as a skilled surgeon who trained and schooled Mao Zedong's army in the fundamentals of sanitation, first aid and basic surgery. After his death Chairman Mao wrote an essay titled, "In Memory of Norman Bethune," which is required reading for Chinese students today.
Dr. Frederick Banting (1891-1941)
He was born in Alliston, Ontario and with his assistant Charles Best, a University of Toronto medical student, they discovered insulin. Dr. Banting received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1923.
Dr. James Naismith (1861-1938)
The origins of basketball go back to one man, who was born in Almonte, Ontario. While attending postgraduate studies at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts Dr. Naismith came up with a game that kept restless New England students out of trouble. It all started with a soccer ball with two peach baskets mounted on the elevated running track at the YMCA training school. He lived long enough to see the introduction of his sport at the Berlin Olympics in 1936.
Sir Sandford Fleming (1827-1915)
This man was an engineer and surveyor and devoted his much of his expertise to building the Intercolonial Railway and the Canadian Pacific Railway. As the railway networks expanded across North America, keeping track of the arrival and departure times of the trains became a nightmare for travellers, because as they went from west to east or vice versa they had to continually reset their watches based on local time.
Fleming's solution to this awkward dilemma was to adopt a universal system of time and divided the globe into 24 time zones. Standard time went into effect on January 1, 1885.
Dr. David Suzuki (b. March 24, 1936)
In 2004 he was voted as one of the greatest Canadians of all time. He is an award winning environmental activist and was the host of the CBC program The Nature of Things. Over the course of his incredible career, he has written more than forty books and received the UNESCO's Kalinga Prize for Science and honorary degrees from over fifteen institutions in Canada, the U.S. and Australia.
Margaret Atwood (b. November 18, 1939)
She is one of Canada's most critically acclaimed writers. In 1985 she published The Handmaid's Tale, the story of a futuristic and dystopian society. The book won the Governor General's Award, the Los Angeles Times Prize and the Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction. Other literary successes have earned her an astonishing list of prizes and awards, including the National Arts Club Medal of Honour for Literature and the Chicago Tribune literary prize.
Michael Ondaatje (b. September 12, 1943)
He most famous novel to date has been The English Patient, which earned him a share of the Booker Prize and the Governor General's Award in 1992. The film it was based on won nine Academy Awards. In 2000 he won the French Prix Médicis Award for his novel Anil's Ghost. He has been an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1990.
