Albert Jackson was the first Black letter carrier employed by Royal Mail Canada. Born into slavery in the United States, he escaped to Canada with his family in 1858. In 1882, Jackson got a job as a letter carrier in Toronto, but his white colleagues refused to train him. The Black community successfully rallied for Jackson, meeting with Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, who ordered the Postmaster to reinstate Jackson. Jackson worked as a letter carrier for over 35 years.

Considered one of the 19th century’s greatest inventors, Alexander Graham Bell invented the first practical telephone, launching the modern telecommunications era. Bell was born in Scotland and immigrated to Brantford, Ontario with his parents in 1870. A naturalized American citizen through marriage, from the 1880s onward, Bell divided his time between Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and the United States. In 1888, Bell helped found the National Geography Society. Bell’s other innovations include developments in aeronautics, hydrofoils and wireless communication.

The youngest player ever to play soccer for Team Canada, Alphonso Davies was named Canadian Men’s Player of the Year in 2018 and 2020. Davies was born in Buduburam, a refugee camp near Accra, Ghana. He and his family immigrated to Canada, first in Windsor, Ontario, before settling in Edmonton, Alberta. In 2017, Davies became a Canadian citizen and joined the Men’s National Team that same day. In 2022, Davies scored Canada’s first-ever goal in the FIFA Men’s World Cup.

André Alexis is an award-winning author living in Toronto. His 2015 novel, Fifteen Dogs, won the Giller Prize. Alexis immigrated from Trinidad to Ottawa with his sister in 1961. He began his career as the playwright-in-residence at the Canadian Stage Company. His 1998 debut novel, Childhood, was the co-winner of the Trillium Book Award, which he shared with Alice Munro. He reviews books for the Globe and Mail and has previously hosted two CBC radio shows.

Chan Hon Goh is the first person of Chinese descent to be Principal Dancer at the National Ballet of Canada. Born to two Principal Dancers at the National Ballet of China, she and her parents immigrated to Vancouver in 1976. During her youth, Goh became the first Canadian to win a prize at the Prix de Lausanne and the Royal Academy of Dance’s Genée International Ballet Competition. She has published an autobiography and owns a dance shoe company.

Deepa Mehta is an award-winning filmmaker, best known for her Elements trilogy that explores topics in human rights and social justice. Mehta met her then-husband while making her first film in her native New Delhi. The two moved to Canada together, where she began directing documentaries and feature films. Her third film in the Elements trilogy, Water (2005), was nominated for an Academy Award.

Domee Shi is the Academy Award-winning director of Turning Red (2022) and Bao (2018). Shi was born in Chongqing, China and immigrated to Canada with her parents at age two. Her short film, Bao, won the 2019 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Her feature film, Turning Red, was the top-streamed title on Disney+ upon release. Shi is the first woman to have sole director’s credit on a Pixar feature film.

Donovan Bailey is a sprinter and Olympic gold medallist. Bailey and his family immigrated to Oakville, Ontario when he was 12 years old. In 1990, Bailey decided to race professionally after watching the Canadian Track and Field Championships and realizing he had out-run most of the championship athletes in high school. At the 1996 Summer Olympics, Bailey won the 100-metre gold with the fastest time then recorded by any human being. He also secured Canada’s first-ever Olympic 4 x 100m relay title.

Frederick Varley was a painter and member of the Group of Seven. Born in Sheffield, England, Varley immigrated to Canada in 1912 at the advice of Arthur Lismer. In 1920, Varley co-founded the Group of Seven, distinguishing himself as the sole original member specializing in portraiture. He taught at what is now the Emily Carr School of Art and Design for seven years and spent his final 12 years in Markham, Ontario.

Gina Cody is the first woman to earn a PhD in building engineering in Canada. When Concordia University named their engineering faculty after Cody, she became the first woman on Earth to have an engineering faculty named after her. Born in Iran, Cody received an engineering scholarship to attend Concordia in Montréal, where she completed her bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and PhD. During her career, she served as president, executive chair and principal shareholder of Construction Control Inc., an Ontario-based engineering company.

Ginella Massa is a television journalist who in 2016 became Canada’s first hijab-wearing news anchor. Massa joined CBC as a prime-time host and special correspondent for The National. In 2023, she left CBC to accept a teaching position at Toronto Metropolitan University. Originally from Panama City, she identifies with an Afro-Latina Muslim background. Massa lives with her husband and daughter in Toronto.

Gordon Smith was one of British Columbia’s most beloved visual artists. A modernist painter and printmaker, Smith was a major figure in the 20th century Vancouver art scene. Born in Brighton, England, he immigrated with his family to Winnipeg in 1933. Following the Second World War, he moved to Vancouver with his wife, Marion to complete his studies. In 1989, Smith founded the Artists for Kids Foundation, which connects youth with arts educators.

Jean Augustine is a trailblazing politician and activist. As Canada’s first Black female Member of Parliament and the first Black woman in Cabinet, she introduced the motion to federally declare February as Black History Month. Augustine spent her childhood in Happy Hill, Grenada before immigrating to Toronto as a nanny. Once her contract was over, she completed several degrees and became a school principal before entering politics in 1993.

Salma Lakhani, Alberta’s 19th Lieutenant Governor, holds historic titles as Canada’s first Muslim in the role and the first of South Asian heritage and African birth. Born in Kampala, Uganda, she and her family became stateless due to a presidential decree targeting those with Asian heritage. After a few years in England, Lakhani and her husband settled in Edmonton. Appointed lieutenant governor in 2020, she has received the Alberta Centennial and Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medals for her noteworthy contributions.

Inder Bedi is the founder of Matt & Nat, a Montréal-based accessory brand focused on fashion and sustainability. Since its creation in 1995, the company has created vegan bags and purses. More recently, they have expanded to outerwear, clothes and shoes. In 2019, Bedi founded BEDI, another sustainable fashion company that upcycles used seat belts, furniture and fishnets into high-fashion products. Bedi is originally from India and lives in Montréal.

A renowned actor and playwright, Ins Choi is best known as the writer and creator of the play Kim’s Convenience, first staged in 2011. Following its TV adaptation, Kim’s Convenience became a smash hit, gaining critical acclaim and popularity worldwide. Choi moved from Seoul to Toronto with his family at age one, later pursuing degrees in theatre and theological studies. In 2018 and 2019, Choi toured his one-man show, Ins Choi: Songs, Stories, and Spoken Word.

John Polányi is a German-born Canadian chemist and 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recipient. Born in Berlin, Polányi and his family emigrated to England due to Nazi persecution. In 1952, Polányi began his postdoctoral research at Canada’s National Research Council. He got his first academic appointment at the University of Toronto in 1956 and has been associated with the university ever since. In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in chemical kinetics.

Mahmud Jamal is a current Supreme Court of Canada justice, former Ontario Court of Appeal judge and litigation lawyer. Jamal is the first racialized person and first South Asian Canadian to be appointed as Supreme Court justice. Born to Indian parents in Nairobi, his family first moved to England before settling in Edmonton. After over two decades at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, he became an Ontario Court of Appeal judge in 2019. In 2021, Jamal succeeded Justice Rosalie Abella on the Supreme Court, marking a milestone in Canadian judicial representation.

K’naan is a Somali-born Canadian musician whose socially conscious songs have garnered international acclaim, including the hit single “Wavin’ Flag”, which became the global Coca-Cola promotional anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The same year, he won Artist of the Year and Song Writer of the Year at the Juno Awards. K’naan and his family settled in Toronto after the Somali Civil War broke out in 1991. In 2000, he performed spoken word at the 50th anniversary of the UNHCR, daringly criticizing the UN’s involvement in the Somali Civil War.

Kama La Mackerel is multidisciplinary artist, activist, translator and community organizer based in Montréal. The themes of their work include trans experiences, queer fluidity, diasporic and colonial histories and more. La Mackerel was born in Mauritius and was the first in their family to pursue university. In 2008, they immigrated to Canada by way of India. La Mackerel is best known for their debut poetry collection ZOM-FAM, which eventually became the material for a solo stage performance. ZOM-FAM received numerous accolades, including recognition as a CBC Best Poetry Book and a Globe and Mail Best Debut.

Karim Hakimi is an Iranian-Canadian optician and the founder of Hakim Optical. At the age of five, following the death of his father, Hakimi left school to find work. He began repurposing discarded glasses into eyeglass lenses in Iran, refining his skills in Germany and Switzerland before settling in Toronto. In 1967, Hakimi opened a lens-making factory – eventually growing it into a national chain of over 150 outlets in Canada.

Kim Thúy is an award-winning author, celebrated for her novels exploring themes of migration, home and belonging. Her best-selling debut, Ru, earned her the Governor General’s Literary Award. Thúy, who fled Vietnam with her family in the late 1970s, resided in a UNHCR refugee camp in Malaysia before her family gained refugee status in Canada based on their French proficiency. Initially settling in Granby, Thúy later moved to Montréal for university. Her works have been translated into over 15 languages and have sold around the world.

Lara Fabian is a renowned French-language singer-songwriter with over 20 million records sold internationally. At age eight, Fabian enrolled at the Royal Conservatory of Music in her native Brussels. She won 4th place at the Eurovision contest in 1988 for her song “Croire”, placing after Céline Dion. In 1991, Fabian moved to Montréal and released her first album. Her music was immediately a hit in Québec, winning her the 1995 Félix Award for best performance.

Jyoti Gondek is the 37th and current mayor of Calgary. Born in London to Punjabi Sikh parents, she immigrated to Canada with her family at the age of four. While pursuing a PhD at the University of Calgary, she founded a strategic planning consultancy and served as a member of the Calgary Planning Commission. From 2017 to 2021, she was a Calgary city councillor, and in 2021, she was elected mayor of Calgary.

Olivia Chow is the 66th Mayor of Toronto, and the first person of Asian descent to hold that office. Mayor Chow moved from Hong Kong to Toronto with her parents as a 13-year-old. She was elected a Toronto District School Board trustee in 1985, and in 1991 became the first Asian-born woman to be elected to the Metro Toronto Council. She served as the Member of Parliament for Trinity-Spadina from 2006 to 2014.

Michael Ondaatje is one of Canada’s most celebrated living authors. A poet, novelist and filmmaker, Ondaatje’s works focus on multiculturalism, friendship, and politics. Born in Colombo and immigrating to Canada by way of England, Ondaatje became a Canadian citizen in 1965. His novel The English Patient earned him the Booker Prize, making him the first Canadian to win this award, and was adapted into a film in 1996.

Mike Lazaridis is the inventor of the BlackBerry and founder of Research in Motion (RIM). Lazaridis immigrated to Windsor, Ontario with his Greek parents. In 1984, Lazaridis and partners launched RIM. Legendary entrepreneur, Jim Balsillie, joined RIM in 1992. When RIM launched the BlackBerry in 1999, they created the global smartphone industry as we know it. By 2007, RIM had expanded to an international company worth over $68 billion. Lazaridis was appointed to the Order of Ontario in 2005 and named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2006.

Rania Llewellyn began her 30-year banking career with Scotiabank before her appointment as CEO of Laurentian Bank in 2020, when she became the first woman to lead a major Canadian bank. Born in Kuwait to an Egyptian father and Jordanian mother, Llewellyn immigrated to Halifax after the Gulf War. During her tenure at Scotiabank, she advocated for the establishment of the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council to tackle immigrant underemployment.

Ratna Ghosh is a renowned academic and multiculturalism scholar. Ghosh is a Distinguished James McGill Professor Emerita at McGill University, where she previously served as Dean of the Faculty of Education from 1998–2003. Born in Shillong, India, Ghosh immigrated to Calgary in the late 1960s and pursued an MA and PhD from the University of Calgary. In 2003, she was named “One of Canada’s Best” in philosophy and multicultural education by the Canadian edition of Time magazine.

An entrepreneur and engineer, Robert Wang is most famously known as the inventor of the Instant Pot. Originally from Shanghai, Wang completed a master’s degree and PhD in England before moving to Canada for work. After getting laid off from his software engineering job, Wang tinkered and created the Instant Pot, which has since become Amazon Prime Day’s #1 bestseller for 3 consecutive years.

Rupi Kaur is a best-selling poet, artist and performer. She is best known for her self-published poetry collections, milk and honey (2014) and the sun and her flowers (2017), Originally from Punjab, Kaur and her family settled in Brampton, Ontario. Kaur’s works consider themes such as love, loss, femininity and trauma. Her poetry collections have sold over 11 million copies and have been translated into over 40 languages worldwide.

Sir William Price was a lumber merchant and manufacturer. Born in Chile, Price was educated in Québec and England. In 1889, he became the president and owner of the family firm, Price Bros and Company. Price’s pulp mill in Kenogami and Jonquière became the largest Canadian producer of newsprint, supplying much of the American newsprint market. From 1908 to 1911, Price was the Member of Parliament for Québec-West.

Sonja Bata was a businesswoman, philanthropist and museum founder. Initially trained as an architect in Switzerland, she married Thomas J. Bata of Bata Shoes. The Batas moved to Toronto in 1946. Sonja Bata had been collecting shoes since the 1940s, and in 1979, she donated them to the Bata Shoe Museum Foundation. The Bata Shoe Museum was established in 1995. It remains the largest shoe museum in the world.

Steve Nash is a two-time National Basketball Association (NBA) Most Valuable Player (MVP) – the first Canadian to win this award. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nash moved to Victoria with his family in 1976. Nash is widely considered the greatest Canadian basketball player of all time. He was inducted in the NBA Hall of Fame in 2018, became head coach of the Brooklyn Nets in 2020, and was formally inducted to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2021.

In 2015, the Hadhad family fled conflict in Damascus, Syria, settling in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Isam Hadhad, who had owned a chocolate company in Syria for two decades, found support from his son Tareq in opening Peace by Chocolate, a family-run chocolate shop. CBC reporter Jon Tattrie captured their inspiring journey in a biographical book of the same name. In 2020, the Hadhad family became Canadian citizens at a ceremony at Pier 21 in Halifax, a historic entry point for newcomers and the site of the Canadian Museum of Immigration.

Adrienne Clarkson is a distinguished public servant, author and journalist. Following the 1941 Japanese invasion of Hong Kong, Clarkson and her family moved to Ottawa. Clarkson's illustrious 18-year tenure at the CBC began in 1965. She was the first racialized Canadian to anchor a national program. In 1999, Clarkson became the first refugee to be named Governor General. She was also the first racialized person to hold the position. After leaving Rideau Hall in 2005, Clarkson co-founded the Institute for Canadian Citizenship with her husband, John Ralston Saul.

Michaëlle Jean is the first Black person to serve as Governor General of Canada. Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, her family fled to Québec in the late 1960s after her father was arrested and tortured by the regime of notorious dictator, François (Papa Doc) Duvalier. Jean began her career as a reporter for Radio-Canada in Montréal, becoming the first Black person on French television news in Canada. In 2005, Jean succeeded another former broadcaster, Adrienne Clarkson, as Governor General.

Tobias Lütke is the co-founder and CEO of Shopify, one of Canada’s largest publicly traded companies. Lütke immigrated from Germany to Canada in 2002. He began his career by creating an e-commerce platform for his online snowboard shop with his partners, Daniel Weinand and Scott Lake. The trio officially launched Shopify in 2006. The Globe and Mail named Lütke “CEO of the Year” in 2014.

Ursula Franklin – physicist, educator, and social activist – was an advocate of humanitarian peace and women’s education in science. In World War 2, Franklin and her family were imprisoned by the Nazis due to her mother’s Jewish background. Following the war, she moved to Toronto for a postdoctoral fellowship in physics and metallurgy. Franklin worked at the Ontario Research Federation, contributing to scientific advancements including the skeletal hip implant. In 1984, she became the first female professor at the University of Toronto.

Yousuf Karsh was a Canadian photographer known for taking portraits of notable individuals. Born to Armenian parents in 1908 in the former Ottoman Empire, Karsh and his family fled to Canada as refugees. In the 1930s, Karsh settled in Canada’s capital where he was known professionally as “Karsh of Ottawa”. His photo of Winston Churchill is the most reproduced image of the Prime Minister ever. His other notable subjects include Nikita Khrushchev, Georgia O’Keeffe and the Canadian band Rush. Karsh became Canadian at the very first Canadian citizenship ceremony held in Ottawa on January 3rd, 1947.