People to know for the Canadian citizenship test

Many citizenship test questions are about people. A question may give a name and ask what the person did, or describe an achievement and ask who did it. This page lists the people from Discover Canada that you should know, grouped by topic, with one line for each. At the end you will find the names that people confuse most often.

Learn the people together with their dates. Our key dates timeline puts the same events in order, and the Canada’s History and Modern Canada primers tell the full story.

Explorers and New France

Name	Why they matter
John Cabot	Italian explorer who sailed for England; mapped the Atlantic coast in 1497
Jacques Cartier	Made three voyages for King Francis I of France (1534–1542); first European to explore the St. Lawrence River
Pierre de Monts and Samuel de Champlain	Began the first European settlement north of Florida in 1604
Samuel de Champlain	Founded Quebec City in 1608; allied with the Algonquin, Montagnais and Huron
Martin Frobisher	English explorer of the Arctic for Queen Elizabeth I (1576)
Jean Talon, Bishop Laval and Count Frontenac	Leaders who built New France; Frontenac refused to surrender Quebec to the English in 1690
Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d’Iberville	Hero of New France who won many victories over the English, from James Bay to the Caribbean

British rule and the Loyalists

Name	Why they matter
James Wolfe and the Marquis de Montcalm	British and French commanders at the Plains of Abraham (1759); both were killed
King George III	Issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which first guaranteed Aboriginal territorial rights
Sir Guy Carleton	Governor who defended the rights of the Canadiens and defeated an American invasion in 1775
Joseph Brant	Led thousands of Loyalist Mohawks into Canada
John Graves Simcoe	First Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada; led the 1793 move against slavery; founded York (today Toronto)

The War of 1812

Name	Why they matter
Sir Isaac Brock	Major-General who captured Detroit; killed defending Queenston Heights, near Niagara Falls
Charles de Salaberry	Led about 460 soldiers, mostly French Canadiens, to turn back 4,000 Americans at Châteauguay (1813)
Laura Secord	Walked about 30 km in 1813 to warn the British of an American attack, helping win the battle at Beaver Dams
Tecumseh	Shawnee chief who fought beside the British and Canadians

Reform and responsible government

Name	Why they matter
Lord Durham	Reported on the rebellions of 1837–38; recommended uniting Upper and Lower Canada and giving them responsible government
Lord Elgin	Governor who put responsible government in place in the Province of Canada (1848–49)
Sir Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine	Champion of democracy and French language rights; in 1849 became the first head of a responsible government in Canada
Robert Baldwin	Reformer who worked closely with LaFontaine to win responsible government
Joseph Howe	Reformer in Nova Scotia, the first colony to achieve responsible government
Mary Ann Shadd Cary	Anti-slavery activist; became the first woman publisher in Canada in 1853

Confederation and the West

Name	Why they matter
Sir John A. Macdonald	Father of Confederation and Canada’s first Prime Minister; born in Scotland; his day is January 11
Sir George-Étienne Cartier	Key architect of Confederation from Quebec; a Montreal railway lawyer and Macdonald’s close ally
Sir Leonard Tilley	Father of Confederation from New Brunswick; suggested the name “Dominion of Canada” in 1864
Queen Victoria	Sovereign at Confederation; chose Ottawa as the capital in 1857
Louis Riel	Led the Métis at Red River (1869–70), which led to Manitoba; executed for high treason after the 1885 rebellion
Sam Steele	Famous frontier hero of the North West Mounted Police
Sir Wilfrid Laurier	First French-Canadian Prime Minister after Confederation; encouraged immigration to the West; his day is November 20

War heroes and the Victoria Cross

Name	Why they matter
Sir Arthur Currie	General who commanded the Canadian Corps in the First World War; often called Canada’s greatest soldier
John McCrae	Army officer who wrote the poem “In Flanders Fields” in 1915
Alexander Roberts Dunn	First Canadian to receive the Victoria Cross (Charge of the Light Brigade, 1854)
William Hall	Sailor from Nova Scotia; first Black recipient of the Victoria Cross (India, 1857)
Billy Bishop	Flying ace who received the Victoria Cross
Paul Triquet	Received the Victoria Cross for leading his men in Italy in 1943

Women’s rights

Name	Why they matter
Dr. Emily Stowe	First Canadian woman to practise medicine in Canada; founded the women’s suffrage (right to vote) movement
Agnes Macphail	Farmer and teacher; first woman elected to the House of Commons, in 1921
Thérèse Casgrain	Helped women in Quebec win the provincial vote in 1940

Science and inventions

Name	Why they matter
Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best	Discovered insulin, which has saved millions of lives
Alexander Graham Bell	Had the idea for the telephone at his summer home in Canada
Joseph-Armand Bombardier	Invented the snowmobile
Sir Sandford Fleming	Created the worldwide system of standard time zones
Reginald Fessenden	Helped invent radio; sent the first wireless voice message
Dr. John A. Hopps	Invented the first cardiac pacemaker
Mathew Evans and Henry Woodward	Invented the first electric light bulb and sold the patent to Thomas Edison
Dr. Wilder Penfield	Pioneering brain surgeon at McGill University; called “the greatest living Canadian”
Gerhard Herzberg	Nobel Prize winner who came to Canada as a refugee from Nazi Germany
Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie	Developed the BlackBerry at Research In Motion (RIM)

Sport

Name	Why they matter
James Naismith	Canadian who invented basketball in 1891
Lord Stanley	Governor General who donated the Stanley Cup for hockey in 1892
Lord Grey	Governor General who donated the Grey Cup for Canadian football in 1909
Paul Henderson	Scored the winning goal in the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union
Wayne Gretzky	One of the greatest hockey players; played for the Edmonton Oilers from 1979 to 1988
Terry Fox	Lost a leg to cancer; ran the Marathon of Hope in 1980 to raise money for cancer research
Rick Hansen	Went around the world in his wheelchair in 1985 to raise money for spinal cord research
Donovan Bailey	Sprinter; set a world record and won two Olympic gold medals in 1996
Catriona Le May Doan	Won Olympic gold in speed skating in 2002
Mark Tewksbury	Olympic gold medallist and activist for gay and lesbian Canadians

The arts

Name	Why they matter
Group of Seven	Painters founded in 1920 who painted Canada’s rugged wilderness
Emily Carr	Painted West Coast forests and Aboriginal artifacts
Jean-Paul Riopelle	Best-known member of Les Automatistes, Quebec’s pioneers of abstract art in the 1950s
Kenojuak Ashevak	Pioneer of modern Inuit art (prints, etchings and soapstone sculpture)
Louis-Philippe Hébert	Sculptor of historical figures
Margaret Laurence, Stephen Leacock and Mordecai Richler	Well-known Canadian writers
Sir Ernest MacMillan and Healey Willan	Famous for their music

Names people confuse

Jacques Cartier vs Sir George-Étienne Cartier. Same family name, 300 years apart. Jacques was the explorer of the St. Lawrence (1534). Sir George-Étienne was a Father of Confederation from Quebec (1860s). If you see “Sir”, it is the politician.
Cabot vs Cartier vs Champlain. Cabot sailed for England (1497). Cartier explored the St. Lawrence for France (1534). Champlain founded Quebec City (1608).
Brock vs de Salaberry vs Secord. All three are War of 1812 heroes. Brock took Detroit and died at Queenston Heights in Upper Canada. De Salaberry won at Châteauguay, near Montreal. Laura Secord did not fight; she walked to give a warning.
Tecumseh vs Joseph Brant. Tecumseh was the Shawnee chief in the War of 1812. Joseph Brant led the Loyalist Mohawks north, before that war.
Durham vs Elgin. Lord Durham wrote the report and recommended responsible government. Lord Elgin put it into practice.
LaFontaine and Baldwin. They were partners, not rivals. Together they won responsible government. LaFontaine led the first responsible government, in 1849.
Macdonald vs Laurier. Macdonald was the first Prime Minister (January 11). Laurier was the first French-Canadian Prime Minister after Confederation (November 20). Cartier was never Prime Minister.
Banting and Best vs other inventors. Insulin is Banting and Best. The pacemaker is Hopps. The telephone is Bell. Penfield was a brain surgeon, not an inventor of a device.
Emily Stowe vs Emily Carr. Stowe was a doctor who founded the suffrage movement. Carr was a painter of the West Coast.
Agnes Macphail vs Thérèse Casgrain. Macphail was the first woman MP (1921). Casgrain worked for the vote for women in Quebec (1940).
Terry Fox vs Rick Hansen. Fox ran for cancer research and died before he finished. Hansen used a wheelchair and raised money for spinal cord research.
Lord Stanley vs Lord Grey. The Stanley Cup is hockey. The Grey Cup is Canadian football. Both men were Governors General.
Group of Seven vs Riopelle. The Group of Seven painted landscapes (1920). Riopelle painted abstract art (1950s, Quebec).

How to study the names

Say each name in English out loud. The test is in English or French, so you must recognize the name as it is spelled.
Learn each person with one key word: Brock – Detroit, Secord – warning, Riel – Métis, Fox – cancer.
Put the names you forget into the flashcards and review them every day.

Now test yourself with Practice Test 1, and come back to this page for any name you missed.

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