100 Notable alumni of
University of Toronto
Updated:
The University of Toronto is 36th in the world, 18th in North America, and 1st in Canada by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from the University of Toronto sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. 3 individuals affiliated with the University of Toronto won Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Physiology or Medicine.
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Donald Sutherland
- Enrolled in the University of Toronto
- Graduated with Bachelor of Science in drama fiction and engineering
- Occupations
- screenwriterfilm actoractorfilm producerstage actor
- Biography
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Donald McNichol Sutherland is a Canadian actor whose film career spans over six decades. He has received numerous accolades including a Primetime Emmy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Critics Choice Award. He has been cited as one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination. In 2017, he received an Academy Honorary Award.
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Stana Katic
- Occupations
- actorfilm actortelevision actor
- Biography
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Stana Katic is a Canadian actress and producer. She played Kate Beckett on the ABC television romantic crime series Castle (2009–2016) and FBI Special Agent Emily Byrne in the psychological thriller series Absentia (2017–2020).
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Margaret Atwood
- Occupations
- inventorwriterpedagoguepoetscience fiction writer
- Biography
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Margaret Eleanor Atwood is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published eighteen books of poetry, eighteen novels, eleven books of non-fiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children's books, two graphic novels, and a number of small press editions of both poetry and fiction. Atwood has won numerous awards and honors for her writing, including two Booker Prizes, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Governor General's Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, Princess of Asturias Awards, and the National Book Critics and PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Awards. A number of her works have been adapted for film and television.
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David Cronenberg
- Occupations
- actordirectorfilm directortelevision actorscreenwriter
- Biography
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David Paul Cronenberg is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and the intertwining of the psychological, physical, and technological. Cronenberg is best known for exploring these themes through sci-fi horror films such as Shivers (1975), Scanners (1981), Videodrome (1983) and The Fly (1986), though he has also directed dramas, psychological thrillers and gangster films.
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Maye Musk
- Occupations
- dietitianmodel
- Biography
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Maye Musk is a model and dietitian. She has been a model for 50 years, appearing on the covers of magazines, including a Time magazine health edition, Women's Day, international editions of Vogue, and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She is the mother of Elon Musk, Kimbal Musk and Tosca Musk. She holds Canadian, South African, and American citizenship. She is a registered dietitian.
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Victor Garber
- Occupations
- television actorstage actorsingerfilm actormusician
- Biography
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Victor Jay Garber, is a Canadian–American actor and singer. Known for his work on stage and screen, he has been nominated for three Gemini Awards, four Tony Awards, and six Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2022, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
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Lin Chi-ling
- Occupations
- film directormodelfilm actoractor
- Biography
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Lin Chi-ling is a Taiwanese actress, model, and television personality.
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Scott Speedman
- Occupations
- actorfilm actortelevision actor
- Biography
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Robert Scott Speedman is a Canadian actor. He is known for portraying Ben Covington in the coming-of-age drama television series Felicity, Lycan–Vampire hybrid Michael Corvin in the gothic horror–action Underworld films, and Barry "Baz" Blackwell in the TNT crime drama series Animal Kingdom. His other film work includes Duets, Dark Blue, XXX: State of the Union, The Strangers, Barney's Version, The Vow, and Crimes of the Future. In 2021, he returned to Grey's Anatomy as a main character following a guest role in season 14 as Dr. Nick Marsh.
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Malcolm Gladwell
- Occupations
- writerpodcasterscreenwritersociologistjournalist
- Biography
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Malcolm Timothy Gladwell is an English-born Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker. He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996. He has published seven books. He is also the host of the podcast Revisionist History and co-founder of the podcast company Pushkin Industries.
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Robert Herjavec
- Occupations
- film producerbusinessperson
- Biography
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Robert Herjavec is a Croatian-Canadian businessman, investor, and television personality.
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Sarah Gadon
- Occupations
- fashion modelfilm actoractordirector
- Biography
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Sarah Lynn Gadon is a Canadian actress. She began her acting career guest-starring in a number of television series, such as Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1999), Mutant X (2002), and Dark Oracle (2004). She also worked as a voice actress on various television productions. Gadon gained recognition for her roles in David Cronenberg's films A Dangerous Method (2011), Cosmopolis (2012), and Maps to the Stars (2014). She also starred in Denis Villeneuve's thriller Enemy (2013), the period drama Belle (2013), and the action horror film Dracula Untold (2014).
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Caterina Scorsone
- Occupations
- film actoractor
- Biography
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Caterina Scorsone is a Canadian-American actress. She is best known for playing Dr. Amelia Shepherd on the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy and its spin-offs Private Practice (2010–2013) and Station 19 (2018–present). Prior to this, she made her debut as a child actor on the Canadian children's program, Mr. Dressup. She also appeared in a number of films, including 2010's Edge of Darkness and 2014's The November Man. Other television credits include Jess Mastriani on Missing, Callie Wilkinson on Crash, and Alice Hamilton on Alice.
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Lorne Michaels
- Occupations
- film actorscreenwritertelevision actorproducerfilm producer
- Biography
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Lorne Michaels is a Canadian-American television writer and film producer. He created and produces Saturday Night Live (1975–1980, 1985–present) and produced the Late Night series (since 1993), The Kids in the Hall (from 1989 to 1995) and The Tonight Show (since 2014).
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Sergio Marchionne
- Occupations
- business executiveentrepreneurlawyerinternational forum participantindustrialist
- Biography
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Sergio Marchionne was an Italian-Canadian businessman, widely known for his turnarounds of the automakers Fiat and Chrysler, his business acumen and his outspoken and often frank approach, especially when dealing with unpalatable issues related to his companies and the automotive industry.
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Frederick Banting
- Occupations
- pharmacologistresearcherphysician
- Biography
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Sir Frederick Grant Banting was a Canadian medical scientist, physician, painter, and Nobel laureate noted as the co-discoverer of insulin and its therapeutic potential.
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Erving Goffman
- Enrolled in the University of Toronto
- In 1945 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- non-fiction writeranthropologistsociologist
- Biography
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Erving Goffman was a Canadian-born American sociologist, social psychologist, and writer, considered by some "the most influential American sociologist of the twentieth century".
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Naomi Klein
- Occupations
- sociologistclimate activistdocumentary filmmakereconomistwriter
- Biography
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Naomi Klein is a Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analyses; support of ecofeminism, organized labour, and leftism; and criticism of corporate globalization, fascism, ecofascism and capitalism. As of 2021, she is an associate professor, and professor of climate justice at the University of British Columbia, co-directing a Centre for Climate Justice.
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Julie Payette
- Enrolled in the University of Toronto
- In 1990 graduated with Master of Applied Science in computer engineering
- Occupations
- politicianastronautengineer
- Biography
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Julie Payette is a Canadian engineer, scientist and former astronaut who served from 2017 to 2021 as Governor General of Canada, the 29th since Canadian Confederation.
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Paul Shaffer
- Occupations
- voice actoractorpianistbandleadersongwriter
- Biography
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Paul Allen Wood Shaffer is a Canadian singer, composer, actor, author, comedian, and musician who served as David Letterman's musical director, band leader, and sidekick on the entire run of both Late Night with David Letterman (1982–1993) and Late Show with David Letterman (1993–2015).
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Robert Goulet
- Occupations
- film actorsingeractorstage actorvoice actor
- Biography
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Robert Gérard Goulet was an American and Canadian singer and actor of French-Canadian ancestry. Goulet was born and raised in Lawrence, Massachusetts, until age 13, and then spent his formative years in Canada. Cast as Sir Lancelot and originating the role in the 1960 Broadway musical Camelot starring opposite established Broadway stars Richard Burton and Julie Andrews, he achieved instant recognition with his performance and interpretation of the song "If Ever I Would Leave You", which became his signature song. His debut in Camelot marked the beginning of a stage, screen, and recording career. A Grammy Award winner, his career spanned almost six decades. He starred in a 1966 television version of Brigadoon, a production which won five primetime Emmy Awards. In 1968, he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for The Happy Time, a musical about a French-Canadian family set in Ottawa.
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Enrico Colantoni
- Occupations
- television actorscreenwriterfilm actoractor
- Biography
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Enrico Colantoni is a Canadian actor and director, best known for portraying Elliot DiMauro in the sitcom Just Shoot Me!, Keith Mars on the television series Veronica Mars, Louis Lutz on the short-lived sitcom Hope & Gloria, crime lord Carl Elias on Person of Interest, and Sergeant Greg Parker on the television series Flashpoint. He has also had supporting roles in such films as The Wrong Guy, Galaxy Quest, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Contagion, and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, and guest appearances on Monk, Numb3rs, Party Down, Stargate SG-1, and Bones. More recently, he starred as Allen Conner in Remedy. He played Laura Hollis's father in season three of the online web series Carmilla. He appeared in HBO's Westworld revival and in Station Eleven. Colantoni directed two episodes of the TV series iZombie.
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Agnes Chan
- Occupations
- singeractortarentoprofessoractivist
- Biography
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Agnes Meiling Kaneko Chan is a Hong-Kong-born Japanese singer, television personality, university professor, essayist and novelist. Since 1998, Chan has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and supports the Japan Committee for UNICEF. In Japan she is professionally known as Agnes Chan (アグネス・チャン), Agnes being her Christian name.
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William Lyon Mackenzie King
- Occupations
- ministereconomistdiaristpoliticianlawyer
- Biography
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William Lyon Mackenzie King was a Canadian statesman and politician who was the tenth prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A Liberal, he was the dominant politician in Canada from the early 1920s to the late 1940s. King is best known for his leadership of Canada throughout the Great Depression and the Second World War. He played a major role in laying the foundations of the Canadian welfare state and established Canada's international reputation as a middle power fully committed to world order. With a total of 21 years and 154 days in office, he remains the longest-serving prime minister in Canadian history.
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John Kenneth Galbraith
- Occupations
- university teachereconomistnon-fiction writerwriterpolitician
- Biography
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John Kenneth Galbraith, also known as Ken Galbraith, was a Canadian-American economist, diplomat, public official, and intellectual. His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through the 2000s. As an economist, he leaned toward post-Keynesian economics from an institutionalist perspective.
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David Sutcliffe
- Occupations
- film directortelevision actorfilm actoractor
- Biography
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David Sutcliffe is a Canadian retired actor. He is known for playing Christopher Hayden on the television series Gilmore Girls and Detective Aidan Black on the television series Cracked.
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Paul Martin
- Occupations
- lawyerinternational forum participantpoliticianentrepreneur
- Biography
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Paul Edgar Philippe Martin, also known as Paul Martin Jr., is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 21st prime minister of Canada and the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2003 to 2006.
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William B. Davis
- Occupations
- television actorscreenwriterfilm actoractortelevision producer
- Biography
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William Bruce Davis is a Canadian actor, best known for his role as the Cigarette Smoking Man on The X-Files. Besides appearing in many TV programs and movies, he founded his own acting school, the William Davis Centre for Actors Study. In his personal life, he is an avid water-skier, lectures on skepticism at events such as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry's CSICon, and advocates for action on climate change. In 2011 he published his memoir, Where There's Smoke... The Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man.
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David Shore
- Occupations
- television producerwritershowrunnerfilm directorscreenwriter
- Biography
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David Shore is a Canadian television writer. Shore worked on Family Law, NYPD Blue and Due South, also producing many episodes of the latter. He created the critically acclaimed series House and more recently, Battle Creek and The Good Doctor.
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Norman Jewison
- Occupations
- actordirectorproducerfilm directorscreenwriter
- Biography
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Norman Frederick Jewison was a Canadian filmmaker. He was known for directing films which addressed topical social and political issues, often making controversial or complicated subjects accessible to mainstream audiences. Among numerous other accolades, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director three times in three separate decades, for In the Heat of the Night (1967), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), and Moonstruck (1987). He was nominated for an additional four Oscars, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award, and won a BAFTA Award. He received the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences's Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1999.
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Paul Sun-Hyung Lee
- Occupations
- television actoractor
- Biography
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Paul Sun-Hyung Lee is a South Korean-Canadian actor and television host. He is best known for his roles as Randy Ko in the soap opera Train 48 (2003–2005) and as family patriarch Appa in the play Kim's Convenience (2011) and its television adaptation (2016–2021).
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Ilya Sutskever
- Enrolled in the University of Toronto
- Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- computer scientistartificial intelligence researchermathematician
- Biography
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Ilya Sutskever is a computer scientist working in machine learning. He is a co-founder and former Chief Scientist at OpenAI.
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Lester B. Pearson
- Occupations
- diplomathistorianpoliticianmilitary personnelice hockey player
- Biography
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Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson PC OM CC OBE was a Canadian politician, diplomat, statesman, and scholar who served as the 14th prime minister of Canada from 1963 to 1968.
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Raymond Massey
- Occupations
- stage actorscreenwriterfilm actoractor
- Biography
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Raymond Hart Massey was a Canadian actor, known for his commanding, stage-trained voice. For his lead role in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), Massey was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He reprised his role as Lincoln on television and in How the West Was Won (1962). Among his other well-known roles were Dr. Gillespie in the NBC television series Dr. Kildare (1961–1966), John Brown in Santa Fe Trail (1940) and Seven Angry Men (1955), Abraham Farlan in A Matter of Life and Death (1946), and Jonathan Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).
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Lyse Doucet
- Occupations
- journalisttelevision presenterinternational forum participantdirector
- Biography
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Lyse Marie Doucet is a Canadian journalist who is the BBC's Chief International Correspondent and senior presenter. She presents on BBC World Service radio and BBC World News television, and also reports for BBC Radio 4 and BBC News in the United Kingdom. She also makes and presents documentaries.
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Charles Coughlin
- Occupations
- journalistCatholic priestwriterradio personality
- Biography
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Charles Edward Coughlin, commonly known as Father Coughlin, was a Canadian-American Catholic priest based in the United States near Detroit. He was the founding priest of the National Shrine of the Little Flower. Dubbed "The Radio Priest" and considered a leading demagogue, he was one of the first political leaders to use radio to reach a mass audience. During the 1930s, when the U.S. population was about 120 million, an estimated 30 million listeners tuned to his weekly broadcasts.
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John Roberts
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
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John David Roberts is a Canadian-American television journalist currently working for the Fox News Channel, as the co-anchor of America Reports. Roberts formerly worked as the Fox News Chief White House Correspondent from 2017 to 2021, covering the Donald Trump presidency.
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Brian George
- Occupations
- film actorvoice actortelevision actor
- Biography
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Brian George is a British actor. He is best known for his roles as Pakistani restaurateur Babu Bhatt in Seinfeld (1989–1998), the Indian gynecologist father of Raj Koothrappali in The Big Bang Theory (2007–2019), the voice of Chutney in Father of the Pride (2004–2005), and spiritual guide Guru Pathik in Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005–2008).
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Selena Li
- Occupations
- actor
- Biography
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Selena Lee Sze-wa, former stage name Selena Lee Sze-Wan (Chinese: 李詩韻; pinyin: Lǐ Shīyùn), is a Hong Kong-born Chinese Canadian actress and former beauty pageant contestant.
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John Tory
- Enrolled in the University of Toronto
- In 1975 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in political science
- Occupations
- politicianlawyer
- Biography
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John Howard Tory is a Canadian broadcaster, businessman, and former politician who served as the 65th mayor of Toronto from 2014 to 2023. He served as leader of the Official Opposition in Ontario from 2005 to 2007 while he was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario from 2004 to 2009.
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Atom Egoyan
- Occupations
- film editorfilm directorfilm producerscreenwriterdirector
- Biography
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Atom Egoyan is a Canadian filmmaker. Emerging in the 1980s as part of the Toronto New Wave, Egoyan made his career breakthrough with Exotica (1994), a film set in a strip club. Egoyan's most critically acclaimed film is the drama The Sweet Hereafter (1997), for which he received two Academy Award nominations, and his biggest commercial success is the erotic thriller Chloe (2009).
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Lee Jae-yoon
- Occupations
- actorfilm actortelevision actor
- Biography
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Lee Jae-yoon is a South Korean-Canadian actor and model. He is best known for his roles in the television dramas My Love By My Side (2011), Heartless City (2013), and Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo (2015–2016).
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Yann LeCun
- Enrolled in the University of Toronto
- Graduated with postdoctoral researcher
- Occupations
- computer scientistartificial intelligence researcherelectrical engineerprofessorsoftware engineer
- Biography
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Yann André LeCun is a Turing Award winning French-American computer scientist working primarily in the fields of machine learning, computer vision, mobile robotics and computational neuroscience. He is the Silver Professor of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University and Vice-President, Chief AI Scientist at Meta.
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Gerald Bull
- Occupations
- aerospace engineerinventor
- Biography
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Gerald Vincent Bull was a Canadian engineer who developed long-range artillery. He moved from project to project in his quest to economically launch a satellite using a huge artillery piece, to which end he designed the Project Babylon "supergun" for Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq.
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Michael Ondaatje
- Enrolled in the University of Toronto
- 1964-1965 graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- university teachernovelistpedagoguewriterscreenwriter
- Biography
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Philip Michael Ondaatje is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer, essayist, novelist, editor, and filmmaker.
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William Osler
- Occupations
- physicianwriterprofessor
- Biography
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Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet, was a Canadian physician and one of the "Big Four" founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital. Osler created the first residency program for specialty training of physicians, and he was the first to bring medical students out of the lecture hall for bedside clinical training. He has frequently been described as the Father of Modern Medicine and one of the "greatest diagnosticians ever to wield a stethoscope". In addition to being a physician he was a bibliophile, historian, author, and renowned practical joker. He was passionate about medical libraries and medical history, having founded the History of Medicine Society (formally "section"), at the Royal Society of Medicine, London. He was also instrumental in founding the Medical Library Association of Great Britain and Ireland, and the (North American) Association of Medical Librarians (later the Medical Library Association) along with three other people, including Margaret Charlton, the medical librarian of his alma mater, McGill University. He left his own large history of medicine library to McGill, where it became the Osler Library.
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Norman Bethune
- Occupations
- physiciansurgeonteacher
- Biography
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Henry Norman Bethune was a Canadian thoracic surgeon, early advocate of socialized medicine, and member of the Communist Party of Canada. Bethune came to international prominence first for his service as a frontline trauma surgeon supporting the Republican government during the Spanish Civil War, and later supporting the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) Eighth Route Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Bethune helped bring modern medicine to rural China, treating both sick villagers and wounded soldiers.
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Derek Tsang
- Occupations
- actorfilm directorscreenwriter
- Biography
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Derek Tsang Kwok-cheung is a Hong Kong film director and actor. The son of actor Eric Tsang, Tsang got his start in the Hong Kong film industry working for director Peter Chan Ho-Sun after graduating from University of Toronto Scarborough in 2001. He made his acting debut in Men Suddenly in Black (2003) and directorial debut with Lover's Discourse (2010), sharing the directing credit with Jimmy Wan Chi-man. The duo was nominated for a Golden Horse Award for Best New Director in 2010.
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Kathleen Wynne
- Enrolled in the University of Toronto
- Graduated with Master of Arts in linguistics
- Graduated with Master of Education in adult education
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Kathleen O'Day Wynne is a Canadian former politician who served as the 25th premier of Ontario and leader of the Ontario Liberal Party from 2013 to 2018. She was member of provincial parliament (MPP) for Don Valley West from 2003 to 2022. Wynne is the first female premier of Ontario and the first openly gay premier in Canada.
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Brian Kernighan
- Enrolled in the University of Toronto
- Studied in 1960-1964
- Occupations
- university teacherwriterprofessorcomputer scientistengineer
- Biography
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Brian Wilson Kernighan is a Canadian computer scientist. He worked at Bell Labs and contributed to the development of Unix alongside Unix creators Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. Kernighan's name became widely known through co-authorship of the first book on the C programming language (The C Programming Language) with Dennis Ritchie. Kernighan affirmed that he had no part in the design of the C language ("it's entirely Dennis Ritchie's work").
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Paul Hellyer
- Occupations
- writerpoliticianufologistbusinessperson
- Biography
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Paul Theodore Hellyer was a Canadian engineer, politician, writer, and commentator. He was the longest serving member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada at the time of his death.
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Jim Balsillie
- Occupations
- international forum participantbusinessperson
- Biography
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James Laurence Balsillie is a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He was the former chair and co-chief executive officer of the Canadian technology company Research In Motion (BlackBerry), which at its prime made over $20 billion in sales annually.
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Jean Yoon
- Occupations
- poettelevision actorwriteractor
- Biography
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Jean Yoon is an American-born Canadian actress and writer of Korean descent. Yoon is best known for originating the role of family matriarch Umma in the 2011 play Kim's Convenience and in the award-winning CBC Television series adapted from the play, for which she won an ACTRA Award and received two Canadian Screen Award nominations.
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John McCrae
- Occupations
- university teacherpathologistphysician writermilitary personnelphysician
- Biography
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Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae was a Canadian poet, physician, author, artist and soldier during the First World War and a surgeon during the Second Battle of Ypres, in Belgium. He is best known for writing the famous war memorial poem "In Flanders Fields". McCrae died of pneumonia near the end of the war. His famous poem is a threnody, a genre of lament.
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Dan Snaith
- Occupations
- singermusicianrecord producercomposermathematician
- Biography
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Daniel Victor Snaith is a Canadian composer, musician, and recording artist. He has released 10 studio albums since 2000 and has recorded and performed under the stage names Caribou, Manitoba, and Daphni.
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Michael Ignatieff
- Occupations
- university teacherhistoriannovelistwriterpolitician
- Biography
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Michael Grant Ignatieff is a Canadian author, academic and former politician who served as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011. Known for his work as a historian, Ignatieff has held senior academic posts at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, and Toronto. Most recently, he was rector and President of Central European University; he held this position from 2016 until July 2021.
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Arthur Hiller
- Occupations
- film directordirectorfilm actoractorfilm producer
- Biography
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Arthur Hiller, was a Canadian television and film director with over 33 films to his credit during a 50-year career. He began his career directing television in Canada and later in the U.S. By the late 1950s he began directing films, most often comedies. He also directed dramas and romantic subjects, such as Love Story (1970), which was nominated for seven Oscars.
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Kuniko Tanioka
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Kuniko Tanioka is a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party of Japan, a member of the House of Councillors in the Diet (national legislature). A native of Osaka Prefecture, she graduated from the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada and gained a bachelor's degree in developmental biology. She was elected to the House of Councillors for the first time in 2007. She is president of Shigakkan University.
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Adrienne Clarkson
- Occupations
- novelistwriterautobiographerjournalistpolitician
- Biography
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Adrienne Louise Clarkson is a Hong Kong–born Canadian journalist and stateswoman who served from 1999 to 2005 as Governor General of Canada, the 26th since Canadian Confederation.
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Guy Gavriel Kay
- Occupations
- writerlawyer
- Biography
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Guy Gavriel Kay is a Canadian writer of fantasy fiction. The majority of his novels take place in fictional settings that resemble real places during real historical periods, such as Constantinople during the reign of Justinian I or Spain during the time of El Cid. Kay has expressed a preference to avoid genre categorization of these works as historical fantasy. As of 2022, Kay has published 15 novels and a book of poetry. As of 2018, his fiction has been translated into at least 22 languages. Kay is also a qualified lawyer in Canada.
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Sue Johanson
- Occupations
- writerpsychologistsex educatornurse
- Biography
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Susan Avis Bailey Johanson was a Canadian registered nurse and sex educator. She operated a birth control clinic in Toronto and hosted a series of radio and television programmes on birth control, safer sex and sexual health. She also published several books and wrote a newspaper column promoting sexual health.
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Bob Rae
- Occupations
- pianistpoliticianlawyer
- Biography
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Robert Keith Rae is a Canadian diplomat and former politician who is the current Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations since 2020. He previously served as the 21st premier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995, leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party from 1982 to 1996, and interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2011 to 2013. Between 1978 and 2013, he was elected 11 times to federal (Broadview, Broadview-Greenwood, Toronto Centre) and provincial (York South) parliaments.
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George Leslie Mackay
- Occupations
- priestmissionary
- Biography
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George Leslie Mackay 偕瑞理 or 馬偕 Má-kai was a Canadian Presbyterian missionary. He was the first Presbyterian missionary to northern Taiwan (then Formosa), serving with the Canadian Presbyterian Mission. Mackay is among the best known and most influential Westerners to have lived in Taiwan.
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Bonnie Henry
- Occupations
- chief medical officer
- Biography
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Bonnie J. Fraser Henry is a Canadian physician and public servant who has been the provincial health officer at the British Columbia Ministry of Health since 2014. Henry is also a clinical associate professor at the University of British Columbia. She is a specialist in public health and preventive medicine, and is a family doctor. In her role as provincial health officer, Henry notably led the response to COVID-19 in British Columbia (BC).
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Lawrence Ho
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
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Lawrence Ho Yau-lung is a Canadian businessman. Starting his career as an investment banker at Jardine Fleming and Citibank, in 2001 he took over operations at Melco International. Later named chairman and CEO, Ho refocused the company on leisure and entertainment, building and operating casino resorts in Macau, the Philippines, and Cyprus. With an estimated net worth of $2.2 billion, he was named "Asia’s Best CEO" at the Asian Excellence Awards for the seventh time in 2018.
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R. H. Thomson
- Occupations
- television actoractor
- Biography
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Robert Holmes Thomson, known as R. H. Thomson, is a Canadian television, film, and stage actor. With a career spanning five decades he remains a regular presence on Canadian movie screens and television. He has received numerous awards for his contributions to the arts, and to war veterans.
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Farley Mowat
- Occupations
- biologistenvironmentalistwriter
- Biography
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Farley McGill Mowat, was a Canadian writer and environmentalist. His works were translated into 52 languages, and he sold more than 17 million books. He achieved fame with the publication of his books on the Canadian north, such as People of the Deer (1952) and Never Cry Wolf (1963). The latter, an account of his experiences with wolves in the Arctic, was made into a film of the same name released in 1983. For his body of work as a writer he won the annual Vicky Metcalf Award for Children's Literature in 1970.
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Barbara Hannigan
- Enrolled in the University of Toronto
- Graduated with master's degree
- Occupations
- performing artistopera singerconductor
- Biography
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Barbara Hannigan is a Canadian soprano and conductor, known for her performances of contemporary opera.
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Mychael Danna
- Occupations
- music arrangercomposerfilm score composerfilm producer
- Biography
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Mychael Danna is a Canadian composer of film and television scores. He won both the Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Original Score for Life of Pi. He has also won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Original Dramatic Score) in his work on the miniseries World Without End.
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Abdulhamid Dbeibeh
- Occupations
- politicianbusinesspersoncivil servant
- Biography
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Abdul Hamid Muhammad Abdul Rahman al-Dbeibeh is a Libyan politician and businessman who is the prime minister of Libya under the Government of National Unity (GNU) in Tripoli. Dbeibeh was appointed on 15 February 2021 through the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum, and he was expected to hold the office until elections on 24 December 2021, which were later postponed.
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David Easton
- Occupations
- political scientistuniversity teacher
- Biography
-
David Easton was a Canadian-born American political scientist. From 1947 to 1997, he served as a professor of political science at the University of Chicago.
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Craig Kielburger
- Occupations
- managerentrepreneurwriter
- Biography
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Craig Kielburger is a Canadian human rights activist and social entrepreneur. He is the co-founder, with his brother Marc Kielburger, of the WE Charity, as well as We Day and the independent, social enterprise Me to We. On April 11, 2008, Kielburger was named a member of the Order of Canada.
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Lyndie Greenwood
- Occupations
- actor
- Biography
-
Lyndie Greenwood is a Canadian actress best known for her recurring role of Sonya on The CW's Nikita and being a series regular cast member of FOX's Sleepy Hollow, playing the role of Jenny Mills in 2013. In 2019, she joined the cast of the Amazon Prime Video series The Expanse in the recurring role of Dr. Elvi Okoye.
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Philipp Hildebrand
- Occupations
- economistinternational forum participantuniversity teacherbanker
- Biography
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Philipp Michael Hildebrand is a Swiss banker who has been serving as a vice chairman of BlackRock since 2012.
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Roberta Bondar
- Occupations
- biologistphotographerastronautphysicianneurologist
- Biography
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Roberta Lynn Bondar is a Canadian astronaut, neurologist and consultant. She is Canada's first female astronaut and the first neurologist in space.
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Graham Yost
- Occupations
- television directordirectorscreenwriteractorshowrunner
- Biography
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Graham John Yost is a Canadian film and television screenwriter. His best-known works are the films Speed, Broken Arrow, and Hard Rain and the TV series Justified.
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Catherine McKenna
- Occupations
- politicianinternational forum participantlawyer
- Biography
-
Catherine Mary McKenna is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as a Cabinet minister from 2015 to 2021. A member of the Liberal Party, McKenna was the minister of environment and climate change from 2015 to 2019 and minister of infrastructure and communities from 2019 to 2021. She was the member of Parliament (MP) for Ottawa Centre from 2015 to 2021, but decided not to seek reelection in the 2021 federal election.
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Qiyu Zhou
- Occupations
- chess player
- Biography
-
Qiyu Zhou, also known as Nemo Zhou and her online alias akaNemsko, is a Chinese-born Canadian chess player who holds the titles of Woman Grandmaster (WGM) and FIDE Master (FM), and is a live streamer on Twitch. She has been an under-14 girls' World Youth Champion, a Canadian women's national champion, and a Finnish women's national champion. Zhou has a peak FIDE rating of 2367 and a career-best ranking of No. 100 in the world among women. She is the first Canadian woman to earn the Woman Grandmaster or FIDE Master titles, and has represented Canada at the Women's Chess Olympiad since 2014.
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Mike Keenan
- Occupations
- ice hockey coachice hockey player
- Biography
-
Michael Edward Keenan is a Canadian professional hockey coach currently serving as head coach of the Italian men's national ice hockey team. Previously, he served as head coach and/or general manager with several NHL teams between 1984 and 2009. He currently ranks fifth in playoff wins with 96. He is noted for his early career success in coaching Team Canada to win the 1987 Canada Cup round-robin tournament in a thrilling best-of-three series finale against Viktor Tikhonov's Red Army team. He is one of three coaches to coach in a playoff Game 7 ten times, for which he won five times.
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Raine Maida
- Occupations
- singersongwriterrecord producer
- Biography
-
Raine Maida is a Canadian musician best known as being the lead vocalist and primary songwriter of the alternative rock band Our Lady Peace. He has come to be known for his unique countertenor nasal falsetto singing voice, as well as his cryptic and poetry-influenced song lyrics. He occasionally plays certain instruments, such as the acoustic guitar, while performing with Our Lady Peace. Following guitarist Mike Turner's departure from Our Lady Peace in 2001, Maida is the only remaining original member of the band.
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Anastasia Lin
- Enrolled in the University of Toronto
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- beauty pageant contestanthuman rights activistmodelactor
- Biography
-
Anastasia Lin is a Chinese-Canadian actress, model, beauty pageant titleholder and human rights advocate.
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Susan Li
- Occupations
- international forum participantjournalist
- Biography
-
Susan Li is a TV journalist who works for American television channel Fox Business Network.
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Johann Olav Koss
- Occupations
- physicianspeed skater
- Biography
-
Johann Olav Koss, CM, OLY is a former speed skater from Norway. He won four Olympic gold medals, including three at the 1994 Winter Olympics in his home country.
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Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga
- Occupations
- international forum participantpoliticianuniversity teacherpsychologist
- Biography
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Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga is a Latvian politician who served as the sixth President of Latvia from 1999 to 2007. She is the first and to date only woman to hold the post. She was elected President of Latvia in 1999 and re-elected for the second term in 2003.
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Arthur Currie
- Occupations
- military officer
- Biography
-
General Sir Arthur William Currie, GCMG, KCB was a senior officer of the Canadian Army who fought during World War I. He had the unique distinction of starting his military career on the very bottom rung as a pre-war militia gunner before rising through the ranks to become the first Canadian commander of the Canadian Corps. Currie's success was based on his ability to rapidly adapt brigade tactics to the exigencies of trench warfare, using set piece operations and bite-and-hold tactics. He is generally considered to be among the most capable commanders of the Western Front, and one of the finest commanders in Canadian military history.
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Stephen Leacock
- Occupations
- writershort story writereconomisthumoristpolitical scientist
- Biography
-
Stephen P. H. Butler Leacock was a Canadian teacher, political scientist, writer, and humourist. Between the years 1915 and 1925, he was the best-known English-speaking humourist in the world. He is known for his light humour along with criticisms of people's follies.
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Margaret MacMillan
- Enrolled in the University of Toronto
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts in history
- Occupations
- historianuniversity teacherinternational forum participant
- Biography
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Margaret Olwen MacMillan, is a Canadian historian and professor at the University of Oxford. She is former provost of Trinity College, Toronto, and professor of history at the University of Toronto and previously at Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University). MacMillan is an expert on history and international relations.
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Owen Pallett
- Occupations
- pianistsongwritercomposersinger
- Biography
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Michael James Owen Pallett is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist. Under their former pseudonym Final Fantasy, Pallett won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the album He Poos Clouds. Pallett is also known for their contributions to Arcade Fire, having toured with the band and been credited as an arranger and instrumentalist on each of their studio albums. In January 2014, Pallett and Arcade Fire member William Butler were nominated for Best Original Score at the 86th Academy Awards for their original score of the film Her (2013).
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Jeff Skoll
- Enrolled in the University of Toronto
- In 1987 graduated with Bachelor of Applied Science with Honours in electrical engineering
- Occupations
- managerfilm producerentrepreneurphilanthropistinvestor
- Biography
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Jeffrey Stuart Skoll, OC is a Canadian engineer, billionaire internet entrepreneur and film producer. He was the first president of eBay, eventually using the wealth this gave him to become a philanthropist, particularly through the Skoll Foundation, and his media company Participant Media. He founded an investment firm, Capricorn Investment Group, soon after and currently serves as its chairman. Born in Montreal, Quebec, he graduated from University of Toronto in 1987 and left Canada to attend Stanford University's business school in 1993.
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R. James Long
- Years
- 1938-.. (age 86)
- Occupations
- philosophermedieval historian
- Biography
-
Raymond James Long is an American academic and professor emeritus of philosophy at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. He is also a faculty member at St. John Fisher Seminary in Stamford, Connecticut. Long was the president of the Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy.
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Jeffrey Buttle
- Occupations
- figure skating choreographerfigure skater
- Biography
-
Jeffrey "Jeff" Buttle is a Canadian figure skater and choreographer. He is the 2006 Winter Olympics bronze medalist, the 2008 World champion, the 2002 and 2004 Four Continents champion and the 2005–2007 Canadian champion. On March 22, 2008, Buttle became the first Canadian man since Elvis Stojko in 1997 to win the World Title. He announced his retirement from competitive skating on September 10, 2008.
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Nima Arkani-Hamed
- Occupations
- theoretical physicistphysicist
- Biography
-
Nima Arkani-Hamed is an American-Canadian theoretical physicist of Iranian descent, with interests in high-energy physics, quantum field theory, string theory, cosmology and collider physics. Arkani-Hamed is a member of the permanent faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He is also director of the Carl P. Feinberg Cross-Disciplinary Program in Innovation at the Institute and director of The Center for Future High Energy Physics (CFHEP) in Beijing, China.
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Leslyn Lewis
- Occupations
- politicianlawyer
- Biography
-
Leslyn Lewis is a Canadian lawyer and politician who has served as the member of Parliament (MP) for Haldimand—Norfolk since 2021. A member of the Conservative Party, Lewis contested the party leadership in the 2020 leadership election, placing third. She was the first visible minority woman to run for the federal Conservative Party leadership. She is known for her socially conservative views.
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Jane Philpott
- Enrolled in the University of Toronto
- Graduated with Master of Public Health
- Occupations
- physicianpolitician
- Biography
-
Jane Philpott is a physician, academic administrator, and former Canadian politician who represented the riding of Markham—Stouffville in the House of Commons. Philpott was first elected in the 2015 federal election as a member of the Liberal Party and was appointed to the Cabinet of the 29th Canadian Ministry, headed by Justin Trudeau, on November 4, 2015. On March 4, 2019, Philpott resigned from her cabinet position as President of the Treasury Board over the SNC-Lavalin affair. On April 2, 2019, she and Jody Wilson-Raybould were both expelled from the Liberal caucus in the aftermath of the controversy.
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Mary Berg
- Occupations
- television celebrity chefcookcookbook writertelevision personality
- Biography
-
Mary Berg is a Canadian television host, author and cook, who rose to fame as the winner of the third season of MasterChef Canada. She has been the host of two television cooking shows, Mary's Kitchen Crush and Mary Makes It Easy, and the daytime talk show, The Good Stuff with Mary Berg. She has released three cookbooks, Kitchen Party, Well Seasoned and In Mary's Kitchen.
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Jay Bahadur
- Occupations
- journalistphotographerphotojournalist
- Biography
-
Jay Bahadur is a Canadian journalist and author. He became known for his reporting on piracy in Somalia, writing for The New York Times, The Financial Post, The Globe and Mail, and The Times of London. Bahadur has also worked as a freelance correspondent for CBS News and he has advised the U.S. State Department on piracy. His first book, The Pirates of Somalia: Inside Their Hidden World (2011), is his account of living with the pirates for several months in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region in the northeast of Somalia. Bahadur lives in Nairobi, Kenya.
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Barbara Amiel
- Occupations
- writerjournalist
- Biography
-
Barbara Joan Estelle Amiel, Baroness Black of Crossharbour, DSS, is a British-Canadian conservative journalist, writer, and socialite. She is married to former media proprietor Conrad Black.
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Dillon Casey
- Occupations
- film actorscreenwritertelevision actoractorfilm producer
- Biography
-
Dillon Francis Casey is an American-Canadian actor and producer. He is known for his role as Sean Pierce in The CW's action-thriller television series Nikita.
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Michael Spence
- Occupations
- university teacherscientisteconomistprofessorinternational forum participant
- Biography
-
Andrew Michael Spence is a Canadian-American economist and Nobel laureate.
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Michael Coren
- Occupations
- journalistwriterradio personalitytelevision presenter
- Biography
-
Michael Coren is a British-Canadian writer and clergyman. A long-time television personality, Coren hosted The Michael Coren Show on the Crossroads Television System from 1999 to 2011 before moving to the Sun News Network to host The Arena with Michael Coren, from 2011 until the channel's demise in early 2015. He has also been a long-time radio personality, particularly on Toronto talk radio station CFRB. Coren is currently a columnist for the Toronto Star and iPolitics.
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Michael Chong
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Michael David Chong is a Canadian politician who has represented the Ontario riding of Wellington—Halton Hills in the House of Commons since 2004. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the cabinet of Prime Minister Stephen Harper as Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Minister of Sport, as well as the President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada from February 6, 2006 to November 27, 2006. On September 8, 2020, Chong was appointed the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs.
