Can You Name These Famous Canadian Heroes?
Updated: Jun. 26, 2020Test your knowledge of Canada’s best-known heroes and heroines.
Name This Canadian Hero
Woman who headed Canadian production of Hawker Hurricane fighter planes flown by Canadian and Allied airmen in the Battle of Britain.
Answer: Elsie MacGill
Known as the “Queen of the Hurricanes,” Elsie MacGill was the first woman to earn her master’s degree in aeronautical engineering (which she received in 1929) and became the first female engineer in Canadian history.
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Name This Canadian Hero
Man who rode the Great Wall of China in a wheelchair to raise money for spinal cord research.
Answer: Rick Hansen
A three-time world champion in wheelchair racing, Hansen wheeled more than 40,000 kilometres in 34 countries to raise awareness for spinal cord research and wheelchair sports between 1985 and 1987.
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Answer: Craig Kielburger
Kielburger was inspired to start WE Charity—formerly known as Free the Children—in 1995, when he read a newspaper article about the murder of 12-year-old Iqbal Masih, a former slave in Pakistan. Masih became an activist against child labour following his escape.
Name This Canadian Hero
Woman who walked 20 miles through the bush and swamps to warn British soldiers of a pending American attack in the War of 1812. (A hint would be: chocolates!)
Answer: Laura Secord
In 1913, Frank P. O’Connor, the founder of a Toronto-based chocolate business, chose her name for his company because she was “an icon of courage, devotion and loyalty.”
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Name This Canadian Hero
Young man with an artificial leg who began in N.L, to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research in 1981.
Answer: Terry Fox
The annual Terry Fox Run has now been held in over 60 countries around the world, making it the largest one-day fundraiser in cancer research.
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Answer: Viola Desmond
Prior to her 1946 arrest, Desmond mentored many young Black women in Nova Scotia through her beauty school business. She died in 1965 at the age of 50. In 2010, she was granted a posthumous pardon—the first ever in Canada.
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Name This Canadian Hero
A Siksika leader’s quote: “What is life? The flash of a firefly in the night. The breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. The little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.”
Answer: Chief Crowfoot
Crowfoot played an essential role in the passing of Treaty 7 in 1877: a deal in which the Canadian Crown promised the Blackfoot Confederacy financial compensation, hunting privileges and reservations in exchange for land rights of what is now southern Alberta.
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Answer: Joan O’Malley
The new flag made its first official appearance on Feb. 15, 1965—now the National Flag of Canada Day.
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Name This Canadian Hero
A woman who raised sheep dogs, wrote stories and found her inspiration for painting in the tall forests and Aboriginal villages of the Pacific Coast.
Answer: Emily Carr
Closely associated with the Group of Seven, Carr was one of the few major female painters in North America and Europe.
Next, discover the surprising things that were actually invented in Canada!