Paul Gross
Known foremost as an actor, Canadian Paul Gross is also a writer, producer and director. His portrayal of Constable Benton Fraser on Due South, a drama series he co-wrote and executive produced, won international acclaim. His directorial debut, Men with Brooms, broke Canadian box office records. Paul was the recipient of a Golden Nymph Award for Best Lead Actor at the Monte Carlo Television Festival for his role in H2O, a mini-series that he also co-wrote and executive produced. For his portrayal of Geoffrey Tenant in the critically acclaimed series Slings & Arrows Paul recently picked up his fifth Gemini Award. A career highlight was playing Hamlet to record-breaking audiences at the Stratford Festival in 2000. Passchendaele, a feature film that Paul wrote, directed and starred in will be the Official Opening Night Film of the Toronto International Film Festival 2008 and will be released in theatres in October 2008.

Adrienne Clarkson
Universally acknowledged to have transformed the office of Governor-General, The Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson was the 26th person to hold this office. The energy, enthusiasm and knowledge of Canada she brought to Canadians in her six years in Ottawa have left an indelible mark in our nation's history. Through a long career at CBC, she created and starred in numerous series including the fifth estate and Adrienne Clarkson Presents. She has been showered with honourary doctorates from St. Petersburg in Russian, Siena in Italy and twenty-one universities in Canada. Her passion for Canada is evident in everything she has done. Her memoirs, Heart Matters, have just been published by Penguin Viking Canada.

Christopher Moore
Chris is a Governor-General's Award winning historian who writes widely on Canadian history, including a column in The Beaver and a blog at www.christophermoore.ca

Margaret Conrad
Professor Conrad holds degrees from Acadia (BA Honours History 1967) and the University of Toronto (MA 1968 and PhD 1979). A member of the History Department of Acadia University from 1969 to 2002, Professor Conrad was awarded a Canada Research Chair in Atlantic Canada Studies at the University of New Brunswick in 2002. She also served as an adjunct Professor of History at Dalhousie from 1992 to 2002. In 1995 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and, from 1996 to 1998, held Nancy's Chair in Women's Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University. She is the recipient of the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal (2002) and is an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Paul Franklin
Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Paul joined the Canadian military in 1999 and was posted to 1 Field Ambulance in Edmonton, Alberta as a company Emergency Medical Technician. Paul used his skills and experience to organize the Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) courses and Advanced Combat Related First Aid giving fellow soldiers the knowledge they need to save lives in combat situations. In 2006, Paul lost his legs as a result of a suicide bomber explosion in Afghanistan. Two years after his amputation, Paul has found a new passion and purpose in life. He lives each day to the fullest and encourages fellow amputees with his positive outlook and commitment to furthering amputee care through the charity simply called Franklin.

RH Thomson
Thomson was born 1947 in Richmond Hill, Ontario. He studied at the University of Toronto, Ontario, the National Theatre School and in England. He is now one of the Canada's leading film, television and stage actors. R.H. Thomson has played lead roles in many of the country's major venues including Manitoba Theatre Centre (Death and the Maiden), Canadian Stage (Oleanna, Inexpressible Island), Theatre Passe Muraille (The Little Years), Tarragon Theatre (Daylight Saving), Toronto Free Theatre (Hamlet), Toronto Workshop Productions (The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs), Stratford Festival (Julius Caesar, Merry Wives of Windsor, Mary Stuart), Theatre New Brunswick (Waiting for Godot) and Bastion Theatre (Comedians). More recently he appeared in David Young's Clout at the National Arts Centre (January, 2001).

Mr. Thomson has also directed at Neptune Theatre, Theatre Plus, for Bard on the Beach, Ship's Company (recently, autumn/summer 1999, David French's Salt-Water Moon) and Theatre in the Park. Also, his own play, The Lost Boys, (a solo in which he performs) was presented at Great Canadian Theatre Company in March, 2000 and at Canadian Stage in February, 2002.

Charlotte Gray
Charlotte Gray's most recent book is Nellie McClung, a short biography of Canada's leading women's rights activist in the Penguin Series, Extraordinary Canadians. Her 2006 bestseller, Reluctant Genius: The Passionate Life and Inventive Mind of Alexander Graham Bell, won the Donald Creighton Award for Ontario History and the City of Ottawa Book Award. It was also nominated for the Nereus Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize, the National Business Book Award, the Trillium Award and the Ottawa Book Award. Her previous five books, which include Sisters in the Wilderness, The Lives of Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill, Flint & Feather, The Life and Times of E. Pauline Johnson and A Museum Called Canada, were all award-winning bestsellers. In 2004 Charlotte was the advocate for Sir John A. Macdonald in the CBC series: The Greatest Canadian. An Adjunct Research Professor in the Department of History at Carleton University, she is the 2003 Recipient of the Pierre Berton Award for distinguished achievement in popularizing Canadian history. She sits on the boards of both the Dominion Institute and the Canadian National History Society, and is a member of the Historica Council. Charlotte lives in Ottawa, has three sons and is a member of the Order of Canada.

John Babcock
Born on July 23, 1900, Mr. John Babcock grew up on a farm in Kingston, Ontario as part of a family that included 13 children. When he was quite young, his father died in a tree-cutting accident. Despite this devastating loss, Mr. Babcock went on to bravely serve his country in the First World War.

He was 15 years old when he joined the 146th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Sydenham (near Kingston), Ontario. A few months later, he arrived in England. He was transferred to reserve battalions and ended up with the Boys Battalion (also known as the "Young Soldier's Battalion") in 1917, waiting until he turned 18 to go to the front lines. The war ended first.

Mr. Babcock would later move to the United States, where he then served in the American Army from 1921 to 1924. Mr. Babcock married Dorothy (Dot) after his first wife, Elsie, passed away in the late 1970s.

Mr. Babcock and his wife Dorothy live in Spokane, Washington, where he still reads voraciously. He's also taken up flying lessons and became a pilot when he was 65 years old. In recent years, he completed his high school degree via correspondence courses and has taken local college courses. He can recite the alphabet backwards without hesitation and spell out his name in Morse code. Mr. Babcock is an avid traveller and takes daily walks to maintain his good health.