Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning World War II veterans. Carleton was chartered as a university by the provincial government in 1952 through The Carleton University Act, which was then amended in 1957, giving the institution its current name. The university is named after the now-dissolved Carleton County, which included the city of Ottawa at the time the university was founded.
Maureen Anne McTeer is a Canadian author and lawyer, married to Joe Clark, the 16th Prime Minister of Canada.
Eugene Alfred Forsey served in the Senate of Canada from 1970 to 1979. He was considered to be one of Canada's foremost constitutional experts.
Ellen Louks Fairclough was a Canadian politician. A Progressive Conservative member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1950 to 1963, she was the first woman ever to serve in the Canadian Cabinet.
Marie Thérèse Casgrain, ., née Forget was a French Canadian feminist, reformer, politician and senator. She was a leader in the fight for women's right to vote in the province of Quebec, as well as the first woman to lead a political party in Canada. In her later life she opposed nuclear weapons and was a consumer activist. A strong federalist, one of her last political actions, at age 83, was to intervene on the "No" side in the 1980 Quebec sovereignty referendum.
Winona Grace MacInnis was a socialist Canadian politician. She was the first woman from British Columbia elected to the House of Commons of Canada, as well as the first wife of a former Canadian Member of Parliament to be elected to the House of Commons in her own right, rather than by directly succeeding her husband in a by-election following his death.
Doris Hilda Anderson, was a Canadian author, journalist and women's rights activist. She is best known as the editor of the women's magazine Chatelaine, mixing traditional content with thorny social issues of the day, putting the magazine on the front lines of the feminist movement in Canada. Her activism beyond the magazine helped drive social and political change, enshrining women's equality in the Canadian Constitution and making her one of the most well-known names in the women's movement in Canada.
Florence Bayard Bird, was a Canadian broadcaster, journalist, and Senator. She is best known for her work as chairwoman of Royal Commission on the Status of Women.
Françoise David is a former spokesperson of Québec solidaire – a left-wing, feminist, and sovereigntist political party in the province of Quebec, Canada. She was elected to serve as the Member of the National Assembly of Quebec for the riding of Gouin in the 2012 Quebec election, and then again in the 2014 Quebec election. Quebec Solidaire was born from the merger of Option Citoyenne with l'Union des Forces Progressistes. She is the author of the book/manifesto Bien commun recherché – une option citoyenne which attempts to combine the concepts of "common good", social justice, ecology and economic democracy into a coherent political doctrine. On January 19, 2017, Françoise David announced her immediate retirement as both party spokesperson and as a Member of the National Assembly due to her health.
Nancy Ruth Rowell Jackman is a Canadian heiress, activist, philanthropist and former Canadian senator. She was appointed to the Senate by Prime Minister Paul Martin on March 24, 2005. While initially appointed as a Progressive Conservative, she joined the Conservative caucus on March 28, 2006. She was Canada's first openly lesbian senator. She retired from the Senate on January 6, 2017, upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.
Jean Elizabeth Morrison Pigott was a Canadian politician and businesswoman. She served as the member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Ottawa—Carleton from 1976 to 1979 as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. She later served as chair of the National Capital Commission (NCC) from 1985 to 1992.
Lisa Anne MacLeod is a Canadian politician who represents Nepean in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Elected in 2006, MacLeod is a member of the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party. She previously served as the Ontario minister of children, community and social services from 2018 to 2019 and Ontario minister of heritage, sport, tourism and culture industries from 2019 to 2022.
Flora Isabel MacDonald, was a Canadian politician and humanitarian. Canada's first female foreign minister, she was also one of the first women to vie for leadership of a major Canadian political party, the Progressive Conservatives. She became a close ally of Prime Minister Joe Clark, serving in his cabinet from 1979 to 1980, as well as in the cabinet of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney from 1984 to 1988. In her later life, she was known for her humanitarian work abroad. Jimmy Carter has said that 90% of the contribution to freeing American hostages in Iran should be attributed to her and Kenneth D. Taylor. The City of Ottawa recognised MacDonald on July 11, 2018, by naming a new bicycle and footbridge over the Rideau Canal the Passerelle Flora Footbridge.
Avril Phaedra Douglas "Kim" Campbell is a Canadian former politician, diplomat, lawyer, and writer who served as the 19th prime minister of Canada from June 25 to November 4, 1993. Campbell is the first and so far only female prime minister of Canada. Prior to becoming the final Progressive Conservative (PC) prime minister, she was also the first woman to serve as minister of justice in Canadian history and the first woman to become minister of defence in a NATO member state.
Monique Frize,, née Aubry is a Canadian biomedical engineer and professor, knowledgeable in medical instruments and decision support systems. Notably, her scientific research and outreach efforts led her to receive the prestigious distinction of Officer of the Order of Canada.
Kimberly Pate is a Canadian politician who has served as a senator from Ontario since November 10, 2016, sitting with the Independent Senators Group (ISG) caucus. Pate was appointed on the advice of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Karen Messing is a Canadian geneticist and ergonomist. She is an emeritus professor in the biological sciences at the University of Quebec at Montreal. She is known for her work on gender, environmental health and ergonomics. She was given the Jacques Rousseau Award in 1993, the Governor General's Award in 2009, and was named an Officer of the Order of Canada on December 27, 2019.
Merrilee K. Fullerton is a Canadian physician and former politician who represented Kanata—Carleton in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2018 to 2023. A member of the Ontario Progressive Conservative (PC) Party, Fullerton was the minister of training, colleges, and universities from 2018 to 2019, minister of long-term care from 2019 to 2021, and minister of children, community and social services from 2021 to 2023.
Helen Levine was a Canadian feminist and activist known for introducing feminist curricula into Canadian social work education. She taught in Ottawa, Ontario, at Carleton University's School of Social Work, from 1972 to 1988, where she introduced radical feminism into the school's structural approach to social work. Levine was recognized for her achievement in advancing the status of women: she was awarded Canada's Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case, in 1989.
Julie S. Lalonde is a Franco-Ontarian women's rights advocate, author, and educator. She has created multiple feminist organizations and education campaigns, and has offered many training sessions surrounding sexual violence, harassment, and bystander intervention. Her first book, Resilience is Futile: The Life and Death and Life of Julie S. Lalonde, was published in February 2020.
