15 Incredible Destinies in Quebec History

By Catherine Ferland and Marilyne Houde

In the vein of the critical and commercial success 15 femmes qui ont fait l’histoire du Québec, set off to discover fifteen personalities whose extraordinary destinies have, in one way or another, shaped the history of Quebec. The 15 personalities: La Bolduc, Maurice Richard (the "Rocket"), Léo Major (the "Quebec Rambo"), Maggie Sirois (the "world's strongest woman"), Harriet Brooks (Canada's first nuclear physicist), Kondiaronk (Wendat chief, architect of the Great Peace of Montreal), René Lévesque, Oscar Peterson (pianist, "the man with 4 hands"), Jean Guilda (Quebec's first drag artist), Éléonore de Grandmaison (first female seigneur in New France), Agathe de Saint-Père (pioneer of Quebec manufacturing entrepreneurship), Marguerite Vincent Lawinonkié (famous Indigenous craftswoman and businesswoman), Curé Labelle ("the King of the North"), Emma Albani (first Quebec opera singer of international stature), Joseph-Claver Casavant (the most important organ builder in Canada)