Famous Canadian Graves & Burial Sites

I visited the graves of three generations of the Smythe family, each buried in a different cemetery across Toronto and Muskoka. They were a family of achievers, but like many families, they were divided by conflict and discord, and their story has slowly faded from memory. Generation One: Albert Ernest Stafford Smythe Toronto Necropolis Albert […]

On my walk through the glen at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto, many hundred miles from Florenceville, New Brunswick, I came upon the grave of Canada’s “Potato King” and French fry pioneer, Wallace McCain, co-founder, with his brother Harrison, of McCain Foods. The brothers founded New Brunswick-based McCain Foods Ltd. in 1956, selling over $152,000 […]

On my walk through historic St. James-the-Less Cemetery in downtown Toronto, I visited the grave of one of Canada’s greatest composers, conductors, music educators and writers, Godfrey Ridout. Godfrey was born in Toronto in 1918 and studied at the Toronto Conservatory of Music in the very city where he was raised. That alone set him […]

On my walk in High Park, on the west side of Toronto, I visited the historic iron gated grave and monument built from granite boulders of the generous couple who, in 1873, gave their cherished estate to the citizens of Toronto — the land we know today as High Park: John and Jemima Howard. John […]

On my late winter visit to Riverside Cemetery in Lindsay, Ontario, with snow and frost slowly melting, I visited the grave of Ontario’s 16th premier — a man known in his day as “Old Man Ontario” and “the Silver Fox,” Leslie Frost. Leslie was born in Orillia, Ontario, and later attended the University of Toronto. […]

On my walk through Toronto’s Necropolis Cemetery in Cabbagetown, I stopped at the scattering garden where the cremated remains of Carol Anne Letheren rest. Carol Anne was born in Owen Sound, Ontario, and raised in Guelph. A natural athlete, she competed in a range of sports, including four years of varsity volleyball at the University […]

On my rainy day walk at Park Lawn Cemetery in Toronto’s west end, I visited the family plot of Roy Victor Jones, a Canadian soldier from Toronto who died at Vimy Ridge during the First World War. He’s buried overseas at Canadian Cemetery No. 2, on the grounds of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in […]

On my walk at Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, I visited the memorials remembering the victims and unidentified Catholic dead who perished when a collision of the Mont-Blanc and the Imo ships in Halifax harbour triggered the largest man-made explosion before the nuclear age. On December 6, 1917, a French cargo ship […]

On my arrival at Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, I visited Garrison Cemetery, among the oldest cemeteries in Canada and home to the oldest surviving English gravestone. It’s also the resting place of Rose Fortune, a Black businesswoman and Canada’s first self-appointed port constable, who kept order on the Annapolis Royal wharf for over two decades. […]

On my visit to Mount Pleasant Cemetery in midtown Toronto, I found the family plots of three generations of Weston’s. A dynasty started by George Weston and eventually passed on to his son, W. Garfield Weston, and finally to his son, Galen Weston. George Weston  It began years earlier when the Weston family relocated from […]

On my visit to Park Lawn Cemetery in Toronto’s west end, I visited the grave of the country doctor best known for delivering and caring for the Dionne quintuplets — the first quintuplets known to survive early infancy anywhere in the world. On May 28, 1934, Dr. Dafoe, who ran a medical practice in Callander, […]

Visit Willowbank Cemetery in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and discover the remarkable story of Mona Parsons, a Canadian who joined the Dutch resistance, helped Allied airmen escape during World War II, survived Nazi imprisonment, and returned home largely unrecognized.