Explorer Samuel de Champlain has a plaque from the Historic Sites and Monuments Board that rests underneath his Ottawa statue.

If so, then someone should nominate you to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. After passing the screening process, the board considers your importance to Canadian history and then makes recommendations to the environment minister, who makes the final decision.

The process normally takes more than a year — and, by the way, you have to have been dead for 25 years, unless you were prime minister.

Even if your name survives the process, you still may not receive a commemorative plaque.

Tourists and history buffs are familiar with the historical places operated by Parks Canada — such as the Halifax Citadel, Kingston’s Fort Henry, and the Laurier House in Ottawa. However, the government pays tribute to people of national significance, too.

The Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, created in 1919, meets twice a year to select historic people, places, and events. The board annually receives about 100 nominations, says Michel Audy, the board’s executive secretary. About 30 end up being designated as nationally significant by Environment Secretary David Anderson.

Need for national stature

How does the board choose who’s historic and who’s not?

"Some people are of local or provincial significance," Audy says. "At the end of the day you have to demonstrate the person had an impact on Canadian history."

Almost 600 people are recognized. They range from explorers and generals to nurses and poets. Prime ministers are automatically designated after they die. That’s why Pierre Trudeau became a national historic person after his death in September 2000.

But about 90 national historic people still do not have a commemorative plaques. They include:

• Prime ministers Alexander Campbell, Lester B. Pearson and Trudeau
• Agnes Macphail, the first female member of the House of Commons
• British-born conservationist and writer Archibald Belaney — known to the world as Grey Owl

Wars of words

Audy says some are without plaques because there’s a backlog for installing them. One reason for this is the debates that take place over how the plaques should be worded.

Pierre Trudeau became a national historic person after passing away in 2000, but a location has yet to be chosen for his plaque.

"Sometimes we never get to a resolution," he says. This is because Parks Canada and the board work closely with local groups and other interested parties, and that can make for a lot of discussion.

A plaque’s wording can create disputes, a lot of editing and inevitable delays, experts say.

"When you’re putting something in bronze that has the government’s name in it, you have to be sure," says Gerald Friesen, a University of Manitoba history professor and president of the Canadian Historical Association. "Sometimes it can be hard to agree, even on 50 or 75 words."

Another issue is the question of what location is most closely associated with the person, especially if it's a prime ministers. After Parliament Hill, the prime ministers' homesteads are the next choice, but even that can pose problems. Audy points to John Diefenbaker, whose family moved often when he was young. The board settled on Prince Albert, Sask., the site of Diefenbaker’s law office.

History meets technology

Friesen served on a similar historical board in Manitoba. He says there’s still room for official plaques — even though most Canadians are more likely to discover history through television and other mass media.

An alternative way to present information besides on plaques is through publications and the Internet, Audy says. And some historic persons are recognized in other ways.

A government program exists to preserve the grave sites of prime ministers.

War of 1812 heroine Laura Secord was designated in 2002, and she has not yet received a plaque — yet her homestead at Queenston, Ont., is a local historic site, with a stone monument nearby.

Board chairman Richard Alway says the board is focused on making sure the role of women in Canadian history is properly recognized.

"There used to be an emphasis on political and military history," he says. "What is often missed are the people who are also significant in the role of the nation, but haven’t had a lot written about them."

The nine most recent national historic persons were announced in 2002 and 2003. They include Secord, African-Canadian publishers Mary and Henry Bibb, and Michael Anthony Fleming, a 19th-century Newfoundland bishop.

Related Links Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada Directory of Canada's designations of national significance The Canadian encyclopedia online