Joy MacPhail is a former Canadian politician in British Columbia. A longtime member of the British Columbia New Democratic Party, she served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from 1991 to 2005 and as a Minister of the Crown from 1993–1999, and 2000-2001.

MacPhail was born in Hamilton, Ontario, but lived in Vancouver for almost two decades. She studied economics at the University of Western Ontario, and later earned a degree in labour studies at the London School of Economics. She has one son.

MacPhail was first elected to the British Columbia Legislature in 1991 as the MLA for Vancouver-Hastings, and served in the cabinets of three NDP premiers. Under Premier Mike Harcourt, she served as Minister of Social Services from 1993 to 1996. Under Premier Glen Clark she served a short stint as Minister of Social Services, then as Minister of Health from 1996 to 1998. MacPhail's final cabinet position in the Clark government was as Minister of Finance from 1998 to 1999, when she quit the Clark government at a time that it was suffering from increasing dissent and scandal.

Agnes Campbell Macphail (March 24, 1890 – February 13, 1954) was the first woman to be elected to the Canadian House of Commons, and one of the first two women elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Active throughout her life in progressive Canadian politics, Macphail worked for two separate parties and promoted her ideas through column-writing, activist organizing, and legislation.

Agnes Macphail was born to Dougald McPhail and Henrietta Campbell in Proton Township, Grey County, Ontario on March 24, 1890. (Although her surname was spelled "McPhail" at birth, she discovered during a trip to Scotland that her family's surname had been "Macphail" and changed her name to reflect this.) She was raised as a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a church within the Latter Day Saint movement.

Following her schooling at Owen Sound Collegiate and Vocational Institute she attended the teachers college in Stratford, and afterwards taught in schools in southwest Ontario. While working in Sharon, Macphail became active politically, joining the United Farmers of Ontario (UFO) and its women's organization, the United Farm Women of Ontario. She also became a columnist for the Farmers' Sun around this time.

Officially launched on April 5, 2004, The Greatest Canadian was a television program series by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to determine who is considered to be the greatest Canadian of all time, at least according to those who watched and participated in the program. The project was inspired by the BBC series Great Britons.

Radio-Canada, the CBC's French-language arm, was not involved in The Greatest Canadian project, reducing the input of Canada's French-Canadian minority over the results. The CBC did make its website available in French, however.

The "Greatest Canadian" was not decided by a simple popular poll, but was instead chosen through a two-step voting process.

On October 17, 2004 the CBC aired the first part of The Greatest Canadian television series. In it, the bottom 40 of the top 50 "greatest" choices were revealed, in order of popularity, determined by polls conducted by E-mail, website, telephone, and letter. To prevent bias during the second round of voting, the top ten nominees were presented alphabetically rather than by order of first round popularity.

Christina Joan "Christy" Clark, MLA (born October 29, 1965) is a Canadian politician who currently serves as the 35th Premier of British Columbia, Canada. Clark was sworn in as premier on March 14, 2011, after she won the leadership of the British Columbia Liberal Party in the 2011 leadership election on February 26, 2011. She is the second, and longest serving, woman to serve as premier of British Columbia, after Rita Johnston in 1991.

Clark served as a Member of the Legislature from 1996 to 2005, serving as Deputy Premier from 2001 to 2005 during the first term of Gordon Campbell's government. She left politics in 2005, and became the host of an afternoon radio talk show At the time of her leadership victory, Clark was not a member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. She re-entered the legislature after winning a by-election on May 11, 2011, in Vancouver-Point Grey, the seat left vacant by Campbell.

Clark was born in Burnaby, British Columbia on October 29, 1965. Her father, Jim, was a teacher and a three-time candidate for the Legislative Assembly and her mother, Mavis, was a family counsellor. Clark attended Simon Fraser University (SFU), the Sorbonne in France and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. She studied Political Science and Religious Studies but did not graduate.