100 Notable alumni of Western University

Pamela Damoff is a Canadian politician, who represented the riding of Oakville North—Burlington in the House of Commons of Canada from 2015 to 2025 as a member of the Liberal Party. She represented Ward 2 on the Oakville Town Council from 2010 to 2015.

Deborah Drake Matthews ECO is a former Canadian politician who served as the 10th deputy premier of Ontario from 2013 to 2018. A member of the Liberal Party, Matthews was the member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for London North Centre from 2003 to 2018, and was a cabinet minister from 2008 to 2018 in the governments of Dalton McGuinty and...

Cameron Bailey is a Canadian film critic and festival programmer, who is the CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival.

Diane Finley PC is a former Canadian politician. From 2006 through 2015, she served in the cabinet of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Her ministerial portfolios included Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Minister Responsible for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, or CMHC, and Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. She was a member...

Paul Wells is a Canadian journalist and pundit. He was briefly a national affairs columnist for the Toronto Star in 2016–2017. Before that, he was a columnist for Maclean's for thirteen years; his column originally appeared in the back page slot famously occupied for many years by Allan Fotheringham but was subsequently moved to the front of the magazine with...

Boris Brott, OC OOnt OQ was a Canadian conductor and motivational speaker. He was one of the most internationally recognized Canadian conductors, having conducted on stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall, La Scala, and Covent Garden. He was known for his innovative methods of introducing classical music to new audiences. Over his career, he commissioned, performed, and recorded a...

Karen Ruth Stintz is a Canadian politician who represented Ward 16 Eglinton—Lawrence on Toronto City Council from 2003 to 2014 and was the chair of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) from 2010 to 2014. She was the Conservative Party of Canada's candidate for the riding of Eglinton—Lawrence in the 2025 Canadian federal election.

John Garth Turner PC is a Canadian business journalist, author, entrepreneur, broadcaster, financial advisor, and politician, twice elected as a Member of the House of Commons, former Minister of National Revenue and leadership candidate for the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. After serving as a PC MP between 1988 and 1993, he returned to political life as a candidate for...

Robert Duncan Coutts is a Canadian musician, best known for being the bassist for Our Lady Peace since 1995.

Louise Pitre is a Canadian actress in musical theatre. She performs on Broadway and in Canada. She is best known for her role as Donna Sheridan in the ABBA-themed musical Mamma Mia!, which earned her a 2002 Tony Award nomination.

Scott Alexander Russell is a Canadian sports writer and former sportscaster.

Cheryl Gallant MP is a Canadian politician who represents the riding of Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke in the House of Commons of Canada. She is a member of the Conservative Party of Canada. Along with fellow MP Scott Reid, they are the longest-serving current Conservative MPs, and the last two MPs still serving who were members of the Canadian Alliance.

Howard Lindzon is a Canadian author, financial analyst, technical analyst and super angel investor. Lindzon manages a hedge fund, serves as managing partner of the holding company Social Leverage, limited partner at Knight's Bridge Capital Partners, and is the co-founder of StockTwits. Lindzon was named one of The Best Tweets for Your Money in 2013 by Barron's.

Michael Bennett Medline is a Canadian businessman. From 2017 until 2025, he was the president and CEO of Empire Company Limited, a Canadian company whose core businesses includes food retailing, conducted through wholly owned Sobeys Inc., and related real estate. He was succeeded as CEO by Pierre St-Laurent.

Filomena Tassi PC is a Canadian politician who served as the Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario from 2022 to 2024. A member of the Liberal Party, Tassi represented the riding of Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas in the House of Commons, taking office following the 2015 federal election. She served as the Minister of Public Services and...

Sir Adam Beck was a Canadian politician and hydroelectricity advocate who founded the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario.

Glenn Robert Stevens AC is an Australian economist who was the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia from 2006 to 2016.

Linda Hasenfratz CM is a Canadian businesswoman, the president, chairman, and CEO of Linamar since 2002, when she succeeded her father Frank Hasenfratz.

Shuman Ghosemajumder is a Canadian technologist, entrepreneur, and author. He is the former click fraud czar at Google, the author of works on technology and business including the Open Music Model, and co-founder of TeachAids. He was chief technology officer for Shape Security, which was acquired in 2020 for $1 billion by F5, where he became head of artificial intelligence....

David Richmond-Peck is a Canadian actor who has appeared in over 70 film and television roles in Canada and the United States since 2000.

Thomas Christopher Collins is a Canadian cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was the Metropolitan Archbishop of Toronto from 2007 to 2023, the Bishop of Saint Paul in Alberta from 1997 to 1999, and Archbishop of Edmonton from 1999 to 2006. He was elevated to the rank of Cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI on 18 February 2012.

Alexander Robert Pruss is a Canadian philosopher and mathematician. He is currently a professor of philosophy and the co-director of graduate studies in philosophy at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

Alberto Dahik Garzozi is an Ecuadorian politician of Lebanese ancestry. He was Vice President of Ecuador from 10 August 1992 to 11 October 1995 during the Sixto Durán Ballén administration.

Donald Ross Getty OC AOE was a Canadian athlete, businessman, and politician who served as the 11th premier of Alberta between 1985 and 1992.

Carol Off is a Canadian journalist, commentator, and author formerly associated with CBC Television and CBC Radio.

Michael A. Turner, also known as Emtee, is an English-born Canadian musician and producer. He is best known as the former lead guitarist and founding member of the band Our Lady Peace and current member of alternative rock supergroup Crash Karma.

John Parmenter Robarts PC CC QC was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 17th premier of Ontario from 1961 to 1971. He was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario.

Kevin Newman is a Canadian journalist and news anchor. From 2001 to 2010, he was the chief anchor and executive editor of Global National. In August 2014, he became a substitute anchor of CTV National News with Lisa LaFlamme and in September 2016 was named host and managing editor of the weekly Investigative program W5.

Timothy Patrick Hudak is a former Canadian politician who led the Ontario Progressive Conservative (PC) Party from 2009 to 2014. Hudak was a member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) from 1995 to 2016 and was also the leader of the Opposition in Ontario when he was PC party leader. He served as a cabinet minister in the governments of Mike Harris...

Tomson Highway OC is an Indigenous Canadian playwright, novelist, children's author and musician. He is best known for his plays The Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, both of which won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play and the Floyd S. Chalmers Award.

John David Jackson was a Canadian–American theoretical physicist. He was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a faculty senior scientist emeritus at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Bjarni Valdimar Tryggvason was an Icelandic-born Canadian engineer and a NRC/CSA astronaut. He served as a Payload Specialist on Space Shuttle mission STS-85 in 1997, a nearly 12-day mission to study changes in the Earth's atmosphere. Bjarni is the first, and as of 2024, only Canadian astronaut of Icelandic birth.

Muriel Fay Humphrey Brown was an American politician who served as the second lady of the United States from 1965 to 1969, and as a U.S. Senator from Minnesota in 1978. She was married to the 38th vice president of the United States, Hubert Humphrey. Following her husband's death, she was appointed to his seat in the United States Senate,...

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy is a technology executive and entrepreneur. She is the CEO of Xero, a New Zealand-based accounting software company, and former president of StubHub. She has worked at various technology and media companies, including Google, Amazon and Sky UK, Yodlee (YODL), and Polyvore. She was the founder of Joyus (often stylized as JOYUS), a video shopping platform, and...

Andrew Feldmár is a Hungarian-born psychotherapist living in Canada. He is most known as the Hungarian follower of R. D. Laing, the Scottish psychiatrist who was one of the leading figures of the counterculture of the 1960s. Laing, who later became his friend, was his teacher and therapist first. Following his mentor, Feldmár practices and popularizes a form of radical...

Lirim Hajrullahu is a Kosovan-Canadian professional football placekicker for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He is a two-time Grey Cup champion after winning with the Argonauts in 2017 and 2024, was named a CFL All-Star in 2025, and is a four-time CFL East Division All-Star (2016, 2019, 2024, 2025). Hajrullahu played CIS football at Western Ontario...

David Robert Peterson PC OOnt ECO KC is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 20th premier of Ontario from 1985 to 1990. He was the first Liberal officeholder in 42 years, ending the so-called Tory dynasty.

Jennifer Gunter is a Canadian-American gynecologist, a New York Times columnist covering women's health, an author, and a specialist in chronic pain medicine and vulvovaginal disorders.

Marion Jean Woodman was a Canadian mythopoeic author, poet, analytical psychologist and women's movement figure. She wrote and spoke extensively about the dream theories of Carl Jung. Her works include Addiction to Perfection, The Pregnant Virgin and Bone: Dying into Life.

Heather Dorothy Stefanson is a Canadian former politician who served as the 24th premier of Manitoba from 2021 to 2023; the first woman in the province's history to hold that role.

Carla Collins is a Canadian comedian, actress, television host, and writer.

Stephen Shawn Poloz OC is a Canadian banker who served as the ninth governor of the Bank of Canada from 2013 to 2020. He is also a member of the board of directors for the Bank for International Settlements.

Eric Peter Kaufmann is a Canadian professor of politics at the University of Buckingham. He was appointed in October 2023, following his resignation from his post at Birkbeck, University of London, after two decades of work, citing political differences. He is a specialist on Orangeism in Northern Ireland, nationalism, and political and religious demography. He has authored, co-authored, and edited...

Jennifer Frances Hedger is a Canadian television personality and the co-host of TSN's nightly sports news program SportsCentre.

Edward Samuel Rogers III is a Canadian businessman who serves as the Executive Chair of Rogers Communications. He is also the Chair of the Rogers Control Trust, and in that capacity, he controls the 97.52% of voting shares of Rogers Communications the trust owns.

Benjamin Smith is a Canadian businessman and airline executive. He has been the CEO of Air France-KLM since 2018. Prior to that, he was Air Canada's President and Chief Operating Officer.

Richard Tiffany "Tiff" Macklem is a Canadian banker and economist who has served as the tenth governor of the Bank of Canada since 2020. He was also the former dean of the Rotman School of Management and had previously served as the senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada.

Barbara Josephine Bulat, known professionally as Basia Bulat, is a Canadian folk singer-songwriter. She is known for performing with an autoharp.

Christine Laura Simpson is a Canadian television personality, best known as a hockey reporter, host and interviewer. She is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario.

Heather Hiscox is a Canadian news anchor, who is the former host of CBC Morning Live with Heather Hiscox from 6 to 10 a.m. during weekdays on CBC News Network. She has also hosted CBC's former flagship morning television program CBC News: Morning which became part of CBC News Now when the network re-branded itself in 2009.

Elaine "Lainey" Lui is a Canadian television personality and reporter. She has a website called LaineyGossip, is an anchor on CTV's etalk, and was a co-host on CTV's daily talk series The Social.

Peter Shinkoda is a Canadian film and television actor who stars as Dai on the TNT science fiction series Falling Skies from Steven Spielberg and as Sektor in the Warner Bros. webseries Mortal Kombat: Legacy directed by Kevin Tancharoen. Shinkoda also starred as recurring villain Nobu Yoshioka on Seasons 1 and 2 of Marvel's Daredevil.

Shaun Benson is a Canadian actor and director. He acted in several theatre productions in the 1990s before embarking on his film and television career.

Christine Janice Elliott ECO KC is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 11th deputy premier of Ontario and the Ontario minister of health from 2018 to 2022.

James Insell, better known by the stage name Jimbo, is a Canadian designer and drag queen who competed in the first season of Canada's Drag Race (2020), was in the first series of RuPaul's Drag Race: UK vs. the World (2022), and won the eighth season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (2023).

Kelley Armstrong is a Canadian writer, primarily of fantasy novels since 2001.

Christopher Gray, better known by his ring name Cody Deaner, is a Canadian professional wrestler. He is currently signed with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where he performs under the ring name The Home Town Man. He previously competed under the ring name Deaner (a shortened version of his previous ring name) as the leader of The Design. He is...

Allan Zeman GBM GBS JP is a Hong Kong business magnate.

Elliotte Friedman is a Canadian sports journalist. Since 2014, he has been an ice hockey reporter for Sportsnet and an insider for the NHL Network. He is a regular panelist on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada.

Adrienne Arsenault is a Canadian journalist who is the Chief Correspondent of CBC News and anchor of The National since November 2017.

Albert Samuel Waxman, CM OOnt was a Canadian actor and director of over 1,000 productions on radio, television, film, and stage. He is best known for his starring roles in the television series King of Kensington (CBC), Cagney & Lacey (CBS) and Twice in a Lifetime (CTV).

Vassiliki "Vassy" Kapelos is a Canadian political journalist, currently serving as the chief political correspondent for CTV News. She formerly was the host of Power & Politics on CBC News Network from 2018 to 2022. She formerly worked as the Ottawa bureau chief for Global News and the host of that network's Sunday morning political affairs show, The West Block.

Stephen Francis Lecce ECO MPP is a Canadian politician and Ontario's current minister of Energy and Mines. Lecce served as the Ontario Minister of Education from 2019 to 2024. A member of the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party, Lecce is the member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for King—Vaughan, representing the riding in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario since his election in...

Alexander Knox was a Canadian actor and writer. He appeared in over 100 film, television, and theatrical productions over a career spanning from the 1920s until the late 1980s. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for his performance as Woodrow Wilson...

Daniel Shulman is a Canadian sportscaster with Sportsnet as well as the American network ESPN.

Rob Stewart was a Canadian photographer, filmmaker and shark conservationist. He was best known for making and directing the documentary films Sharkwater and Revolution. He drowned at the age of 37 while scuba diving in Florida, filming Sharkwater Extinction.

William Francis Morneau Jr. PC is a Canadian businessman and former politician who served as minister of finance and member of Parliament (MP) for Toronto Centre from 2015 to 2020.

Richard Scott Bakker is a Canadian fantasy author. He grew up on a tobacco farm in the Simcoe area.

Willard Gordon Galen Weston OC CVO OOnt was a British-Canadian billionaire businessman and Chairman Emeritus of George Weston Limited, a Canadian food processing and distribution company. Weston and his family, with an estimated net worth of US$8.7 billion, were listed as the third-wealthiest family in Canada and 178th in the world by Forbes magazine in June 2019.

Bradford Jay Raffensperger is an American politician serving as the secretary of state of Georgia since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the Georgia House of Representatives, representing District 50.

David Shore is a Canadian television writer. Shore worked on Family Law, NYPD Blue and Due South. He created the series House and more recently, Battle Creek and developed The Good Doctor, an American adaptation of the South Korean series of the same name.

Morley Safer was a Canadian-American broadcast journalist, reporter, and correspondent for CBS News. He was best known for his long tenure on the news magazine 60 Minutes, whose cast he joined in 1970 after its second year on television. He was the longest-serving reporter on 60 Minutes.

Bryan Baeumler is a Canadian television host on several HGTV/HGTV Canada shows. A former handyman and businessman, he translated those careers into a series of TV shows about home renovations in Canada and the U.S. as well as a hotel renovation in the Bahamas. He has won a Gemini Award for his hosting and has published a book on home...

Bryan Lee O'Malley is a Canadian cartoonist, best known for the Scott Pilgrim series. He also performs as a musician under the alias Kupek.

Terrence Thomas Kevin O'Leary, also known as Mr. Wonderful, is a Canadian businessman, television personality, and actor. From 2004 to 2014, he appeared on various Canadian television shows, including the business news program The Lang and O'Leary Exchange as well as reality show Dragons' Den. O'Leary hosted Discovery Channel's Project Earth in 2008 and has appeared on Shark Tank, the...

David James Furnish is a Canadian CEO, artist manager, filmmaker and former advertising executive. He is the husband of British singer, songwriter, and pianist Elton John.

Alice Ann Munro OOnt was a Canadian short story writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Her work tends to move forward and backward in time, with integrated short story cycles.

Kelly Rowan is a retired Canadian film and television actress and former fashion model. A native of Ottawa, Rowan studied acting in London and New York City before she started working as a model. She was featured in the horror film The Gate (1987) before earning critical acclaim for her performance in the Canadian television film Adrift, for which she...

Simu Liu is a Canadian actor. He rose to prominence by starring as Shang-Chi in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), a role which he will reprise in Avengers: Doomsday (2026).

Alan Willis Thicke was a Canadian-American actor, songwriter, and game/talk show host. He was the father of singer Robin Thicke. Thicke was best known for playing Dr. Jason Seaver on the 1980s sitcom Growing Pains on ABC. In 2013, he was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.

Jane Pauline Philpott PC is a physician, academic administrator, and former Canadian politician who represented the riding of Markham—Stouffville in the House of Commons. She was first elected in the 2015 federal election as a member of the Liberal Party and was appointed to the Cabinet of the 29th Canadian Ministry, headed by Justin Trudeau, on November 4, 2015. On...

Kim Roberts is a Canadian actress, best known for her roles as Mayor Goodway in Paw Patrol, Greta on The Sinner, Christine in The Handmaid's Tale, Marnie in Schitt's Creek, Neeva in The Strain, Gloria in Lucky Seven, Camilla in Being Erica, Mazz in The Doodlebops, Mrs. Arvin in I'm Not There, Deborah in Saw III and Saw IV and...

Jennifer Keesmaat is a Canadian real estate developer and urban planner who served as Chief City Planner of Toronto from 2012 to 2017 and the runner-up in the 2018 Toronto mayoral election to Mayor John Tory, where she won 23.6% of the vote and lost to Tory in each of Toronto's 25 wards.

Jagmeet Singh Jimmy Dhaliwal is a Canadian politician who served as the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) from 2017 to 2025 and as the member of Parliament (MP) for Burnaby South from 2019 to 2025. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 2011, representing Bramalea—Gore—Malton until his entry into federal politics. A Canadian-born practising Sikh...

Norman Kelly is a retired Canadian politician. He represented Ward 40 Scarborough—Agincourt from 2000 to 2018 and served as deputy mayor of Toronto from 2013 to 2014. Kelly was a City of Scarborough councillor from 1974 to 1980 and 1988 to 2000 and served as the member of Parliament (MP) for Scarborough Centre from 1980 to 1984.

Roberta Lynn Bondar is a Canadian astronaut, neurologist and consultant. She is Canada's first female astronaut and the first neurologist in space.

Wang Huiyao, also known as Henry Wang, is the founder and president of Center for China and Globalization (CCG), a think tank in China. Wang plays multiple policy advisory roles in China, as a counselor for the State Council appointed by Premier Li Keqiang in 2015, and honorable vice chairman of China Association for International Economic Cooperation (CAIEC) under the...

Rod Phillips is a Canadian businessman and former politician who was the member of Provincial Parliament for Ajax from 2018 to 2022. A member of the Ontario Progressive Conservative (PC) Party, Phillips served as Ontario's minister of the environment, conservation and parks from 2018 to 2019, minister of finance from 2019 to 2020, and minister of long-term care from 2021...

Anthony Charles Sousa MP is a Canadian politician who has served as the Member of Parliament from Mississauga-Lakeshore since December 12, 2022. He previously served as the Minister of Finance for Ontario from 2013 to 2018. A member of the Ontario Liberal Party, Sousa was elected to represent Mississauga South in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 2007. He joined...

Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer CC was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage, and television. His accolades included an Academy Award, two Tony Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards, making him the only Canadian recipient of the "Triple Crown of Acting". He also received a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe...

Vandana Shiva is an Indian scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, ecofeminist and anti-globalization author. Based in Delhi, Shiva has written more than 20 books. She is often referred to as "Gandhi of grain" for her activism associated with the anti-GMO movement.

V. Prem Watsa CM is an Indian-Canadian billionaire businessman who is the founder, chairman, and chief executive of Fairfax Financial Holdings, based in Toronto.

Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun is a Chinese-Canadian physician and politician, who served as the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) delegating the People's Republic of China from 2006 to 2017. Chan previously served as Director of Health in the Hong Kong Government (1994–2003) and representative of the WHO Director-General for Pandemic Influenza and WHO Assistant Director-General for Communicable Diseases...

Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu is a Hong Kong barrister and politician. He was formerly the leader of the Civic Party and a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, representing New Territories East after winning the 2016 by-election. On 11 November 2020, Yeung was disqualified from the Legislative Council, along with three other lawmakers of the pan-democratic camp, by the...

Moez Kassam is a Canadian alternative asset manager. He is a founder and principal of Anson Funds, which manages a collection of long-short equity funds - most notably, Anson Investments Master Fund LP (AIMF). Anson Group was founded in 2007. Kassam also received the 2018 Canada's 40 under 40 award. He is on the Board of Directors for the Canadian...

Fra' John Timothy Dunlap is a Canadian attorney and the reigning Prince and 81st Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta since his election in 2023.

Sheila Maureen Copps PC OC is a former Canadian politician who also served as the sixth deputy prime minister of Canada from November 4, 1993, to April 30, 1996, and June 19, 1996, to June 11, 1997. Her father, Victor Copps, was once mayor of Hamilton, Ontario.

François Bourguignon is a former Chief Economist (2003–2007) of the World Bank. He has been the Director of the Paris School of Economics, and from 1985 to his retirement in 2013 a professor of economics at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. In 2016, Bourguignon was awarded the Dan David Prize. He focuses on the study...

Frank Joseph Pearl González is a Colombian economist. He served as the 1st Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development serving in the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, and as the 1st High Presidential Advisor for the Social and Economic Reintegration of People and Groups Up in Arms during the administration of President Álvaro Uribe Vélez between 2006 and...