The entries and accompanying artwork in the Portraits Collection are drawn, by permission, from Canada: Portraits of Faith (C:POF). C:POF is a popular coffee table book published in 1996 and edited by Michael D. Clarke.

C:POF contained 52 “portraits” of Canadian Christian Leaders who lived between the 1600s and 1996. Each person, in some significant way, contributed leadership rooted in the Christian faith to the arena of action in which they functioned.

In many ways, C:POF was both an inspiration for and foundational to the Online Encyclopedia of Canadian Christian Leaders. We chose 20 leaders who were active in the period between Confederation (1867), the point at which Canada became a nation in its own right, and the end of the 20th century.