Portrait of Canadian Roma Khanna in London, Khanna is the head of NBC Universal digital channelsRandy Quan
They could well be ambassadors.
True, only a few of the 45 extraordinary Canadians profiled here have passed Ottawa's foreign service exam for future diplomats.
But every one of them might properly and proudly bear that sort of honorific.
Largely unknown and - until now - unheralded, they're part of our burgeoning Canadian diaspora: 2.7 million men and women, increasingly referred to as Canada's 11th province - some of whom are making substantial marks in dozens of countries and dozens of fields.
From the high-fashion salons of London's West End to the high-tech laboratories of Helsinki, from the stark, stunning silence of the Tibetan plateau to the moneyed hum of Wall Street, these émigrés and their ideas may be the country's most overlooked export commodity.
In Frankfurt, B.C.-born choreographer Crystal Pite is reenergizing the world of modern dance. In Nairobi, Calgary physician Anil Walji is spearheading a plan to build a new Kenyan medical school. In Johannesburg, Ontario native Joanna Kerr is reinventing how international aid is delivered to the hungry and the poor.
Whether driven by thirst for adventure, hunger for fortune, passion for justice, impulse for creativity or the ethics of pure philanthropy, these envoys of excellence - entrepreneurs, educators, activists, artists and aid workers - are adding lustre to the Canadian passport and emebellishing the national brand.
We remain, of course, what we have always been - a nation of immigrants. But now, as evidenced by their resourceful descendants, we're fast becoming a nation of emigrants as well. A global road show of Canadian initiative and enterprise, determined to change the world for the better.
Click on the galleries to the left or on the related links below to begin reading about the 45 Canadians Changing the World.