Laurier was admired, even by his political opponents, for his mastery of compromise and unceasing work to unite English and French Canadians.

In 1916, the city was in the throes of one of its coldest winters when the fire alarm was sounded at 8:57 p.m. In just a few hours, Canada’s seat of power was a pile of smouldering ruins.

Tommy Prince honed his early tracking skills to deadly perfection. “He used to carry a pair of moccasins in his bag with him…he was deathly quiet,” recalled a comrade. “The Germans thought he was a ghost or a devil. They could never figure out how he passed the lines and the sentries.”