Canada is much more than a land of Mounties and maple leaves "People assume I come from a place where it snows all year round and there are beavers and grizzly bears roaming in my backyard," says a colleague who grew up in Canada. A Winnipeg-based friend laments: "Everyone thinks we live in the blistering cold, that our houses are igloos and we have dog sleds." Misconceptions are so strong that a national website, Canadians.ca, recently published an article debunking popular myths about the country, including: "Canadians all say 'eh" and 'aboot"," and "Canadians are all Mounties dressed in red uniforms." Neither of which, it informs us, is true. I'd like to think we Brits are better than that. Surely we can appreciate Canadians for more than their love of doughnuts and affinity for winter sports? Our relationship with that great country spans centuries: before it became part of the British Empire in 1867, Canada - now a member of the Commonwealth - was a collection of British colonies; at the outbreak of the First World War, millions of national volunteers joined the Allied forces. So, to celebrate the nation from which our new BoE Governor hails, I've uncovered some great Canadians you never knew were Canadian. First up is Jim Carrey, star of The Mask and The Truman Show, who comes from Ontario, and once admitted: "If my career in show business hadn't panned out, I would probably be working today in Hamilton, Ontario, at the Dofasco steel mill." He's joined by a raft of actors: Star Trek's William Shatner, Friends star Matthew Perry, Juno's Ellen Page, Ryan Gosling and Keanu Reeves, who would have been a hockey player if injury hadn't ended his career. O Canada, how grateful we are! The music world is full of Canadian talent. Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Alanis Morissette and Céline Dion all come from north of the US border. Next there is singer-songwriter Bryan Adams, born in Ontario, who appeared in a promotional video for the Canadian Army, and crooner Michael Bublé, who carried the torch during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Teeny-bopper Justin Bieber was also born in Ontario, although a poll carried out on Canada Day in June ranked him 13th out of 13 Canadian icons, below hockey, maple leaves and beavers. Other musicians include Neil Young, Rufus Wainwright, Nelly Furtado and country artist Shania Twain. Baywatch star and glamour model Pamela Anderson hails from British Columbia, the daughter of a waitress and a furnace repairman, who started out as a fitness instructor in Vancouver. Fellow model Linda Evangelista, the face of Revlon and Versace, also deserves a mention, after being given a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in 2003. The sporting world, too, is awash with Canadians: former tennis champion Greg Rusedski was born in Montreal (he switched his allegiance from Canada to Britain in 1995) and former boxer Lennox Lewis, who was born in West Ham, has dual nationality after moving to Ontario, aged 12. In the literary world, Alice Munro and Atwood are the best-known writers, but Anne of Green Gables author Lucy Maud Montgomery was Canadian, as is Michael Ondaatje, author of The English Patient. James Cameron, who directed Titanic and Avatar, was - quite unexpectedly - born in Ontario. Other notable countrymen include economist John Galbraith and environmentalist David Suzuki, while Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, moved to Canada when he was 23 and carried out his experiments there. Clever Canadians can also take credit for inventing the electric wheelchair, cardiac pacemakers, Trivial Pursuit and peanut butter. "We're not often the kind of people who will shout about our national pride," says Gordon Campbell, Canadian High Commissioner in London. In industry, leaders such as Sergio Marchionne at Chrysler are turning around businesses, and Moya Greene was recruited to run Royal Mail. You wouldn't necessarily know they were all Canadians, but they're all innovative and driven and good at what they do. Carney, it seems, is in excellent company. Perhaps his appointment as our highest-ranking banker will encourage other secret Canadians to come clean? "I hope so," says Prof MacMillan. It's about time - just because we like to blend in to the background doesn't mean we should be ashamed of who we are.