This index has been compiled as a quick reference guide to biographies of 9,052 professional and amateur artists active in Canada from the seventeenth century to the present. The artists represent 42 professional categories, from animation to topography. In addition to 8,261 Canadian artists, the Index has 391 British, 300 American, and 100 European artists, all of whom spent part of their careers in Canada. Each entry provides the artist's name, date and place of birth and death (or years the artist flourished, if birth and death dates are not available), the nationality (if not Canadian), type of artist (major medium media used), and sources in which biographical information may be found. Several hundred cross-references link the various names used by some artists during the course of their careers.

Cairine Wilson, Canada's first female senator, was one of nine children raised in an atmosphere of rugged Scots liberalism and strict presbyterianism by affluent Montreal parents in the late nineteenth century. She displayed an interest in politics early in life and through her father's position in the Senate, was befriended by many notable politicians of the period, including Sir Wilfrid Laurier, an experience that left a permanent mark on her. Her appointment to the Senate in 1930 was a historic and controversial event, and launched a political career rife with passion, commitment, and reform. Wilson, whose work on behalf of refugees and the world's needy was legendary, served in the Senate through some of the stormiest years in Canadian government history. First Person is an engaging account of a colourful and powerful politician; a fighter whose efforts were recognized by the highest officials in the land, and whose sculpted image adorns the foyer of the Canadian Senate.