Births on March 21

Louis-Edmond Hamelin, Canadian geographer, author, and academic

Louis-Edmond Hamelin, (21 March 1923 – February 11, 2020) was a Canadian geographer, professor, and author born in Saint-Didace, Quebec, Canada, best known for his studies of Northern Canada.

Hamelin created the Centre for Northern Studies at the Université Laval in Québec and was rector of the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières from 1978 to 1983. He was also a member of the Northwest Territories Legislative Council.

Hamelin specialized in Northern and Aboriginal peoples studies. He coined several words concerning the North, some of which (such as Nordicity) came to enter the English vocabulary. His seminal work was the 1958 Nordicité Canadienne (translated 1979 as Canadian Nordicity: It's Your North, Too). He was an influence on proposals initiated in the 1960s for a massive development in Northern Canada called the Mid-Canada Corridor.