The study of the past, in all its diversity, to inform our understanding of the present and help us plan for the future.
This is a difficult choice, but I will choose Natalie Zemon Davis for doing gender , artisanal, and ultimately world history from a French historical perspective.
For Health and Beauty: Physical Culture for Frenchwomen, 1880s-1930s, because it opened up a field of research combining biological, medical, hygienic and physical education for girls and women in France.
There was concern about potential and actual changes at Library and Archives Canada, which required some careful interactions with the then Archivist of Canada.
If you are not a historian of Canada, but of other parts of the world, there is much to be learned joining the CHA and attending its conferences.
I hope that the tradition of supporting the dissemination of historical scholarship continues.