Book excerpt: Guyanese Achievers, USA and Canada is the result of collaboration between Vidur Dindayal and the Guyanese diaspora, who shared with him its recommendations on whom to identify as examples of achievement. This volume chronicles Guyanese people who reflect their nation's rich multi-ethnic heritage. These people demonstrate that Guyanese have been successful in North America for a long time. For example, Sir James Douglas became the governor of the colony of Vancouver Island and later the colony of British Columbia in the 1850s. Today, he is considered the "father of British Columbia." For Guyanese, he is Guyana's "first gift to Canada." A statue of Sir James Douglas was unveiled in 2008 at his birthplace in Belmont, Mahaica. At the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, the list of Guyanese who have been gifts to the United States and Canada is impressive. Guyanese Achievers, USA and Canada celebrates the academics, actors, doctors, educators, entrepreneurs, and others who, by demonstrating inventiveness and persistence, have been recognized as exemplars of Guyanese achievement in North America.