The Globe and Mail

Perhaps the best-known champion of Halifax's heritage, Lou Collins was so passionate about the city's historic buildings that he once faced down a bulldozer ready to demolish a waterfront structure dating back to the early 1800s. While he wasn't able to save that particular building from destruction, his years of fighting developers and city council are credited for preserving a collection of structures on the city's waterfront where privateers are said to have stored their booty in the War of 1812, and where Alexander Keith started brewing his ale in 1820. When Mr. Collins heard that some of the waterfront buildings were slated for demolition in the early 1960s to make way for a harbour freeway, he entered into what would become more than a decade-long battle to save the structures. Eventually, they were declared a national historic site.