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Novelist Margaret Atwood, meanwhile, has held the honour since 1973.

Rideau Hall said this week it was looking at ways to increase public awareness of the country’s highest civilian honour. For starters, it proposed giving the award a slicker website to drive nominations.

“There has always been a desire to increase nominations from certain regions of the country, under-represented sectors of activity and a more equal gender representation,” said Rideau Hall spokeswoman Marie-Pierre Bélanger.

In 2011, a Postmedia News analysis of recipients found that an increasing percentage of the new Orders handed out went to artists and authors while the ranks of politicians and entrepreneurs receiving the award declined.

The analysis also revealed some strong regional disparities. Far fewer Orders went to nominees from the Conservative heartland of Western Canada than to those in Atlantic Canada, on a per capita basis.

Atlantic Canadians, on average, were twice as likely to be inducted into the Order as those in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba or Saskatchewan.

Alberta alone has a population nearly 50 per cent greater than the four Atlantic provinces, but its residents have received 35 per cent fewer Orders of Canada, the analysis of more than 5,800 awards found.

Of late, the Order’s most controversial nominee has been abortion pioneer Henry Morgentaler, who was selected in 2008. At the time, abortion opponents pointed to the Morgentaler honour as evidence of a liberal bias in the selection committee.