YMMV / Robert J. Sawyer

• Aluminum Christmas Trees:
  • In Quantum Night, Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi becomes the first Muslim Prime Minister of Canada, but most non-Canadian readers probably don't realize he's a real person (although Sawyer notes this in the prologue).
  • Happens with many locations as well. The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory from The Neanderthal Parallax is real, as are Saskatoon's synchrotron and Winnipeg's Human Rights Museum in Quantum Night, plus numerous other examples.