Happy Canada Day! {Facts, Figures & Fun}

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{Image attribution: Creative Commons}

Celebrate Canada Day with some fun facts & trivia and a classic Canadian video!

FACTS:

CAPITAL – Ottawa (originally named Bytown after Colonel John By, who headquartered there while building the Rideau Canal to connect the Ottawa River with Lake Ontario.)
NATIONAL ICON – Beaver
MOTTO – “From sea to sea”
TREE – Sugar Maple

STATISTICS:

CONFEDERATED – Canada became a country on July 1, 1867, when the British North America Act was passed by the British Parliament.
POPULATION – 32,057,701
LAND AREA (in km 2) – 9,984,670 (Canada is the second largest country in the world, behind Russia)

SOME CANADIAN INVENTIONS:

Kerosene
Instant Replay
Wonderbra
Plexiglas
Egg carton
The paint roller
Cardiac pacemaker
The garbage bag
SONAR
Table hockey game
Easy-Off Oven Cleaner
Caesar (cocktail)
Telephone
The Robertson screw
Trivial Pursuit
Electric wheelchair
Walkie-Talkies
Poutine
Foghorn
The electron microscope
Peanut butter
gas mask
snow blower
Yukon Gold potatoes
Pablum
Canadarm
Insulin
The IMAX film system
Prosthetic hand
The snowmobile
The electric cooking range
Pager

INTERESTING INFO:

Canada has the longest coastline of any country in the world at 243,976 Km (151,600 miles).
North America’s earliest undisputed evidence of human activity, 20,000-year-old stone tools and animal bones have been found in caves on the Bluefish River in northern Yukon.
North America’s lowest recorded temperature was – 63 C (-81.4 F) at Snag, Yukon Territory, on February 3, 1947.
The border between Canada and the United States; at 8,892 Km (5,525 miles), including 2,475 Km (1,538 miles) between Canada and Alaska, it is the world’s longest border between two nations.
The regent of England, currently Queen Elizabeth II, is the Canadian head of state.
North America’s earliest undisputed evidence of human activity, 20,000-year-old stone tools and animal bones have been found in caves on the Bluefish River in northern Yukon.
In 1497, John Cabot became the first explorer to reach Canada.
Kanata is the St. Lawrence-Iroquoian word for “village” or “settlement.”
The average life expectancy at birth for a Canadian is 81.16 years, the eighth highest in the world. (The United States ranks 46th, at 78.14 years).
There has not been Saturday mail delivery in Canada in more that 35 years.
While ice hockey is Canada’s most prevalent sport, lacrosse is the country’s official sport.
Canadians consume more macaroni and cheese than any other nation on earth.
The east coast of Canada was settled by Vikings around the year A.D. 1000. Archaeological evidence of a settlement has been found at L’anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland.
Canada’s groundhog, Wiarton Willie, is an albino groundhog from Wiarton, Ontario.
Alert, in Nunavut territory, is the northernmost permanent settlement in the world.
Canadian James Naismith invented basketball to give his physical education students at the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, an indoor team sport to play during the long winters.
The world’s strongest current is found in the Nakwakto Rapids at Slingsby Channel, British Columbia. The current has been measured at speeds up to 18.4 miles per hour.
Newfoundland was the first part of Canada to be explored by Europeans. Ironically, it was the last area to become a province, in 1949
Canada contains 9% of the world’s renewable water supply.
Manitou Lake on Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron is the world’s largest lake within a lake.