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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.
Information contained in this post was obtained from Canadian Geographic, Random History and Wikipedia (Canadian Inventions).
Happy Canada Day everyone; stay safe and have fun!
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