Happy Canada Day! {Facts, Figures & Fun}

Share/Bookmark

Canada-Day

{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.

 

 

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!

Do you have any special plans?

 

Share/Bookmark

I Love Comments

*

CommentLuv badge

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.