Canada Day ~ Fun Facts, Trivia & Classic Videos

Canada Day ~ Tom Brokaw explains the relationship between Canada and The United States, in a pre-recorded short film that aired on NBC, prior to the Opening Ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on Feb. 12th, 2010.

The Molson Canadian 2006 commercial “I Am Canadian”.

Canadian 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

Canadian 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.
• 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 than 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.

Photo credit: bob pruner via Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-ND

HAPPY CANADA DAY FROM ALL OF US AT OLDER MOMMY STILL YUMMY!

{Information contained in this post was obtained from Canadian Geographic, Random History and Wikipedia (Canadian Inventions) }