145 Fun Facts About Canadian

What is the capital city of Canada?

Ottawa was the Queen's pick at the end of 1857: rival cities made the choice too risky for colonial politicians, so they handed it to her.

Which two languages share equal official status in Canada's Parliament and government?

English and French were made equal in federal institutions by the 1969 Official Languages Act, urged by a royal commission on bilingualism, so federal offices must serve the public in either one.

What animal is an official national symbol of Canada and appears on its five-cent coin?

The beaver earned its place through the fur trade: European demand for its pelts, prized for felt hats, drove the exploration of much of the country, and Parliament made it an emblem in 1975.

Which river, flowing north to the Arctic Ocean, forms Canada's longest river system?

The Mackenzie is named for Alexander Mackenzie, the fur trader who followed it in 1789 hoping it would lead to the Pacific and came out on the Arctic coast instead.

Who was Canada's first Prime Minister?

John A. Macdonald resigned in 1873 over the Pacific Scandal, in which his party took money from men seeking the railway contract, then won office back in 1878 and held it until his death.

What is the official national summer sport of Canada?

Lacrosse began as a First Nations game; a young dentist, George Beers, wrote down its first set of rules, and Parliament confirmed it as the national summer sport in 1994.

What prominent symbol is featured at the center of the Canadian national flag?

The 11-pointed red maple leaf sits on a white square between two red bars; the flag was adopted in 1965, and the leaf has symbolised Canada since the 19th century.

Which province covers more of Canada's land than any other?

Quebec covers more than 1.5 million square kilometres, about 15% of Canada; counting provinces and territories together, only one northern territory is larger.

What is the capital city of Alberta?

Edmonton was picked over Calgary as capital when Alberta became a province in 1905; Calgary has since grown into the larger city, feeding the rivalry known as the Battle of Alberta.

How many provinces does Canada have?

10 provinces: Canada began with four in 1867 and reached ten only in 1949, while its three territories are counted separately.

What is the capital city of Nova Scotia?

Halifax, founded by the British in 1749, is Nova Scotia's capital and largest city, built around one of the world's largest natural harbours.

Paul Henderson's goal with 34 seconds left won hockey's 1972 Summit Series for Canada against which country?

The Soviet Union stunned Canada by winning the opening game; Canada took the series only by winning the last three games in Moscow, each on a Henderson goal.

What is the capital city of British Columbia?

Victoria, capital of the old Vancouver Island colony, was named capital of the united colony in 1868, two years after the merger, and stayed so even as Vancouver grew far larger.

Which popular Canadian dish consists of french fries, cheese curds, and gravy?

Poutine first appeared in rural snack bars in the late 1950s, with several towns claiming to have invented it, and was mocked for years before it became a celebrated symbol of its home province.

Which Canadian actor is known for roles in films like 'The Matrix' series and 'John Wick'?

Keanu Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and raised in Toronto, where he dropped out of high school to chase acting work before breaking through in Hollywood.

In what year did the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms come into force?

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms is Part I of the Constitution Act, 1982, proclaimed by Queen Elizabeth II in Ottawa on April 17, 1982 when Canada patriated its constitution.

What is the highest mountain in Canada?

Mount Logan was long listed at 6,050 metres until a 1992 expedition measured it at 5,959; it is still North America's second-highest peak, after Denali.

Which Canadian invented the sport of basketball?

James Naismith was asked to invent an indoor game for the winter months; he wanted boxes for goals, but the janitor could only find two peach baskets.

What is the capital city of New Brunswick?

Fredericton was fixed on as capital by New Brunswick's first governor, Thomas Carleton, who preferred its central inland site, seen as easier to defend, to the larger port of Saint John.

What is the most populous city in Canada?

Toronto spent most of its history as Canada's second city: Montreal was the country's largest for about a century and a half before Toronto overtook it late in the 20th century.

Which Canadian city hosted the 1976 Summer Olympics?

Montreal's 1976 Games left an Olympic Stadium debt that took until 2006 to pay off, which is how the 'Big O' came to be called the 'Big Owe'.

Which Canadian singer recorded 'My Heart Will Go On', the theme to 1997's Titanic?

Celine Dion did not want to record 'My Heart Will Go On' at first; her husband and manager, René Angélil, persuaded her to sing a demo for the film's composer.

Which Canadian capital, founded by Champlain in 1608, still has its fortified walls, the only ones left north of Mexico?

Quebec City nearly lost its walls in the 1870s: demolition of the old gates had begun when the Governor General, Lord Dufferin, stepped in to save and restore the fortifications.

What type of tree is Canada's official national tree?

The maple tree, with its iconic leaf, has been a prominent symbol of Canada for centuries and was officially recognized as the national arboreal emblem in 1996.

The world's highest tides can be found in which Canadian bay?

The Bay of Fundy's tides range about 16 metres because the long, funnel-shaped bay resonates with the Atlantic tide, piling the water higher toward its narrow head.

Which Canadian city is home to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights?

Winnipeg got the museum through local media magnate Izzy Asper, who proposed it in 2000; after his death his daughter Gail led the drive that made it the first national museum outside the capital region.

Which province, home to a large Acadian community, is Canada's only officially bilingual one?

New Brunswick went officially bilingual in 1969 because roughly three in ten of its people have French as their mother tongue, most of them Acadians.

What is the capital city of the Yukon?

Whitehorse took over as capital in 1953 from Dawson City, the old gold-rush town, after wartime road building had made it the territory's transport hub.

Who was the first female Prime Minister of Canada?

Kim Campbell became Canada's 19th Prime Minister in June 1993, the first woman to hold the office; she lost the October 1993 election after four months in power.

Which province hosted the 1864 Charlottetown Conference that set Confederation in motion, yet waited until 1873 to join?

Prince Edward Island hosted a meeting called to unite only the Maritime colonies; leaders from the Province of Canada asked to attend and persuaded the delegates to aim for a far bigger union.

Which highway was officially opened in 1962 once its route over Rogers Pass was complete?

The Trans-Canada Highway was declared open in 1962 while still unfinished: work on the route carried on for nine more years, until 1971.

Which Canadian actor famously portrayed Captain Kirk in the original 'Star Trek' series?

William Shatner went to space for real in 2021: at 90 he rode a Blue Origin capsule and became, at the time, the oldest person to have made the trip.

Which Canadian scientist won the 1923 Nobel Prize for insulin and shared the money with assistant Charles Best?

Frederick Banting and his fellow discoverers signed their insulin patents over to the University of Toronto, which licensed drug makers so quickly that the hormone was reaching diabetics by the end of 1923.

What large island forms part of Canada's easternmost province?

Newfoundland holds L'Anse aux Meadows, an 11th-century Norse outpost on its northern tip, built nearly five centuries before Columbus crossed the Atlantic.

Which inventor, who emigrated to Canada in 1870, built an estate at Baddeck on Cape Breton Island?

Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone pioneer, built his summer estate at Baddeck overlooking Bras d'Or Lake, where his hydrofoil HD-4 set a world water-speed record in 1919.

A 2018 law rewrote which line of the English lyrics of 'O Canada'?

'In all thy sons command' became 'in all of us command' in 2018; the change echoed Robert Stanley Weir's 1908 original, which read 'thou dost in us command'.

What is the largest body of fresh water located entirely within Canada?

Great Bear Lake's shore held the Port Radium mine, whose uranium went into the Manhattan Project's atomic bombs.

Which future federal cabinet minister became the first Canadian in space in 1984?

Marc Garneau, a navy engineer, was one of the first six Canadian astronauts chosen in 1983; he later ran the Canadian Space Agency and served as transport and foreign minister.

Which US state shares a border with Canada's Yukon territory?

Alaska's panhandle border was settled in 1903 by a tribunal on which Britain's Lord Alverstone sided with the Americans; the two furious Canadian members refused to sign the decision.

Which acclaimed Canadian film director is known for blockbuster movies like 'Titanic' and 'Avatar'?

James Cameron also holds a record far from Hollywood: in 2012 he piloted a submersible alone to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the ocean.

Which Canadian university is named for the Scottish-born fur trader whose 1813 will left an estate to found it?

McGill University got its charter in 1821 but taught no one until 1829: James McGill's heirs fought his will in court, and the college finally opened by absorbing a local medical school.

Who is Canada's head of state?

The Monarch is Canada's head of state, so every federal bill needs royal assent, which the Governor General gives on the sovereign's behalf; the Prime Minister only heads the government.

Which province has a saltwater coastline on Hudson Bay?

Manitoba entered Confederation in 1870 as a province a fraction of its present size and gained its Hudson Bay shore only in 1912, when its boundary was pushed north to the 60th parallel.

What is Canada's official motto?

From Sea to Sea translates the Latin 'A Mari Usque Ad Mare', taken from Psalm 72:8; the three territorial premiers have since proposed adding a third sea, for the Arctic.

Which Canadian author wrote the 1908 novel 'Anne of Green Gables'?

Lucy Maud Montgomery built the novel on a mix-up she had once noted down: a household that asked for an orphan boy was sent a girl by mistake and decided to keep her.

Which European explorer mapped much of the St. Lawrence River and named Canada?

Jacques Cartier is thought to have taken the name from the Iroquoian word 'kanata', meaning village: in 1535 he applied the word for one settlement to the whole region.

Which Canadian singer-songwriter is famous for writing the song 'Hallelujah'?

Leonard Cohen's American label declined to release the album that carried 'Hallelujah'; the song caught on only years later through cover versions, most famously Jeff Buckley's.

What is the largest island in Canada?

Baffin Island, at about 507,000 square kilometres, is the fifth-largest island in the world, yet its biggest community has fewer than 8,000 people.

Which territory was carved out of the Northwest Territories on 1 April 1999?

Nunavut grew out of a land claims agreement signed in 1993, under which Inuit of the eastern Arctic secured a territory of their own; it took six more years to set up.

Which former radio host led Newfoundland into Canada in 1949?

Joey Smallwood's cause trailed in the first 1948 referendum and only narrowly won the run-off; he then governed the new province for nearly 23 years.

Which Canadian, having lost a leg to cancer, began a 1980 cross-country run for cancer research?

Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope began in St. John's in April 1980 and ended after 143 days and 5,373 km near Thunder Bay when his cancer returned.

Which 1867 song by Alexander Muir served as an unofficial anthem of English Canada?

The Maple Leaf Forever was seriously considered as the official anthem but never chosen, because its British colonial outlook left French Canadians cold.

Canada's official 'maple leaf tartan' uses four colours to show the leaf through the seasons: green, gold, red and what?

Brown stands for the fallen leaf; garment maker David Weiser designed the tartan in 1964, but it became an official national symbol only in 2011.

Which national symbol appears on Canada's 50-cent coin?

The coat of arms sits on a coin few Canadians ever handle: the 50-cent piece is so seldom spent that the Mint strikes only small batches, mostly for collectors.

What are the annual prizes presented by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences called?

The Junos take their name from Pierre Juneau, the first head of Canada's broadcast regulator, who brought in the Canadian-content quotas that put more homegrown music on the radio.

Which Canadian physicist shared the 2018 Nobel Prize for chirped pulse amplification of lasers?

Donna Strickland of the University of Waterloo shared the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics with Gérard Mourou for chirped pulse amplification, becoming the third woman to win the physics prize.

The Canadarm was first tested in orbit in 1981 aboard which Space Shuttle?

Columbia carried the first Canadarm on the second shuttle mission, in November 1981; Canada donated that arm, and NASA went on to buy four more for the fleet.

The no-bake Nanaimo bar is named after a city in which province?

British Columbia's city of Nanaimo ran a contest in the 1980s to find the definitive recipe; Joyce Hardcastle's entry won, and the bars were soon being sold on the province's ferries.

Tim Hortons opened its first donut store in 1964 in which Ontario city?

Hamilton's first Tim Hortons opened in 1964; after the hockey star died in a 1974 car crash, his partner Ron Joyce bought out the family for $1 million and built Canada's largest restaurant chain.

Which structure ended the CN Tower's 32-year reign as the tallest free-standing structure?

The Burj Khalifa in Dubai overtook the CN Tower in 2007; the tower had been built so tall because new downtown skyscrapers were spoiling the city's television and radio signals.

Which earlier dollar-coin design did the loon replace when the loonie was approved?

A voyageur and his Indigenous guide in a canoe had been on the silver dollar since 1935; the loon arrived in 1987, when a cheaper coin replaced the dollar bill and was promptly nicknamed the loonie.

Which munitions ship blew up in the 1917 Halifax Explosion after colliding with SS Imo?

SS Mont-Blanc, a French freighter loaded with TNT, picric acid and benzol, caught fire after the collision and blew up, levelling the city's Richmond district and killing more than 1,700 people.

The 1896 Klondike gold strike was made on which tributary, then known as Rabbit Creek?

Bonanza Creek got its new name from miners after Skookum Jim, Dawson Charlie and George Carmack struck gold there in 1896; when word got out the next summer, tens of thousands stampeded north.

The Dionne sisters, born in Ontario in 1934, were the first known surviving set of what?

Quintuplets: Ontario took the five girls from their parents and showed them to some three million visitors at 'Quintland'; in 1998 the province paid the surviving sisters $4 million in compensation.

Tommy Douglas, remembered as the father of Canada's public health care, was premier of which province?

Tommy Douglas led Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961, yet the medicare plan he fought for took effect only in 1962, under his successor, after he had left to lead the federal NDP.

Which Canadian short story writer won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature?

Alice Munro, cited as a 'master of the contemporary short story', began writing in her teens and ran a bookshop with her husband for years before her first collection appeared in 1968.

Lester Pearson's 1957 Nobel Peace Prize honoured his UN peacekeeping plan for which conflict?

Lester Pearson proposed a UN force to stand between the armies in the Suez Crisis, easing Britain and France out of Egypt; he is remembered as a father of modern peacekeeping.

The Robertson screw, a Canadian invention from 1908, has a socket of what shape?

Square, because it grips: the Robertson recess holds the driver far better than a slot and rarely slips out; P.L. Robertson began making the screws in Milton, Ontario, in 1908.

Which film format, invented by Canadians, made its debut at Expo '70 in Osaka?

IMAX grew out of Expo 67, where its founders made films for several screens at once; they then built a single projector that could throw one huge image instead.

Which 12.9 km bridge, opened in 1997, links Prince Edward Island to the mainland?

The Confederation Bridge went ahead after about 59% of Islanders backed a fixed link in a 1988 vote; a century earlier, the steamers serving the Island often could not get through the strait's winter ice.

The racing schooner Bluenose was built in 1921 in which Nova Scotia town?

Lunenburg launched Bluenose in 1921 to fish and to race for the International Fishermen's Trophy; after her racing days she hauled freight and sank on a reef near Haiti in 1946.

Alert, the world's northernmost continuously inhabited place, is on which island?

Alert, on Ellesmere Island about 817 km from the North Pole, is named for HMS Alert, a British ship that wintered nearby in 1875-76; it is a military and weather station, not a town.

Which heir to a farm-machinery fortune became the first Canadian-born Governor General in 1952?

Vincent Massey, brother of Hollywood actor Raymond Massey, chaired the royal commission on the arts whose report led to the founding of the Canada Council.

Which Hudson Bay town is nicknamed the 'Polar Bear Capital of the World'?

Churchill's polar bears gather along the shore each autumn, drawing tourists to a town no road reaches: visitors come in by rail or air.

Canadian-born artist Joe Shuster co-created which comic book character with Jerry Siegel?

Superman was sold cheaply: in 1938 Joe Shuster and writer Jerry Siegel signed the character over to their publisher for just $130.

Laura Secord's famous walk to warn British forces took place during which conflict?

Laura Secord's walk came during the War of 1812: in June 1813 she slipped out of American-occupied Queenston to warn Lieutenant James FitzGibbon of a planned attack; Mohawk warriors then ambushed the Americans at Beaver Dams.

Métis leader Louis Riel was hanged for treason in 1885 in which city?

Louis Riel was hanged in Regina on November 16, 1885, even though the jury that convicted him of treason had recommended clemency.

Which prime minister abruptly cancelled the Avro Arrow interceptor on 20 February 1959?

John Diefenbaker's government cancelled the CF-105 Avro Arrow on February 20, 1959, 'Black Friday' in Canadian aviation; the prototypes and Iroquois engines were scrapped and dozens of Avro engineers joined NASA.

Chris Hadfield was the first Canadian astronaut to do what?

Perform a spacewalk: in 2001 Chris Hadfield spent nearly 15 hours outside on two outings, helping to install Canadarm2 on the International Space Station.

The Caesar cocktail, made with Clamato, was invented in 1969 in which city?

Walter Chell created the Caesar at the Calgary Inn to mark the opening of its Italian restaurant, taking the clam-and-tomato idea from spaghetti alle vongole.

Which warm, dry winter wind blows down the eastern slopes of the Rockies onto the southern Alberta prairie?

A chinook is Pacific air that sheds its moisture over the mountains and warms as it flows downslope, so prairie temperatures can leap by 20 degrees or more within an hour.

Quebec's 1995 referendum, lost by about one percentage point, asked voters to approve what?

Sovereignty was rejected by 50.58% of voters, the narrowest of margins; premier Jacques Parizeau, who had led the Yes side, announced his resignation the next day.

Iqaluit was known by what name from 1942 until 1987?

Frobisher Bay took its name from Martin Frobisher, the Elizabethan seaman who came seeking the Northwest Passage in 1576 and later shipped home loads of ore that proved worthless.

Canada's national capital was founded in 1826 under what name?

Bytown grew from the construction camp of Lieutenant-Colonel John By, who built the Rideau Canal as a military supply route safely back from the American border.

Wayne Gretzky was born and raised in which Ontario city?

Wayne Gretzky was born in Brantford, Ontario in 1961 and learned the game on a backyard rink under his father's eye; when he retired in 1999 he held or shared 61 NHL records.

Which NHL club won its record 24th Stanley Cup in 1993?

The Montreal Canadiens, founded in 1909, won five straight Cups from 1956 to 1960, but their 24th, in 1993, was still their most recent as of 2026.

Which 1985 dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood is set in the Republic of Gilead?

The Handmaid's Tale turns Cambridge, Massachusetts into Gilead; Atwood drew on the Puritan New England she had studied as a graduate student at Harvard.

Before being renamed in 1982, Canada Day was officially known as what?

Dominion Day had no legal standing for its first twelve years: July 1 became a statutory holiday under that name only in 1879, and kept it until 1982.

Which April 1917 battle was the first where all four Canadian divisions fought together?

Vimy Ridge had beaten off costly French attacks earlier in the war; the four Canadian divisions took it in four days, at a cost of 3,598 dead.

Which D-Day beach was assaulted by the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division on 6 June 1944?

Juno Beach cost the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division heavy casualties in the first wave, yet by the end of the day it held the beach and had pushed inland.

Which Canadian dessert first appeared in print in a 1900 Ontario hospital auxiliary cookbook?

Butter tart recipes first reached print in 1900, in a cookbook put together by a hospital's women's auxiliary in Barrie, though cooks had probably been baking them long before.

The exposed rock of the Canadian Shield dates mostly from which span of geologic time?

Precambrian: the Shield's crystalline rock formed between about 4 billion and 1 billion years ago, and Ice Age glaciers later scraped it nearly bare, leaving only thin soil.

Which painter of West Coast forests and totem poles also won a 1941 Governor General's Award for her book Klee Wyck?

Emily Carr turned to writing after a 1937 heart attack sapped the strength she needed for painting; Klee Wyck, 'Laughing One', was the name the Nuu-chah-nulth people had given her.

In their first NBA Finals in 2019, which defending champions did the Raptors face?

The Golden State Warriors, two-time defending champions, lost in six games as the Raptors became the first team based outside the United States to win an NBA title.

Where was the CPR's ceremonial last spike driven on November 7, 1885?

At Craigellachie, railway financier Donald Smith bent the first spike with a bad swing; a second one was set in its place and he drove that one home.

A bear cub that a Canadian army veterinarian bought in White River, Ontario in 1914 inspired which storybook character?

Winnie-the-Pooh took his name from Winnie, the cub Harry Colebourn left at London Zoo, where a boy named Christopher Robin loved her enough to rename his own teddy bear.

Which board game did Canadian newsmen Chris Haney and Scott Abbott invent in 1979, reportedly over a game of Scrabble?

Trivial Pursuit went on sale in Canada in 1981 and had sold 20 million copies by 1986. Haney was a newspaper photo editor and Abbott a sports editor when they sketched it out.

Dawson City, Yukon has since 1973 served a signature cocktail garnished with what unusual item?

A human toe, real and mummified, sits in the glass of the Sourtoe Cocktail. To join the club a drinker's lips must touch the toe, and swallowing it brings a $2,500 fine.

Under Ontario's Apology Act of 2009, saying sorry to someone cannot by itself be treated as what in a civil lawsuit?

An admission of guilt is what the law says an apology is not, so Ontarians can say sorry freely. Apologies made while testifying in a civil proceeding are one of the exceptions.

Canada Post volunteers answer about a million letters a year addressed to Santa Claus at which special postal code?

H0H 0H0 spells out Santa's laugh when each zero is read as the letter O. Every letter gets a reply in the language it was written in.

Which Canadian province has stayed essentially rat-free since the 1950s through a strict government control program?

Alberta declared rats a pest in 1950, when the rodents reached its eastern border after advancing across the Prairies, and began the aggressive eradication effort that keeps them out.

Licence plates in Canada's Northwest Territories have been cut in the shape of which animal since 1970?

A polar bear outline was introduced in 1970 to mark the territory's centennial, and the shape is now a registered trademark of the territorial government.

Which apple variety was discovered as a wild seedling on an Ontario farm in 1811?

McIntosh apples began with a sapling John McIntosh found while clearing his land. The original tree bore fruit for more than ninety years, and Apple named its Macintosh line after the variety.

Astronaut Chris Hadfield filmed a zero-gravity cover of which David Bowie song while living in orbit around Earth?

Space Oddity became the first music video recorded off the planet. Hadfield changed the ending so that Major Tom gets his orders to land and comes home safely.

Which retail chain began handing out its own banknote-style paper coupons as a loyalty reward at a gas bar in 1958?

Canadian Tire money, printed like real banknotes and showing a moustached Scot named Sandy McTire, has been called the most successful loyalty program in Canadian retail history.

The name Canada is generally traced to 'kanata', a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word with what meaning?

Village is all the word meant: locals used it in 1535 to point European visitors toward the settlement of Stadacona, and by 1545 maps were calling the whole region Canada.

Which coin did the Royal Canadian Mint stop distributing in the 2010s because it cost more to make than it was worth?

The penny cost 1.6 cents to produce, so the Mint began melting down an estimated 35 billion of them and shops were told to round cash totals to the nearest five cents.

Which antlered animal appears on the reverse of Canada's 25-cent coin, in a design by sculptor Emanuel Hahn?

A caribou head won its place on the quarter only after some debate: early proposals had put the animal on the five-cent coin and a schooner on the quarter instead.

Canadian Thanksgiving, fixed by a proclamation in 1957, falls on the second Monday of which month?

October puts the Canadian holiday more than a month ahead of the American one, and on a Monday rather than a Thursday. Before 1957 the date moved around from year to year.

Which Sudbury, Ontario-born broadcaster hosted the American quiz show Jeopardy! for 37 seasons, starting in 1984?

Alex Trebek learned the trade at the CBC, where in 1966 he hosted a high-school quiz called Reach for the Top, long before American television came calling.

Which London, Ontario-born actor earned an Oscar nomination for playing Ken in the 2023 film Barbie?

Ryan Gosling was a Mouseketeer at twelve, cast in The All New Mickey Mouse Club beside Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake.

Which Canadian rapper first gained fame as Jimmy Brooks on the teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation?

Drake was already recording while he played the school's basketball star: he self-released his first mixtape, Room for Improvement, in 2006.

Which Canadian sitcom about a wealthy family who lose everything swept all seven major comedy awards at the 2020 Emmys?

Schitt's Creek became the first series, comedy or drama, to win all four acting Emmys in one night, for Eugene Levy, Dan Levy, Catherine O'Hara and Annie Murphy.

In 2018 Canada became the second country, after Uruguay, to legalize what nationwide?

Recreational cannabis became legal in 2018 under the Cannabis Act, ending a ban that dated from 1923. Medical use had already been permitted since 2001.

L'Anse aux Meadows, on Canada's Atlantic coast, preserves a settlement built about 1,000 years ago by which people?

Norse seafarers put up eight sod-and-timber buildings here, proof that Europeans reached North America nearly five centuries before Columbus.

Canadian pharmacist Marcellus Gilmore Edson patented an early version of which sandwich spread in 1884?

Peanut butter began as his 'peanut paste': roasted peanuts milled on heated equipment until nearly fluid, which he meant for making candy.

Which piece of packaging did Canadian editor Joseph Coyle invent in 1911 to end a farmer's dispute with a hotel?

The egg carton settled it: the farmer's eggs, carried in baskets like everyone's at the time, kept arriving at the hotel broken.

Which cooking-oil crop was bred from rapeseed by Canadian university researchers in the early 1970s?

Canola began as a trademark coined from the word Canada. The new varieties were bred to be low in erucic acid, which natural rapeseed oil carries in far greater amounts.

Canada Dry began in 1904 when pharmacist John McLaughlin created a paler, far less sweet version of which soft drink?

Ginger ale gave the brand its name: his recipe was so much less sweet than its rivals that he labelled it 'dry'. It sold so well in New York that American bottlers tried to buy the formula.

Which email-centred phone brand was developed by Research In Motion, a company founded in Waterloo, Ontario?

BlackBerry started out in 1999 as a two-way pager whose always-on wireless email made it hugely popular. Its maker later dropped its own name and took the product's.

Which push-up bra, a worldwide hit in the 1990s, was developed in the 1960s by the Canadian Lady Corset Company?

Wonderbra was so tied to its maker that by the 1960s the firm was known across Canada simply by that name. Its plunge push-up, the Model 1300, arrived in 1961.

Ontario-born engineer Lewis Urry, working for Eveready in the 1950s, invented which long-lasting household power source?

The alkaline battery won over his bosses when he put one in a toy car and raced it around the canteen against a car running on an older cell.

Which athletic clothing brand did Chip Wilson found in Vancouver in 1998 to sell yoga wear?

Lululemon grew out of a yoga class Wilson took in 1997, which gave him the idea of women's yoga clothes cut from a skintight fabric he had developed.

Which form of bowling did Thomas F. Ryan devise in Canada around 1909 for customers who found tenpin too strenuous?

Five-pin is played with a ball small enough to fit in the hand, usually with no finger holes. The five pins are worth 15 points in all, and a strike adds a bonus from the next two balls.

The Yukon Gold potato, despite its northern name, was bred in the 1960s at a university in which Ontario city?

Guelph researcher Gary Johnston bred it to match a yellow-fleshed Peruvian potato a graduate student had told him about, then named it after the river of the Klondike gold rush.

Which circus company, known for using no performing animals, was founded by Canadian street performers in 1984?

Cirque du Soleil grew out of Les Échassiers, a troupe of stilt walkers that toured from 1979 to 1983 before staging its first official production.

Which long-running American sketch comedy show was created in 1975 by Canadian-born producer Lorne Michaels?

Saturday Night Live is not his only sketch show: Michaels also produced The Kids in the Hall, built around a Canadian comedy troupe, from 1988 to 1995.

Which X-Men character debuted in a 1974 Hulk comic as a superhero sanctioned by the Canadian government?

Wolverine exists because Marvel editor Roy Thomas wanted a Canadian hero and judged the wolverine a typically Canadian animal to name one after.

Which Canadian-made preschool cartoon follows a boy named Ryder and his crew of search-and-rescue dogs?

PAW Patrol comes from the toy company Spin Master, which has earned billions of dollars from sales of the pups and their rescue vehicles.

Which Broadway musical tells how the Canadian town of Gander took in about 7,000 stranded air passengers after 9/11?

Come from Away bases its characters on real Gander residents and the travellers they housed and fed after 38 planes were ordered to land at the town's airport.

Which singer raised in Timmins, Ontario made Come On Over, the best-selling studio album ever recorded by a woman?

Shania Twain's 1997 release has sold over 40 million copies and is the best-selling country album as well. She was born in Windsor, Ontario, in 1965.

Which rock band from Kingston, Ontario had its final concert in 2016 broadcast around the world by the CBC?

The Tragically Hip played that last show in their hometown after singer Gord Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. He died the following year.

Which Canadian army doctor wrote the war poem In Flanders Fields in 1915 after presiding over a friend's funeral?

John McCrae's verses about poppies growing over soldiers' graves, first printed in the London magazine Punch, made the red poppy a worldwide symbol of remembrance.

Which Canadian-born silent film star, nicknamed 'America's Sweetheart', co-founded United Artists in 1919?

Mary Pickford, born Gladys Smith, set up the studio with Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith, and later won the second Best Actress Oscar ever awarded.

Which Canadian sprinter won the 1988 Olympic 100 metres in Seoul but was stripped of the gold for doping?

Ben Johnson had emigrated from Jamaica in 1976. He lost to his great rival Carl Lewis eight times in a row before finally beating him in 1985.

Which fur-trading enterprise, chartered in 1670, was the de facto government of much of present-day Canada until 1869?

Hudson's Bay Company held a royal monopoly on trade across the lands draining into its namesake bay. It later ran department stores, and was liquidated in 2025.

Which Canadian prime minister was photographed doing a pirouette at Buckingham Palace in 1977?

Pierre Trudeau spun around during a G7 summit in London, and Doug Ball's picture of the moment is arguably the most famous photo ever taken of him.

Which businesswoman, who refused to leave a whites-only cinema seat in 1946, was put on Canada's $10 bill in 2018?

Viola Desmond was a beautician whose car had broken down in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. In 2010 she was granted Canada's first posthumous free pardon.

Which colonists, deported by the British from Canada's Maritimes from 1755, became the ancestors of Louisiana's Cajuns?

Acadians numbered about 14,100 before the expulsion, and roughly 11,500 of them were deported. In Spanish Louisiana their name eventually became 'Cajuns'.

An Air Canada jet nicknamed the 'Gimli Glider' ran out of fuel in 1983 after a mix-up between which units?

Pounds and kilograms were confused while fuelling the 767, an all-metric type new to the fleet, leaving it with 45% of the fuel it needed. Its crew glided it down onto a former air force runway turned racetrack.

Which park, set aside in 1885 around hot springs that railway workers had found, was Canada's first national park?

Banff began as a reserve of just 26 square kilometres around the springs, and was the third national park in North America, after Yellowstone and Mackinac.

Treasure hunters have dug since the late 1700s for a fabled 'Money Pit' on which Nova Scotia island?

Oak Island has drawn so many diggers, some chasing rumours of Captain Kidd's gold, that a causeway was built in 1965 just to bring in heavy machinery.

Which Ontario island in Lake Huron is the largest island in any lake on Earth?

Manitoulin Island covers 2,766 square kilometres and is big enough to hold more than 100 lakes of its own.

Which Scottish-born Canadian engineer proposed worldwide time zones after a misprinted schedule made him miss a train?

Sandford Fleming missed that train in Ireland and went on to propose 24 zones, each an hour wide. He had already designed Canada's first postage stamp.

Magnetic Hill, an optical illusion where a road appears to slope the wrong way, draws tourists to which Maritime city?

Moncton's gravity hill is a trick of the rising and falling terrain along about a kilometre of road. The city's other oddity is a tidal bore on the Petitcodiac River.