147 Fun Facts About Canada

What is the capital city of Canada?

Ottawa was Queen Victoria's choice in 1857: rivalry between the bigger cities made any pick politically dangerous for local leaders, so the decision was handed to her.

Which two languages are the official languages of Canada?

English and French became official under the Official Languages Act of 1969, which requires every federal institution to serve the public in either language on request.

What animal is widely recognized as Canada's national animal?

Beaver pelts, prized in Europe for felt hats, drove the fur trade that pushed exploration across the continent, which made the animal an emblem of Canada older than the maple leaf.

Which river from Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean forms Canada's longest river system?

The Mackenzie is named for Alexander Mackenzie, who canoed it in 1789 hoping it led to the Pacific and came out on the Arctic coast instead; with its headwaters the system runs 4,241 km.

Which mountain is the highest peak in Canada?

Mount Logan was long thought to stand 6,050 metres until a 1992 survey expedition fixed its summit at 5,959; it is named for William Logan, founder of the Geological Survey of Canada.

Which 1867 law, passed in London, created Canada?

The British North America Act united three colonies into one country; renamed the Constitution Act, 1867 in 1982, it is still the core of Canada's constitution.

What is Canada's national summer sport?

Lacrosse grew out of First Nations ball games; a young dentist, William George Beers, wrote its first rules in 1860 and campaigned for it as the national game, a status made official for summer in 1994.

Which sport is officially recognized as Canada's national winter sport?

Ice hockey's first organized indoor game, in 1875, swapped the ball for a flat wooden disc that was less likely to fly off and injure spectators; that disc became the puck.

Canada's banknotes switched in the 2010s from paper to which material?

Polymer bills replaced paper ones because the plastic is more durable and harder to counterfeit; each note costs more to print but was expected to stay in use far longer.

How many territories does Canada have, alongside its ten provinces?

Three territories, all in the far north, hold only the powers Parliament delegates to them, while the ten provinces draw their authority directly from the constitution.

Which territory was carved from the Northwest Territories in 1999 for Inuit self-government?

Nunavut, 'our land' in Inuktitut, grew out of a 1993 land-claims agreement, the largest in Canadian history, in which Inuit negotiated a territory of their own along with title to their lands.

Which flag did the Maple Leaf replace as Canada's de facto national flag in 1965?

The Red Ensign, a British merchant flag with Canada's shield added, was never formally adopted: a 1945 order let it fly on federal buildings as a stopgap until Parliament chose a flag.

Which Canadian province is the largest by area?

Quebec kept French civil law and freedom of Catholic worship under Britain's Quebec Act of 1774, and it remains the only province with a French-speaking majority.

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

Terry Fox ran about a marathon a day for 143 days and 5,373 km on an artificial leg before cancer in his lungs stopped him outside Thunder Bay; he died the following June, aged 22.

The name Canada is thought to come from kanata, an Iroquoian word meaning what?

Village or settlement is the accepted meaning: in 1535 Indigenous guides used kanata to point French explorers to Stadacona, and the visitors applied the word to the whole region.

Which French explorer planted a cross in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in 1534 for Francis I?

Jacques Cartier raised a cross at Gaspé in July 1534 to claim the land for France, then sailed home with two sons of the Iroquoian chief Donnacona, whom he had seized.

Which people built a short-lived camp around 1000 AD at L'Anse aux Meadows on Canada's Atlantic coast?

The Norse were there in exactly 1021: a solar storm in 993 left a radiocarbon spike in tree rings, letting scientists date wood at the site that had been cut with metal tools.

Splitting the Province of Canada created which two provinces?

Ontario and Quebec were split apart to end years of political deadlock between the united province's two halves; with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick they made four founding provinces.

Which province became the tenth to join Confederation, in 1949?

Newfoundland had governed itself until bankruptcy in 1934 put it under a British-appointed commission; in 1948 its voters chose Canada over a return to independence by 52.3% to 47.7%.

The Canada Act 1982 patriated the constitution and simultaneously created which document?

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms was proclaimed by Elizabeth II at a rainy ceremony on Parliament Hill on April 17, 1982; since then courts have struck down laws that violate it.

'O Canada' was first sung in 1880 with lyrics in which language?

French came first: with music by Calixa Lavallée and words by Adolphe-Basile Routhier, the song was written for Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day in Quebec City, and the best-known English words only followed in 1908.

What did a 2018 change to its English lyrics make 'O Canada'?

Gender-neutral wording replaced a line about 'sons' in 2018; the song itself only became the official anthem on July 1, 1980, a full century after it was written.

The Maple Leaf flag design was chosen by a committee formed under which prime minister?

Lester B. Pearson pitched a new flag to a hostile Royal Canadian Legion convention in 1964; after six months of bitter debate Parliament chose a single-leaf design over his own three-leaf favourite.

What surpassed the CN Tower as the world's tallest free-standing structure in 2007?

Burj Khalifa in Dubai overtook the CN Tower's 553 metres in September 2007 while still under construction, more than two years before the skyscraper opened.

Which fur-trading company, chartered in 1670, once held about a third of what is now Canada?

The Hudson's Bay Company ruled Rupert's Land under a 1670 charter from Charles II until Canada bought the territory in 1870 for £300,000, the largest land deal in the country's history.

Traditional poutine tops fries and gravy with which ingredient?

Cheese curds came first: a Warwick snack bar is credited with adding them to fries in the late 1950s, and a Drummondville drive-in claims the gravy; several towns still dispute the invention.

Frederick Banting and his assistant Best first isolated insulin in 1921 in which city?

Toronto's university lab produced insulin in 1921 under J.J.R. Macleod, who shared the 1923 Nobel Prize with Banting; Banting then split his prize money with Best, who had been left out.

Which Canadian-American gym teacher invented basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891?

James Naismith, born in Almonte, Ontario, needed an indoor winter game for a restless class in December 1891, so he nailed up the two peach baskets the building's janitor had to spare.

Canada's gold-coloured one-dollar coin, introduced in 1987, is nicknamed after which bird?

The loon was a stand-in: the dies for the planned voyageur canoe design were lost in transit to the Winnipeg mint, so a new reverse by Robert-Ralph Carmichael was struck instead.

Which Canadian bay has the world's highest tidal range?

The Bay of Fundy narrows like a funnel and its water rocks in step with the ocean tide, a resonance that lifts the range to about 16 metres, the highest in the world.

Which is the largest body of fresh water lying entirely within Canada?

Great Bear Lake sits on the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories; pitchblende found on its eastern shore in 1930 was mined first for cancer-treating radium and later for uranium.

Alert, Earth's northernmost continuously inhabited place, is at the tip of which Canadian landmass?

Alert, on Ellesmere Island 817 km from the North Pole, is named for HMS Alert, which wintered nearby in 1875-76; a weather station followed in 1950 and a military signals-intelligence post in 1958.

Which province joined Canada in 1871 on the promise of a transcontinental railway within ten years?

British Columbia joined on that promise; the Canadian Pacific's last spike was finally driven at Craigellachie in November 1885.

Which waterfall at Niagara straddles the Canada–US border?

Horseshoe Falls carries about 90% of the Niagara River's flow; it used to wear its way upstream by more than a metre a year until engineering works slowed the erosion.

Which Canadian city was devastated in 1917 when a munitions ship exploded in its harbour?

Halifax lost nearly 2,000 people when the munitions ship Mont-Blanc blew up after a collision; Boston sent relief at once and still receives a Christmas tree every year in thanks.

Donut-chain co-founder Tim Horton won four 1960s titles with which team?

The Toronto Maple Leafs won four Stanley Cups with Tim Horton on defence; he opened his first coffee and donut shop in Hamilton in 1964, and partner Ron Joyce built it into a national chain.

Anne of Green Gables is set in the fictional town of Avonlea in which province?

Prince Edward Island draws thousands of visitors a year to the Green Gables sites; in Japan the 1908 novel has been on the school curriculum since 1952 and Anne is a national favourite.

The Klondike Gold Rush of the late 1890s sent about 100,000 prospectors heading for which territory?

Yukon's Bonanza Creek strike of August 1896 set about 100,000 people moving north, but well under half of them finished the journey over the mountain passes to the goldfields.

In April 1917 all four Canadian divisions attacked together for the first time in which battle?

Vimy Ridge fell in four days of fighting at a cost of more than 10,600 Canadians killed and wounded; a towering memorial on the ridge now honours those who died in France with no known grave.

Canada's capital was known by what name until 1855, after the army engineer who built its canal?

Bytown honoured Colonel John By, whose canal works founded the settlement in 1826; back in England he was criticised for overspending on the project despite its success.

Montreal was founded in 1642 under what original name?

Ville-Marie, 'City of Mary', began as a Catholic mission colony led by Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve and Jeanne Mance; the later name comes from Mount Royal, the hill at its centre.

The Arctic city of Iqaluit was known by what name until 1987?

Frobisher Bay honoured Martin Frobisher, the Elizabethan seaman who shipped home tonnes of local rock he wrongly took for gold ore; residents restored the Inuktitut name in 1987.

Which city hosted the first of the 1864 conferences that led to Confederation?

Charlottetown's meeting was called to discuss a union of the Maritime colonies; delegates from the Province of Canada arrived uninvited with a wider plan, and all agreed to meet again a month later.

Who was elected to succeed Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader in March 2025, becoming Canadian prime minister?

Mark Carney, who had never held elected office, became prime minister on March 14, 2025, called a snap election nine days later and won it on April 28.

Which park, established in 1885, was Canada's first national park?

Banff began in 1885 as a small reserve around hot springs that railway workers had come across in 1883; their rival claims to the springs pushed the government to protect the site instead.

The real bear that inspired A. A. Milne's honey-loving storybook character was named after which Canadian city?

Winnipeg was home to Harry Colebourn, an army veterinarian who bought the cub at an Ontario train stop in 1914 and left her at London Zoo, where Christopher Robin Milne grew fond of 'Winnie'.

Which collective of painters is often considered the first uniquely Canadian art movement?

The Group of Seven formed in 1920 to paint Canada's wilderness in bold colour; Tom Thomson, the painter most often linked with them, had died in 1917 and so was never a member.

Which Canadian sprinter won the 1996 Olympic 100 metres in a world-record 9.84 seconds?

Donovan Bailey ran 9.84 seconds in Atlanta to take gold and the world record, then won a second gold at the same Games with Canada's 4 x 100 metre relay team.

Who was Canada's first prime minister?

John A. Macdonald was forced to resign in 1873 over the Pacific Scandal, a railway contract tied to campaign money, yet he won power back in 1878 and held it until he died in 1891.

Who is Canada's longest-serving prime minister, with more than 21 years in office?

William Lyon Mackenzie King led Canada for more than 21 years across three spells between 1921 and 1948; his diaries later revealed that he used mediums to contact his dead mother.

Who became Canada's first female prime minister in 1993?

Kim Campbell succeeded Brian Mulroney as Progressive Conservative leader and prime minister in June 1993; in that October's election her party was cut to two seats and she lost her own, Vancouver Centre.

Métis leader Louis Riel is remembered as the founder of which province?

Louis Riel's provisional government negotiated Manitoba's entry into Canada in 1870; fifteen years later he was hanged for treason after leading a second resistance further west.

The Mounties were first to be called the North-West Mounted what, before 'Police' replaced it?

Rifles was the prime minister's first choice in 1873; he changed it to 'Police' to avoid arousing American suspicions before the force rode west in 1874.

Which province is home to the Athabasca oil sands around Fort McMurray?

Alberta's oil sands hold bitumen too thick to pump: near the surface it is strip-mined, and deeper down it is heated with injected steam until it will flow to a well.

Lord Stanley gave hockey the Stanley Cup while holding which office?

Governor General Lord Stanley was persuaded by his hockey-playing sons to give a trophy; the small silver bowl he ordered from London was first awarded in 1893.

Which park, established in 1922 and larger than Switzerland, is Canada's biggest national park?

Wood Buffalo National Park was created to protect the last herds of wood bison, and it also shelters a nesting ground of the endangered whooping crane.

The Hudson Bay town of Churchill bills itself as the world capital of which animal?

Polar bear tours are Churchill's trademark: the bears move from inland to the Hudson Bay shore near town each autumn, while beluga whales are its other great draw.

Which city hosts the Stampede, a July rodeo billed as 'The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth'?

Calgary's Stampede was the idea of Guy Weadick, an American trick roper who judged the young town a prime spot for a big rodeo and staged the first one in 1912 with the backing of four ranchers.

The Canadian Shield exposes some of Earth's oldest rock, dating from which span of geological time?

Precambrian rock of the Canadian Shield covers about half the country; glaciers left it with only thin soil, a barrier to settlement, but it has yielded great mineral wealth.

Manitoulin Island, the world's largest lake island, sits in which Great Lake?

Lake Huron's Manitoulin Island was opened to settlers by an 1862 treaty, though the Wiikwemkoong First Nation refused to sign it; a single swing bridge still carries the road onto the island.

Which island, the fifth-largest in the world, is Canada's biggest?

Baffin Island honours William Baffin, the English navigator who charted its east coast in 1616 while seeking the Northwest Passage; the explorer William Edward Parry named it for him two centuries later.

The Trans-Canada Highway's western 'Mile 0' monument is in which city?

Victoria's Mile 0 monument marks one end of a highway that crosses all ten provinces; it was declared open in 1962, though the route was not finished until 1971.

Which UNESCO-listed canal hosts a Skateway billed as the world's largest naturally frozen rink?

The Rideau Canal was finished in 1832 as a military supply route safe from American attack; today the 7.8 km winter Skateway is the best-known use of a waterway built for war.

The schooner on the Canadian dime was formally declared in 2002 to be which vessel?

The Bluenose, a Lunenburg fishing schooner launched in 1921, was the champion racer of the 1920s and 1930s; the dime's 1937 ship was a composite, and only in 2002 did the government name it as her.

Which cocktail did Walter Chell create in 1969 with vodka, clam and tomato juice?

The Caesar was devised by Walter Chell as a signature drink for his hotel's new Italian restaurant; his idea came from spaghetti alle vongole, a pasta dish made with clams.

In 2011 and 2012 thieves siphoned millions of dollars' worth of which product from a Canadian strategic reserve?

Maple syrup worth about $18 million was drained from the Quebec reserve's barrels, which the thieves refilled with water; the loss surfaced only at an inspection in July 2012.

The no-bake Nanaimo bar is named after a city on which island?

Vancouver Island's city of Nanaimo held a contest in the 1980s to settle the definitive recipe; Joyce Hardcastle's winning bar was soon sold on BC Ferries and spread across Canada.

What unwanted first did Canada set as host of the 1976 Summer Olympics?

At the 1976 Summer Games Canada became the first host nation to win no gold medals, finishing with five silver and six bronze; the Games' debts took Quebec taxpayers until 2006 to repay.

Expo 67, the world's fair held for Canada's centennial year, took place in which city?

Montreal built an island for the fair: Île Notre-Dame was raised from the St. Lawrence with dredged and excavated fill, and Expo 67 went on to draw more than 50 million visits.

The 1929 Persons Case established that women were eligible to sit in which body?

The Persons Case held that women were 'qualified persons' eligible for the Senate; after Canada's Supreme Court ruled against the Famous Five in 1928, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London reversed it on October 18, 1929.

Who became the first Canadian in space, aboard the Space Shuttle in 1984?

Marc Garneau, a navy combat-systems engineer, flew on the shuttle Challenger in October 1984; he later ran the Canadian Space Agency and then entered politics as a cabinet minister.

Who is Canada's first female astronaut, and the first neurologist in space?

Roberta Bondar flew on Discovery in January 1992 as the second Canadian in space, then spent more than a decade leading a space-medicine research team that worked with NASA.

Who became the first Canadian to command the International Space Station?

Chris Hadfield commanded Expedition 35 in 2013 and signed off with a cover of David Bowie's 'Space Oddity' filmed aboard the station, the first music video recorded in space.

Which prime minister abruptly cancelled the Avro Arrow interceptor in 1959?

John Diefenbaker's government cancelled the CF-105 Arrow on February 20, 1959, 'Black Friday' in Canadian aviation; some 14,000 Avro employees were laid off and the completed aircraft were cut up for scrap.

Which Saskatchewan premier, later voted 'The Greatest Canadian', pioneered public health care?

Tommy Douglas's medicare plan became law in 1961 and survived a long, bitter doctors' strike the following year; his grandson is the actor Kiefer Sutherland.

Which Finals MVP led the Toronto Raptors to their first NBA title in 2019?

Kawhi Leonard arrived in a trade for DeMar DeRozan and beat Golden State in six games, making the Raptors the first team based outside the United States to win the NBA title.

Which is the only Canadian team to have won baseball's World Series?

The Toronto Blue Jays won in 1992 and again in 1993, when Joe Carter's ninth-inning home run ended the Series, only the second time a World Series had finished on a homer.

Wayne Gretzky, 'the Great One', was born and raised in which Ontario city?

Wayne Gretzky honed his skills under his father's guidance on a backyard rink in Brantford, playing minor hockey at a level far above boys his own age.

Which NHL team won a record 24 Stanley Cups during the 20th century?

The Montreal Canadiens, founded in 1909 as the team of the city's francophone community, are the oldest professional hockey club in the world; their 24th Cup came in 1993.

Which two generals were both mortally wounded at the 1759 Battle of the Plains of Abraham?

Wolfe died as the French began to retreat and Montcalm the next morning; the city surrendered within days, a blow that led to the end of French rule in North America.

Laura Secord walked about 30 km to warn British forces of an attack during which conflict?

During the War of 1812, Laura Secord slipped out of American-occupied Queenston to warn Lieutenant James FitzGibbon of a coming attack; a candy company took her name on the walk's centennial in 1913.

Viola Desmond refused to leave a whites-only cinema section in New Glasgow in 1946, in which province?

Nova Scotia convicted Viola Desmond of evading one cent of amusement tax, the difference in tax between the two tickets; she was pardoned in 2010 and put on the $10 note in 2018.

Which prime minister was in office when Quebec's 1995 sovereignty referendum narrowly failed?

Jean Chrétien saw the No side win by just 50.58% to 49.42%; his government answered in 2000 with the Clarity Act, which demands a clear question and a clear majority in any future vote.

During the 1970 October Crisis, Pierre Trudeau invoked which act of Parliament?

Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act on October 16, 1970, its first peacetime use, after the FLQ kidnapped British diplomat James Cross and Quebec minister Pierre Laporte; Laporte was found dead the next day.

Who in 2021 became Canada's first Indigenous governor general?

Mary Simon speaks English and Inuktitut but not French, which some saw as a break with the tradition of bilingual governors general; she replied that she was bilingual in Inuktitut and English.

Canada Day was known by what name until 1982?

Dominion Day became Canada Day in 1982 when a private member's bill passed the House of Commons quickly, after several earlier bills to change the name had failed.

What sets Newfoundland's time zone apart?

A half-hour offset keeps Newfoundland close to its capital's own solar time, about three and a half hours behind Greenwich; a 1963 bid to move the province to Atlantic time died after a public outcry.

On D-Day, the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division landed on which Normandy beach?

Juno Beach lay between the British beaches Gold and Sword; the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division fought its way ashore with orders to push 18 km inland to the Carpiquet airfield.

The August 1942 raid in which Canadians suffered a 68% casualty rate targeted which French port?

Dieppe was raided on August 19, 1942: tanks arrived late and many bogged down on the shingle beach, and of 4,963 Canadians who embarked, 3,367 were killed, wounded or captured.

Which poem did Canadian army doctor John McCrae write in 1915?

In Flanders Fields was written after the funeral of Lieutenant Alexis Helmer near Ypres; its image of poppies on soldiers' graves made the red poppy a symbol of remembrance.

Marconi reported receiving the first transatlantic wireless signal in 1901 at Signal Hill in which city?

St. John's gave Marconi a windswept hill for his test: with an aerial held aloft by a kite, he reported hearing the Morse letter S sent from Cornwall on December 12, 1901.

Ogopogo, Canada's best-known lake monster, is said to live in which BC lake?

Ogopogo is said to haunt Okanagan Lake; its playful name was borrowed in the 1920s from a comic English music-hall song, though Indigenous peoples had far older names for the lake's creature.

How many players does each side field in Canadian football?

Canadian football fields twelve players a side, one more than the American game; the offence also gets only three downs to gain ten yards on a 110-yard field.

On which day is Canadian Thanksgiving held?

Second Monday in October was fixed by proclamation in 1957; for a decade from 1921 the holiday had shared a November Monday with Armistice Day, until the two were separated in 1931.

Letters to Santa Claus mailed in Canada go to which dedicated postal code?

H0H 0H0 reads as Santa's laugh and needs no stamp; thousands of current and retired postal workers volunteer to answer the letters, which have averaged a million or more a year.

Canada's Robertson screw, patented by Peter Robertson, is driven through a socket of which shape?

Square sockets grip the driver, so the screw can be set one-handed; Henry Ford found it saved time on the Model T and wanted an exclusive licence, but Robertson turned him down.

Which Canadian coin stopped being minted in 2012?

The penny cost 1.6 cents to make; since the Mint stopped distributing it in February 2013, cash totals have been rounded to the nearest five cents.

Which pizza was invented by Greek-born cook Sam Panopoulos at the Satellite Restaurant in Chatham, Ontario?

Hawaiian pizza took its name from the brand of canned pineapple Panopoulos used, not from the islands. He was inspired partly by the sweet-and-sour mix of the Canadian Chinese dishes he cooked.

Which Canadian singer won Eurovision 1988 for Switzerland, edging the United Kingdom by a single point?

Céline Dion sang 'Ne partez pas sans moi' for the Swiss. She trailed by five points until the final jury, Yugoslavia, gave her six and the United Kingdom none.

Which storybook bear takes his name from a black bear cub that Canadian army vet Harry Colebourn bought in 1914?

Winnie-the-Pooh owes his name to Winnie, a cub Colebourn bought for $20 at a train stop in White River, Ontario. He left her at London Zoo, where young Christopher Robin Milne became a regular visitor.

Canada ended the decades-long 'Whisky War' over tiny Hans Island in 2022 by splitting it with which country?

Denmark and Canada took turns planting flags on the barren Arctic rock, leaving behind bottles of schnapps or Canadian whisky. The deal gave the two countries a land border with each other.

Which country's royal family sent Canada 100,000 flower bulbs in 1945 as thanks for wartime shelter?

The Netherlands' future Queen Juliana spent the war years in Ottawa, and the bulbs were tulips. Her daughter Margriet was born there in a maternity ward declared extraterritorial, so the princess would be solely Dutch.

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

Drake's character was a basketball star left disabled after a classmate shot him. He released his first mixtape, Room for Improvement, while still on the show.

Which board game did Canadian newspapermen Chris Haney and Scott Abbott dream up in December 1979?

Trivial Pursuit came from a photo editor and a sports editor, and most versions of its origin story involve a game of Scrabble. The finished game went on sale in Canada in 1981.

Which environmental group began with a 1971 protest voyage from Canada toward a US nuclear test site in Alaska?

Greenpeace was at first the name the activists gave their chartered fishing boat, the Phyllis Cormack. The US Coast Guard forced the crew to turn back before they reached the test island of Amchitka.

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

Come From Away grew out of interviews its writers recorded in Gander on the tenth anniversary of the day 38 planes were ordered to land there. Its characters are based on real residents and travellers.

Which Canadian-born Star Trek actor flew to the edge of space aboard a Blue Origin rocket in 2021, aged 90?

William Shatner, the original Captain Kirk, became the oldest person to reach space on the suborbital flight. A 90-year-old passenger who was 48 days older on his own launch day took the record in 2024.

Which apple variety began as a seedling found on an Upper Canada farm in 1811?

McIntosh apples trace back to seedlings a farmer of that name found while clearing an overgrown plot and replanted by his house. Apple's Jef Raskin named the Macintosh line after the cultivar.

Canadian pilot Roy Brown was credited with downing German ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known by which nickname?

The Red Baron went down as Brown's kill in the RAF's official record. Historians and ballistics experts think it all but certain that a machine gunner firing from the ground hit him.

Which Underground Railroad conductor led her parents to safety in St. Catharines, in what is now Ontario, in 1857?

Harriet Tubman brought them to a community of formerly enslaved people that already included her relatives and friends. The chapel where she worshipped there is a National Historic Site of Canada.

Which Louisiana people descend from Acadians the British expelled from what is now Atlantic Canada in the 1750s?

Cajuns trace their roots to exiles who reached Louisiana in the decades after the Great Expulsion, which Acadians remember as le grand dérangement.

Which giant-screen film format, created by a Canadian company, debuted with Tiger Child at Expo '70 in Osaka?

IMAX came from filmmakers who had made multi-screen films and decided that one enormous image had more impact. The name is a made-up word, not an acronym.

The 'Canadian tuxedo', reportedly named after a hotel turned away Bing Crosby, is an outfit made of which fabric?

Denim from top to bottom is said to have got Crosby refused at a Canadian hotel in 1951. Levi Strauss then made him a tuxedo entirely of the fabric as a publicity stunt.

At a Tim Hortons in Canada, a coffee ordered 'double-double' comes with a double dose of which two additions?

Cream and sugar make the order, and the phrase sits beside toque and chesterfield in the vocabulary that Canadian English calls its own.

Which broadcaster from Sudbury, Ontario, hosted the American quiz show Jeopardy! for 37 seasons until 2020?

Alex Trebek, the son of a chef who had emigrated from Ukraine as a child, fronted the show from its 1984 revival until his death.

Which director of The Terminator and Avatar was born in the northern Ontario town of Kapuskasing?

James Cameron left Ontario for California at 17 and was driving a truck when Star Wars came out in 1977. He quit the job to get into the film industry.

Which Canadian star of Airplane! and The Naked Gun had a brother who served as the country's deputy prime minister?

Leslie Nielsen's elder brother Erik sat in Parliament for years and was deputy prime minister from 1984 to 1986. Their relationship was the premise of an HBO mockumentary, The Canadian Conspiracy.

Which circus company was founded in 1984 by former Canadian street performers Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix?

Cirque du Soleil grew out of a troupe of stilt walkers called Les Échassiers. Its theatrical style and its lack of performing animals came to define the contemporary circus.

Which global yoga-wear brand did businessman Chip Wilson found on Canada's west coast in 1998?

Lululemon got its L-heavy name because Wilson thought it funny to use a letter that Japanese speakers often find hard to pronounce.

Which smartphone brand, made by Research In Motion of Waterloo, Ontario, popularized the thumb-typed QWERTY keyboard?

BlackBerry was picked from about 40 candidate names because the keyboard's tiny buttons looked like the drupelets that make up the fruit.

Which Canadian sitcom's final season swept all seven major comedy awards at the 2020 Primetime Emmys?

Schitt's Creek was the first comedy or drama to take all seven, with acting prizes for Catherine O'Hara, Annie Murphy and both Levys.

Which Canadian poet and singer wrote 'Hallelujah', a song that won wide popularity only after a cover featured in Shrek?

Leonard Cohen is reputed to have written at least 80 draft verses for the song, which first appeared on his 1984 album Various Positions. Only seven of those verses have been officially released.

Which Canadian novelist began The Handmaid's Tale in West Berlin in 1984 and finished it in Alabama?

Margaret Atwood's dystopia was hailed by reviewers in 1985 as a 'feminist 1984'. Its first reader was the novelist Valerie Martin, who was teaching at the same Alabama university.

Which Canadian folk singer topped the charts at home with a 1976 ballad about the sunken freighter Edmund Fitzgerald?

Gordon Lightfoot built the lyrics from news reports of the sinking, above all a Newsweek article titled 'The Cruelest Month'. The song charted again after his death in 2023.

Which Canadian sprinter won the 1988 Olympic 100 metres in 9.79 seconds, only to lose the gold within days?

Ben Johnson's sample contained the steroid stanozolol. He had been the first Canadian to win the event since 1928, and said he would have run faster had he not raised his hand before the tape.

Whose overtime 'Golden Goal' against the United States won Canada men's gold on home ice at the 2010 Winter Olympics?

Sidney Crosby scored 7 minutes and 40 seconds into overtime, after failing to register a point in either the quarterfinal or the semifinal.

Which Canadian gold-rush town serves the Sourtoe Cocktail, a shot of liquor garnished with a preserved human toe?

Dawson City's Downtown Hotel serves it by the rule of the riverboat captain who began the ritual in 1973: the drinker's lips must touch the toe. Swallowing it brings a $2,500 fine.

Which trophy, commissioned by a governor general in 1909, is awarded each year to the champions of Canadian football?

Grey Cup history is a rough one: the trophy has been broken several times, stolen twice and held for ransom. It also came through a 1947 fire that destroyed other artifacts in the same building.

The Brier, named after a tobacco brand its first sponsor sold, is Canada's national men's championship in which sport?

Curling's Brier sends its winner on to represent Canada at the world championships the same year. The brand belonged to the Macdonald Tobacco Company.

Which cooking-oil crop did Canadian researchers breed from rapeseed in the mid-1970s to cut its erucic acid?

Canola began as a trademark of the Rapeseed Association of Canada: 'can' for the country plus 'ola' for oil. Edible varieties must contain less than 2% erucic acid.

Whose lost 1845 expedition to the Northwest Passage left the wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror in Canada's Arctic?

John Franklin's expedition lost all 129 officers and men, its commander among them, after the ships became icebound. A Parks Canada search team located Erebus in 2014, and Terror was found two years later.

In 2018 Canada became the second country to fully legalize cannabis, following which South American nation?

Uruguay went first. Canada's Cannabis Act took effect on 17 October 2018, covering the cultivation, possession, acquisition and consumption of the drug.

Whose goal with 34 seconds left won the 1972 Summit Series for Canada against the Soviet Union?

Paul Henderson lifted a rebound over the fallen goaltender Vladislav Tretiak for a 6–5 lead. He had scored the winner in the two previous games as well, and became a national hero.

Which Scottish-born Canadian engineer proposed 24 worldwide time zones after missing a train in Ireland?

Sandford Fleming missed the train because a printed schedule listed p.m. instead of a.m. In 1876 he proposed a single 24-hour clock for the entire world.

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

Wolverine began as a rival for the Hulk before Professor X recruited him. His adamantium skeleton came from the Weapon X super-soldier program, which used him as an unwilling test subject.

Which Canadian singer-songwriter, raised on the Prairies, helped define an era with 'Big Yellow Taxi' and 'Woodstock'?

Joni Mitchell was born Roberta Joan Anderson, the daughter of an air force flight lieutenant. She started out singing in small nightclubs across western Canada.

For Canada's 1967 centennial, the western town of St. Paul built the world's first landing pad for what kind of craft?

UFOs were the stated target: the mushroom-shaped pad was built to attract both tourists and Martians. It was one of more than 100 centennial projects the town organized.

Which vast territory covering the Hudson Bay drainage basin did Canada acquire from a fur-trading company in 1870?

Rupert's Land was named for Prince Rupert of the Rhine, the company's first governor. The company received £300,000 in compensation for surrendering its charter.

Which 1931 British act ended nearly all of Parliament's power to legislate for Canada and the other Dominions?

The Statute of Westminster was a crucial step in turning the Dominions into separate, sovereign states. Modified versions of it remain domestic law in Canada and Australia.

Which steamship carrying 376 passengers from British India was turned away from Canada's Pacific coast in 1914?

Komagata Maru's passengers, mostly Sikhs from Punjab, were British subjects, yet only 24 were allowed ashore. The ship had to sail back to India under naval escort.

Which Canadian painter of The Jack Pine and The West Wind drowned on Algonquin Park's Canoe Lake at the age of 39?

Tom Thomson had a reputation as a master canoeist, which helped feed persistent but unsubstantiated rumours that he had been murdered or had taken his own life.

Which series of short films, launched in 1991 and much parodied since, dramatizes single moments of Canadian history?

Heritage Minutes run sixty seconds each and were first shown during a one-off history quiz show. They went on to play in schools, on television and in cinemas before feature films.

Which University of Waterloo physicist shared the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics for a way of amplifying laser pulses?

Donna Strickland became only the third woman to win the physics prize, after Marie Curie in 1903 and Maria Goeppert Mayer in 1963.

Which aircraft made Canada's first controlled powered flight in 1909, taking off from the ice of a frozen bay?

The Silver Dart was flown by Douglas McCurdy, one of its designers. It was built by the Aerial Experiment Association, a group formed under the guidance of Alexander Graham Bell.

Which Canadian pilot, officially credited with 72 victories, was the British Empire's top ace of the First World War?

Billy Bishop won the Victoria Cross for a solo attack on a German-held aerodrome in 1917, though one historian has suggested that he may have embellished his success.

Which Ontario schoolteacher became, in 1921, the first woman elected to Canada's House of Commons?

Agnes Macphail went on to champion prison reform and founded the Elizabeth Fry Society of Canada in 1939. She was also the first Canadian woman delegate to the League of Nations.

Which fossil bed in Canada's Rockies, discovered in 1909, is famed for preserving the soft parts of Cambrian animals?

The Burgess Shale is more than 500 million years old, one of the earliest fossil beds to hold soft-part imprints. Stephen Jay Gould's 1989 book Wonderful Life brought it to public attention.