Canada
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99 free Canada trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
14 free Canada trivia questions with answers. Canada trivia lives in two places on BrainPickle. This page is the shorter set; the main quiz is Canadian trivia, with our deepest question pool on the topic and a source behind every answer.
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Q 01What is the capital city of Canada?
Ottawa
Ottawa became the capital of the Province of Canada in 1857, chosen by Queen Victoria due to its strategic location and as a compromise between English and French-speaking populations. It remained the capital when Canada became a Dominion in 1867.
Q 02Which two languages are the official languages of Canada?
English and French
Since the Official Languages Act of 1969, both English and French have been the official languages of Canada, with equal status in all federal institutions.
Q 03What animal is widely recognized as Canada's national animal?
Beaver
The Beaver was declared Canada's national animal in 1975; it had already appeared on the country's first postage stamp, the Three-Penny Beaver of 1851, and on the five-cent coin from 1937.
Q 04Which river from Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean forms Canada's longest river system?
Mackenzie
The Mackenzie River's main stem runs 1,738 km from Great Slave Lake to the Beaufort Sea; counting the Slave, Peace and Finlay upstream, the system stretches about 4,241 km, Canada's longest.
Q 05Which mountain is the highest peak in Canada?
Mount Logan
Mount Logan, located in Yukon's Kluane National Park and Reserve, is Canada's highest mountain, reaching an elevation of 5,959 meters (19,551 feet). It is also the second-highest peak in North America.
Q 06In what year was the Dominion of Canada officially formed through Confederation?
1867
The British North America Act, passed by the UK Parliament, took effect on July 1, 1867, creating the Dominion of Canada; the date is kept as Canada Day.
Q 07What is Canada's national summer sport?
Lacrosse
Lacrosse, a game of Indigenous origin, was declared Canada's national summer sport by the National Sports of Canada Act, passed by Parliament in 1994.
Q 08Which sport is officially recognized as Canada's national winter sport?
Ice Hockey
Ice Hockey was designated Canada's national winter sport by an act of Parliament in 1994, making official a game already deeply ingrained in Canadian culture.
Q 09What is the official currency of Canada?
Canadian Dollar
The Canadian Dollar dates to 1858, when the Province of Canada adopted decimal coinage aligned with US money rather than sterling; the Bank of Canada has issued the country's banknotes since 1935.
Q 10How many territories does Canada have, alongside its ten provinces?
Three
They have legislatures of their own, but are not sovereign and carry fewer constitutional responsibilities than the provinces.
Q 11Which territory was carved from the Northwest Territories in 1999 for Inuit self-government?
Nunavut
Nunavut was split from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999; it is the largest and most northerly of Canada's territories and the fifth-largest country subdivision in the world.
Q 12In which year did the red and white Maple Leaf flag first officially fly?
1965
The Maple Leaf flag was first raised on Parliament Hill on February 15, 1965; George Stanley's design drew on the Royal Military College flag, and February 15 has been National Flag of Canada Day since 1996.
Q 13Which Canadian province, the largest by area, was the most developed part of New France before 1763?
Quebec
Q 21'O Canada' was first performed in 1880 with music by which composer?
Calixa Lavallée
Calixa Lavallée composed the music of 'O Canada' for Quebec's Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day celebrations on June 24, 1880, setting French words by the judge Adolphe-Basile Routhier.
Q 22In what year did 'O Canada' officially become the national anthem?
1980
'O Canada' became the official national anthem under the National Anthem Act, proclaimed on July 1, 1980; it had served as the de facto anthem since a 1939 royal visit, competing with 'The Maple Leaf Forever'.
Q 23The Maple Leaf flag design was chosen by a committee formed under which prime minister?
Lester B. Pearson
Quebec is the only Francophone-majority province; between 1534 and 1763 its territory was the French colony of Canada, the most developed part of New France.
Q 14Which Canadian, having lost a leg to cancer, set out on a 1980 cross-country run for cancer research?
Terry Fox
Terry Fox began his Marathon of Hope on April 12, 1980, in St. John's, Newfoundland; the annual Terry Fox Run has since spread to more than 60 countries as the world's largest one-day cancer-research fundraiser.
Q 15The name Canada comes from kanata, a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning what?
Village
Kanata means 'village': in 1535 Iroquoian locals used it to direct French explorers to Stadacona, near today's Quebec City, and by 1545 European maps applied 'Canada' to the whole region.
Q 16Which French explorer planted a cross in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in 1534 for Francis I?
Jacques Cartier
Jacques Cartier raised a 10-metre cross at Gaspé in July 1534, claiming the land for Francis I; on his second voyage in 1535 he adopted the Iroquoian word kanata as the name of the region.
Q 17Which people built a short-lived camp around 1000 AD at L'Anse aux Meadows on Canada's Atlantic coast?
The Norse
The site on the northern tip of Newfoundland is the only confirmed Norse settlement in North America outside Greenland, occupied for perhaps 20 years.
Q 18How many provinces did the Dominion of Canada have at Confederation on July 1, 1867?
Four
Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were the four founding provinces under the British North America Act, which took effect on July 1, 1867.
Q 19Which province became the tenth to join Confederation, in 1949?
Newfoundland
Newfoundland joined Confederation on March 31, 1949, after a 1948 referendum, having been a separate Dominion; the province added 'and Labrador' to its name in 2001.
Q 20The Canada Act 1982 patriated the constitution and simultaneously created which document?
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms
The Constitution Act 1982, enacted through the Canada Act 1982, contains the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and ended the UK Parliament's remaining power over Canada's constitution, a process begun by the 1931 Statute of Westminster.
Lester B. Pearson, prime minister from 1963 to 1968, set up the 15-member flag committee in 1964 after the 'Great Flag Debate'; Parliament adopted George Stanley's single-leaf design that December.
Q 24What surpassed the CN Tower as the world's tallest free-standing structure in 2007?
Burj Khalifa
Burj Khalifa in Dubai passed the CN Tower's 553.3 metres during construction in September 2007, ending the Toronto tower's 31-year reign as the world's tallest free-standing structure.
Q 25The Hudson's Bay Company, founded in 1670, was granted its royal charter by which king?
Charles II
Charles II granted the Hudson's Bay Company its royal charter on May 2, 1670, giving it sole trade over Rupert's Land, the entire Hudson Bay drainage basin, roughly a third of today's Canada.
Q 26Poutine (fries, cheese curds, gravy) emerged in the Centre-du-Québec region in which decade?
1950s
Poutine emerged in the late 1950s in rural Centre-du-Québec: Warwick's Le Lutin qui rit is credited with combining fries and cheese curds in 1957, with gravy added in Drummondville by 1964.
Q 27Frederick Banting and his assistant Best first isolated insulin in 1921 in which city?
Toronto
Banting and Best isolated insulin in summer 1921 at the University of Toronto, working in the laboratory of J.J.R. Macleod, who shared the 1923 Nobel Prize with Banting.
Q 28Which Canadian-American gym teacher invented basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891?
James Naismith
James Naismith, born in Almonte, Ontario, devised basketball in December 1891 as an indoor winter game for a Springfield YMCA training-school class, nailing a peach basket to the gym's elevated track.
Q 29Canada's gold-coloured one-dollar coin, introduced in 1987, is nicknamed after which bird?
The loon
The coin is nicknamed the 'loonie' for the common loon on its reverse, designed by Robert-Ralph Carmichael; it replaced the paper one-dollar bill, which was withdrawn in 1989.
Q 30Which bay between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia has the world's highest tidal range?
Bay of Fundy
The Bay of Fundy's tides reach a range of about 16 metres at Burntcoat Head, Nova Scotia, the highest recorded anywhere; roughly 160 billion tonnes of seawater move in and out on each tide.