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Here is one of the most interesting facts about Canada that surprises Americans. Did you know that the Canadian Head of State is still Queen Elizabeth II, the British monarch? Canada passed back and forth between French and British monarchs over the centuries before becoming an independent nation. The queen no longer “reigns’ over Canada, but she still plays a significant role in the government and in Canada’s national identity, and appears prominently on Canadian currency.
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In the year 1915, a black bear cub from Canada named Winnipeg, or “Winnie,” was donated to a zoo in London. Christopher Robin Milne, then a child, saw the bear cub and quickly decided it was one of his favorite animals in the park. His father, A.A. Milne, took this as part of the inspiration for his Winnie-the-Pooh stories.
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The West Edmonton Mall, located in Edmonton, Alberta, once reigned as the largest shopping mall in the world, but now comes in only at tenth place. Nonetheless, it still possesses the second largest indoor amusement park on Earth, as well as the largest mall in North America. It held the #1 ranking on the planet until 2004, so those nine malls which now outsize it have been constructed all within the past decade.
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The lowest temperature ever recorded in North America was in Canada in Snag, Yukon Territory. The record setting temperature was negative 63 degrees Celsius, and was recorded on February 3rd, 1947. Some parts of Canada are snow-covered for around six months out of every year.
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You may think of the concept of a walled city as a relic of bygone times, but Québec City still retains its ramparts today. That makes it the only remaining walled city in North America north of Mexico. The walls surround the Old Québec district of the city, which is also a World Heritage site. There are four gates currently in existence, several of which were demolished and had to be rebuilt. Only the Port Kent gate constructed in 1879 is still the original.
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The name “Canada” is an amusing linguistic error, resulting from a misunderstanding by Jacques Cartier, a French explorer. When Cartier was visiting the new world, the indigenous people attempted to invite him to visit their village. The word for “village” in the indigenous tongue was “kanata.” Cartier misunderstood, and believed they were referring to the entire country as “Kanata.” As such, he referred to the country as “Kanata,” which is how it received its current name, “Canada.”
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The sport of lacrosse originated in Canada. It was originally played by indigenous tribesmen, and has evolved into four different types of lacrosse games, including men’s and women’s field lacrosse, box lacrosse and intercrosse. It is believed that the history of the game dates back to 1100 AD. Traditional Canadian lacrosse teams had as many as 1,000 players! Games could be played on fields which were as long as 3 kilometers.
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Basketball didn’t originate in Canada, but the man who invented it was a Canadian living in Massachusetts. James Naismith came up with the game so that his physical education students would have something to do during the cold winter months.
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Canada didn’t actually get a national flag until the year 1965. Nova Scotia was granted a flag by King Charles clear back in 1625, but the nation as a whole didn’t adopt the maple leaf until more than three centuries later. Prior to that, the British maritime flag stood in for general use.
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he northernmost permanent settlement in the world is Alert, Nunavut. While the settlement itself is permanent, the personnel is entirely rotating. The settlement was named for the HMS Alert, and is home to a number of different operations, including a radio receiving facility for the Canadian Forces, an Environment Canada weather station, the Global Atmosphere Watch atmosphere monitoring laboratory, and the Alert Airport.
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