Canadians in the County of Wetaskiwin and Leduc County are eagerly anticipating the upcoming Canada Day long weekend July 1 to celebrate the 149th anniversary of the founding of this great nation.
Think you’re an expert on Canadian history? Well here’s your chance to strut your stuff when it comes to the celebration of Canada’s birthday. Here are 50 questions about Canada and her provinces to tickle your brain.
Question 1) When was Canada’s first paper money issued?
2) Who was the first premier of Prince Edward Island?
3) What is the deadliest explosion which ever occurred in Canada?
4) Where is the largest gold mine in Canada?
5) What is Treaty 6?
6) How was the territory of Nunavut created?
7) How many awards has Canadian recording artist Shania Twain won?
8) Who was Dr. James Naismith?
9) Who created the multi-million selling videogame series “Mass Effect?”
10) During the Cyprus Hills Massacre on June 1, 1873, 20 Assiniboine Indians were murdered by fur traders. What police force was created in response to this?
11) What materials comprise a Canadian $2 “Twoonie” coin?
12) What is officially the only bilingual province of Canada?
13) How long did the Battle of the Plains of Abraham on 13 September 1759 last?
14) What is Canada’s national sport?
15) Who was the first premier of British Columbia?
16) What is Canada’s number one export?
17) Which former Canadian Prime Minister is pictured on the red-coloured $50 bill?
18) How much is the Canadian fisheries industry worth annually?
19) Who are Bob and Doug McKenzie?
20) What is the largest body of freshwater in the world?
21) What is bannock?
22) What is the name of the scandal which forced Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald, to resign Nov. 5, 1873?
23) Who was Alberta’s first premier?
24) What does the name “Saskatchewan” mean?
25) When did Newfoundland/Labrador become a province?
26) What is the first known film ever made in Canada?
27) Who ruled the British Empire when Canada became a nation on July 1, 1867?
28) If you were in the town of Lower Sackville, in which province would you be?
29) What is the busiest U.S.- Canada border crossing?
30) When did Canada declare war on Nazi Germany to enter World War II?
31) Why did Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau declare martial law in Quebec at 4 a.m. Oct. 16, 1970?
32) In 1920 the North-West Mounted Police merged with another police force to become the RCMP. What was the second police force?
33) Who was the second Prime Minister of Canada?
34) Which Star Trek actor was born in Canada and later went on to star as TV cop T.J. Hooker?
35) In 1951 what hoax did B.C. sports reporter Hugh Watson foster on his readers?
36) Who was the very first Canadian to earn a coveted Nobel Prize?
37) During the fur trade era, the Hudson Bay Company’s primary competition was with which company?
38) Famed figure skater Kurt Browning hails from what Alberta village?
39) A major monument was built in France to honour this battle fought and won by Canadian troops Apr. 9 to 12, 1917.
40) Who is the only woman to be Prime Minister of Canada?
41) What is the Palliser Triangle?
42) Name all of Canada’s current NHL teams.
43) What is the name of the mechanical space shuttle appendage designed in Canada?
44) In 1959 the Canadian government decided jet fighters were obsolete and cancelled the production of this airplane.
45) Only one province in Canada has a dinosaur named after it. Name the dinosaur and the province.
46) Some ancient human footprints were found in 2014 on Calvert Island off the coast of British Columbia. What is their suspected age?
47) L’Anse aux Meadows is a site of ruins dating to about 1000 CE on the coast of Labrador. Who built them?
48) Why is Canada’s $1 coin called a “Loonie?”
49) Including the border with Alaska, how long is the U.S.- Canada border?
50) Before the maple leaf national flag, Canada used a British Commonwealth flag. What was it called?
ANSWERS
1) According to Wikipedia, the first paper money issued in Canada denominated in dollars were British Army notes, issued between 1813 and 1815 in denominations between $1 and $400 issued for the War of 1812. The first banknotes were issued in 1817 by the Montreal Bank.
2) George Coles became the first premier of P.E.I. in 1851, and was also a father of confederation.
3) The Halifax explosion, which occurred Dec. 6, 1917. After two ships collided in the harbor and exploded, about 2,000 people were killed.
4) The country’s largest gold mine is Osisko Mining Corp.’s Canadian Malartic in Quebec.
5) Treaty 6 was signed on August 23, 1876 at Fort Carlton in Saskatchewan. According to Wikipedia, Treaty 6 is an agreement between the Canadian monarch and the Plain and Wood Cree, Assiniboine, and other band governments of First Nations at Fort Carlton, Fort Pitt and Battle River.
6) Nunavut, which was separated from the Northwest Territories on Apr. 1, 1999, resulted from land claim negotiations between the Government of Canada and the Inuit people.
7) Twain, born in Windsor, Ont., has won 187 awards in her music career.
8) Dr. James Naismith of Almonte, Ont., is the Canadian credited with inventing the game of basketball in 1891. The Pipestone Flyer reporter Amelia Naismith is related to the doctor.
9) “Mass Effect” was created by the Edmonton software firm BioWare.
10) The North West Mounted Police, which became the RCMP.
11) The coin’s materials are: outer ring 99 per cent nickel, inner core 92 per cent copper, 6 per cent aluminum, 2 per cent nickel.
12) New Brunswick is the only province, which officially recognizes both English and French as equal.
13) The battle itself last only about 15 minutes. It led to French abandonment of Quebec.
14) Lacrosse, which has its origins in First Nations athletics.
15) John Foster McCreight , described by a peer as “bad tempered and queer,” became premier in 1871.
16) As of June, 2016, oil accounts for US $77.8 billion (19 per cent of total exports).
17) William Lyon Mackenzie King
18) According to 2013 numbers, the Maritimes/Quebec fisheries industry is worth about $2 billion, while the west coast fishery is worth about $256 million.
19) The beer-drinking hosts of SCTV’s “Great White North” TV show.
20) Lake Superior has a surface area of 82,103 square kilometers.
21) According to Wikipedia, “Bannock is a variety of flat quick bread or any large, round article baked or cooked from grain.”
22) The Pacific Scandal, a bribery scandal related to the railway industry.
23) Alexander Cameron Rutherford became Alberta’s first premier in 1905.
24) The name Saskatchewan is derived from Cree “kisiskâciwanisîpiy,” meaning “swift-flowing river.”
25) Newfoundland and Labrador became the tenth Canadian province on March 31, 1949.
26) According to Wikipedia, “Ten Years in Manitoba,” released in 1898 and directed by James Freer, was the first film made in Canada.
27) Queen Victoria ruled the British Empire at the time Canada became a nation.
28) Nova Scotia
29) Windsor, Ont. and Detroit, Mich. is the busiest border crossing in North America and sees about $500 million US in trade every day.
30) Canada declared war on Sept. 10, 1939, a week after Great Britain and France did.
31) In response to the FLQ crisis.
32) The Dominion Police, which was in essence a federal security force.
33) Alexander Mackenzie became Prime Minister on November 7, 1873.
34) William Shatner was born March 22, 1931 at Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Montreal.
35) He wrote stories about a basketball league that didn’t exist.
36) Ernest Rutherford earned the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1908.
37) The North West Company.
38) The Village of Caroline.
39) The Battle of Vimy Ridge.
40) British Columbia lawyer Kim Campbell was Prime Minister of Canada from June 25, 1993, to November 4, 1993.
41) A region stretching across southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba that surveyor John Palliser explored between 1857–1859 and stated was not suitable for either agriculture or human habitation.
42) Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, Winnipeg Jets, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens.
43) The Canadarm.
44) The Avro Arrow.
45) Albertosaurus was named after Alberta.
46) The tracks of a man, woman and child are radiocarbon dated to 13,200 years ago.
47) Viking explorers, the first Europeans to discover the New World.
48) Most of the $1 coins have an image of a loon on them.
49) Including the border with Alaska, the U.S.- Canada border, called the International Boundary, is 8,891 km (5,525 miles) long.
50) Generally, the flag was called the British Red Ensign featuring Canada’s coat of arms.