In honour of Canada Day, let’s see how sharp you are on trivia about our country. This little quiz is designed to run the gamut from ridiculously easy questions to difficult puzzlers that will, in the words of Dr. Suess, “Cause you to puzzle and puzz ’til your puzzler is sore!” Suess connoisseurs will know that’s a line spoken by the Grinch.
Canada Day trivia quiz (answers follow):
1. What is the world’s largest island in a freshwater lake?
2. The Cree originally called this Canadian city, Pile of Bones. And, the city is?
3. The first European to use the name Canada in an official document was?
4. True or false: Winnipeg’s Portage Avenue is the longest street in the world.
5. What province was the first to introduce medicare?
6. The architects responsible for New York’s Grand Central Station also designed a railway station in what Canadian city?
7. Who was prime minister when the Canadian flag was officially adopted and what was the year?
8. Where is the largest log cabin in the world?
9. In what year was Winnipeg’s Centennial Concert Hall built?
10. Who was Canada’s first woman mayor?
11. In New France, who were the filles du roi?
12. What Canadian achievement is attributed to Mungo Martin?
Answers
1. The world’s largest island in a freshwater lake is Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron.
2. Regina. What is today the capital of Saskatchewan was originally called, Pile of Bones.
3. Jacques Cartier in 1534.
4. False. The longest street in the world is Toronto’s Yonge Street. It starts at Lake Ontario and runs continuously and incredibly for 1,886 kilometres, all the way to Rainy River.
Come on. How can that be? A city street can’t go from Toronto that far west, can it?
Well, the Guiness Book of World Records states that because Yonge Street (Highway 11) is also the main street of almost all the towns it passes through to the north and west, it technically qualifies as the longest street in the world. Apparently, the Guiness people also think that Toronto is the centre of the Universe.
5. The first province to introduce medicare was Saskatchewan. In 1944, Tommy Douglas and his CCF government (later the NDP) granted free medical, hospital and dental services to pensioners, as well as making the treatment of cancer, tuberculosis, mental illness and venereal disease free for everyone. Two years later, they introduced universal hospitalization at a fee of $5 per person. In 1958, Douglas, still in government, announced plans for universal, pre-paid, publicly-administered medicare, which was in place by 1962.
6. They also designed Winnipeg’s Union Station.
7. We can thank Lester B. Pearson for our flag which started flying in 1965.
8. The “mother of all log cabins” is the Chateau Montebello resort hotel in Montebello, Quebec. It was built out of 10,000 logs in 1930.
9. The Centennial Concert Hall was built in 1967. Our centennial year was also notable for Winnipeg’s hosting of the Pan Am Games.
10. In 1951, Charlotte Whitton of Ottawa became Canada’s first woman mayor. She had a great sense of humour, exemplified by her line: “Whatever women do, they must do it twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, it’s not difficult.”
11. The filles du roi were young women sent out to New France as brides for the colonists.
12. In Victoria’s Beacon Hill Park, Mungo Martin created the world’s tallest totem pole carved from a single log. It was carved in 1958 and stood 38.28 metres high.