31 interesting facts about Canada that make it a unique place to live

1. “Canada” comes from the word “kanata”- a Huron-Iroquois word meaning “village” or “settlement.”
2. Alternative names proposed for Canada in 1867 included Borealia, Cabotia, Transatlantica, and Victorialand.
3. Canada’s official phone number is 1-800-O-CANADA.
4. Canada is the second largest country in the world after Russia. However, its population is only about one-fifth of Russia’s. Nearly 90% of Canadians live within 200km of the border with the United States.
5. Canada is the world’s most educated country: over half its residents have college degrees.
6. A temperature of -63 C (-81.4 F) was recorded in the small village of Snag on Feb. 3, 1947. That’s roughly the same temperature as the surface of Mars.
7. Only in Canada could it go from -19 degrees C to 22 degree C in an hour! Pincher Creek, Alberta in 1962.
8. The famous Canadian interjection “eh” is actually listed in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary as a valid word.
9. Canadian currency notes do not vary in size by denomination. However, Canadian bills, unlike U.S. banknotes, feature tactile marks that allow the blind and visually impaired to tell bills apart by touch.
10. Has more lakes than the rest of the world’s lakes combined.
11. While our country might not conjure up images of blue waters and white sandy beaches, Canada has the world’s longest coastline, bordered on three sides by three different oceans: the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific.
12. One of the most widely-known facts about Canada is that we’ve got an abundance of trees. But did you know that Canada actually boasts 30 per cent of the world’s boreal forest and 10 per cent of the world’s total forest cover? The best part of all? Most of Canada’s forest land is publicly owned.
13. Canada shares the largest demilitarized border in the world with the United States.
14. Canada and Denmark have a longstanding row over Hans Island, an uninhabited barren rock in the Arctic. The way the war actually works is just taking down the other nation’s flag and erect our own, while simultaneously leaving our national liquor there for the other country to drink. Canadians leave whiskey while the Danish people leave schnapps that military officers happily enjoy.
15. Twenty percent of the world’s fresh water is in Canada, and it has more lakes than any other country.
16. As much as Canadians love hockey, it’s actually not the national sport – lacrosse, a First Nations game, is.
17. Canada only got its own flag 100 years after it became a country – on February 15, 1965.
18. Residents of Churchill, Manitoba, leave their cars unlocked to offer an escape to pedestrians who might encounter polar bears.
19. Prostitution laws are hazy in Canada – the purchase of sexual services is criminalized, but the selling of sexual services is allowed under certain conditions.
20. Licence plates in the Canadian Northwest Territories are shaped like polar bears.
21. In Newfoundland, the Atlantic Ocean sometimes freezes so people play hockey on it.
22. Every Christmas, kids can send letters to Santa Clause for free using Santa’s address: Santa Claus North Pole Canada HOH OHO.
23. Canada has no weapons of mass destruction since 1984 and has signed treaties repudiating their possession.
24. There is an area in the Hudson Bay region that has less gravity than the rest of planet earth.
25. Quebec’s Old Town (Vieux-Québec) is the only North American fortified city north of Mexico whose walls still exist. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.
26. Canada has fewer people than Tokyo’s metropolitan area.
27. Hawaiian pizza was invented by a Canadian, not by the Hawaiians.
28. In Canada, it is illegal to carry a product designed for personal protection against a human attack, e.g. pepper spray and brass knuckles.
29. Canada has a strategic maple syrup reserve to ensure global supply. Quebec manufactures more than 77% of the world’s maple syrup.
30. Dildo is a town on the island of Newfoundland.
31. The town of Dildo in Newfoundland has an annual festival, Dildo Days, which is led by their mascot, Captain Dildo.

Various Sources

~Wakenya Canada twitter @westesita