10 Fun Facts About Canada You Probably Didn't Know
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- Category: 99+1 Days of Summer
- Published: Thursday, 01 July 2021 03:00
Happy Canada D'Eh! Another year has gone by where festivities have had to be scaled back due to COVID. However you are choosing to celebrate this year, remember to stay safe and protect your furry friends if there will be fireworks nearby!
Read more for 10 fun facts about Canada, originally from Today's Parent!
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1. The Stanley Cup has its own bodyguard, but that doesn’t mean Canadian hockey champions haven’t put all kinds of different foods and drinks in it (everything from chocolate milk to popcorn and cereal!).
2. British Columbian pioneers made use of the oolichan, also called candlefish, at nighttime. The small fish is so fatty that it can be dried, strung on a wick and burned like a candle!
3. Canada’s name comes from a misunderstanding between Jacques Cartier and some Iroquois youth who were pointing out a village (for which they used the word “Kanata”). They were actually trying to identify the small area which is present day Quebec City, but Cartier used the similar-sounding word “Canada” to refer to the whole area. Oops!
4. The Narcisse Snake Dens in Manitoba have more snakes in a concentrated area than anywhere else in the world. Tens of thousands of red-sided garter snakes gather there every year. On the other hand, there are no snakes on the island of Newfoundland.
5. Canada officially got its own national flag on February 15, 1965 — almost 100 years after it became a country (in 1867).
6. Canada’s official languages may be French and English, but our geese have their own language: scientists believe that Canada geese have as many as 13 different calls for everything from greetings and warnings to happiness.
7. Canada consumes more Kraft Dinner than any other country in the world. Out of the 7 million boxes sold weekly around the world, Canadians purchase 1.7 million of them!
8. In 1962, Pincher Creek, Alberta experienced the fastest, biggest temperature change ever recorded in Canada as a result of a Chinook (a warm, dry wind that comes off the Rocky Mountains). The temperature rose from -19C to 22C in just one hour!
9. Between 1984 and 2008, it was illegal to sell pop in cans in PEI. All carbonated drinks had to be purchased in refillable glass bottles. PEI was the only place in North America to have a “can ban.”
10. Forget the Loch Ness Monster: Canada has its own mysterious lake creature, Ogopogo, who reportedly lives in Lake Okanagan, British Columbia.