There are 27 wineries in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, each beautifully unique in its own way.
Winnipeg is considered as the ‘Chicago of the North’ and is one of North America’s fastest growing cities.
The
Gibraltar Point Lighthouse is the oldest landmark in Toronto and is said to be haunted since its first lighthouse keeper mysteriously died in 1815.
Wasaga Beach in Ontario is the largest freshwater beach in the world.
Ucluelet on Vancouver Island is home to the Wild Pacific Trail, a famous hike in the region.
Canadians really are as polite as everyone says.
Stanley Park in Vancouver is one-third bigger than Central Park and is considered to be one of the top 10 in the world.
80 percent of the world’s maple syrup is produced in Canada.
The New York Times ranked Canada as the number one travel destination in 2017.
L’anse aux Meadows is a National Historic Site in Newfoundland, once home to the Vikings.
You can expect to see up to 4,000 moose, the largest amount per square kilometer, at The Matane Wildlife Reserve in Québec.
Love it or hate it, Canada is the birth of the controversial Hawaiian pizza.
The Old Town of Lunenburg in Nova Scotia is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Drake, Justin Bieber, Rachel McAdams, Mike Myers, Ryan Gosling, Ryan Reynolds and Michael Buble are just a few of Canada’s best-known celebs.
Hit Netflix show Riverdale is filmed in Vancouver, alongside Once Upon A Time, Lucifer, Smallville and many more.
Canada is the most educated country in the world with the highest
percentage of college grads.
You can find some of the world’s most rare books and manuscripts at the University of Toronto’s Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library.
The Corktown Bridge in Ottawa is Canada’s very own Love Lock Bridge.
You can kayak around icebergs in Newfoundland – one of the only places you can do so in the world.
Algonquin Park in Ontario is home to the annual Wolf Howl.
Malakwa
a settlement in the Southern Interior of British Columbia
is home to a magical Enchanted Forest to make all of your fairytale dreams come true.
Canada is home to a potato museum. Because who doesn’t love potatoes?
Haida Gwaii, a World Heritage site, is known as Canadian Galápagos for its diverse wildlife.
Canada is bigger than the whole of the European Union. No, we aren’t including the UK.
You can literally dig for your dinner at Prince Edward Island, where you will find delicious clams all over the beach.
It’s the home of everyone’s favorite Canadian delicacy, Poutine. Whoever thought of cheese curds with gravy was a genius.
Winnipeg, Manitoba is the Slurpee Capital of the World, selling an average of 188,833 Slurpee drinks each month.
Canada is home to the world’s largest coin, the
Big Nickel which is located in Sudbury, Ontario.
The Monkey’s Paw is a bookstore in Toronto that’s home to the world’s first “Biblio-Mat”, a book-only vending machine.
Canada’s bank notes have Braille-like markings on them for blind people.
License plates in the Northwest Territories are shaped like polar bears.
The Spotted Lake, which is located between the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys in British Columbia is one-of-a-kind.
After the Titanic sank, the bodies of those who died were brought to Halifax,
Nova Scotia where many were buried in Fairview Lawn Cemetery, available for public viewing.
Canada and Denmark have been fighting over an uninhabited island since the 1930s, leaving each other bottles of alcohol and changing their flags each time they visit.
Mount Thor, the Earth’s longest vertical drop is located in Auyuittuq National Park, Nunavut.
Candied Salmon is a local specialty from Canada’s west coast.
Comic books depicting crime are illegal in Canada.
The
Manicouagan crater in Quebec is over 215 million years old and holds
the title for largest visible impact crater on Earth. The Daniel-Johnson Dam
turns the crater into an enormous reservoir which can be seen from space.
The Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick has the highest tidal
range in the world.
There is a town called
Dildo in Newfoundland and it refuses to change its name.
Okanagan Falls in British Columbia boasts some of the country’s best
vineyards, as well as offering some fantastic scenic views.
There is a cave on Devon Island in Nunavut that’s actually a channel
inside a melting glacier.
A service called ‘Cleaning for a Reason’ operates in
Canada that cleans the houses of women with cancer for free so they can
focus on their health.
The world’s largest
Moose statue is located in a place called
Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan.
Caesars are primarily made and consumed in Canada. Lucky us!
Château Frontenac in Québec City, Québec,
holds the Guinness World Record for being the most photographed hotel in the world.
Gastown in Vancouver is home to one of the world’s only working
steam clocks.
Canada invented the egg carton. A fun fact for you.
The Aquatic Bathtub Race is a legitimate event in Nanaimo, British Columbia.
Medical Care is free for all Canadian residents.
There is a Secret Swing in the infamous Graffiti Alley of Toronto which was placed there by artist Corwyn Lund.
You can write in any language to the North Pole, H0H 0H0, Canada, and get a letter back from Santa. Why? Because Santa Claus is Canadian, of course!
Canada is home to the world’s longest
Beaver Dam at Wood Buffalo National Park, northeast of Fort McMurray.
X-Men’s Wolverine lives in Canada. And no, we don’t mean Hugh Jackman.
Riverview Hospital is the most historic insane asylum and most filmed location in Canada, having acted as the backdrop for movies and TV shows including Saw, Watchmen, The X-Files, and Along Came A Spider.
Old railways in Hope, British Columbia forged a quintet of tunnels, which are now open to hikers.
Alberta is home to the largest shopping center in North America, West Edmonton Mall.
Lay’s Potato Chips released a special ketchup flavor, specifically for Canadian consumers.
Niagara Falls is considered to be the eighth natural wonder of the world.
You won’t find a more authentic deli sandwich than at Schwartz’s Deli in Montreal.
We have a pretty hot Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau. Justin is the son of a previous Canadian Prime Minister
Pierre Elliot Trudeau who was instrumental in negotiating Canada’s constitutional independence from the British Parliament and establishing a new Canadian Constitution with an entrenched Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
True story.
The remains of a Canadian train crash which happened in 1956 can now be visited in Whistler, British Columbia.
A bear cub from Winnipeg, aptly named Winnipeg, was the inspiration behind A.A. Milne’s Winnie The Pooh.
Canada has the third cleanest air of any other country.
Vancouver Island is home to the world’s longest mammal migration, making it a perfect spot for whale watching.
There are more bars per square feet than any other place in North America in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
VanDusen Gardens in Vancouver, British Columbia, is home to one of only six Elizabethan style hedge mazes in the world
The Marine Building in Vancouver has stood in for some of the most famous buildings in comic book history, including the Baxter Building in two Fantastic Four films.
You can take a boat tour through Canada’s
1000 Islands that line the St. Lawrence River.
Over 200,000 pancakes are served during the
Calgary Stampede, one of the biggest events in the summertime.
People from Canada can order a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and have it
shipped to them for free.
The Val-Jalbert Ghost Town is an abandoned town centred around a paper
mill and powered by a large waterfall in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec.
You can stay in
The Free Spirit Spheres, spherical-shaped tree houses
in the Vancouver Island Rain forest.
If you fancy some gummy fish candy, there is a
Swedish Fish factory in Hamilton, Ontario.
There is a lost subway station nestled beneath Toronto’s busy commuter line.
Manitoulin Island in Ontario it’s the world’s largest freshwater island.
The province of Saskatchewan is home to over 100,000 lakes, perfect for
fishing, camping, canoeing and watching the sun go down at sunset. Saskatchewan also
boasts
Canada's Dead Sea.
The Boswell Embalming Bottle House, located on the eastern shore of
Kootenay Lake is built out of hundreds of thousands of discarded glass bottles.
Shediac, New Brunswick hosts a popular
Lobster Festival every July,
and is home to the world’s largest lobster, measuring 3 ft. 6
in and weighing 20.15 kilograms.
The Dune Fields along the southern shore of Lake Athabasca can only be accessed by float plane and are home to several species that you won’t find anywhere else.
Sable Island, located off the coast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, is home to less than 10 people and over 500 horses.
Of over 634 recognized First Nations governments, roughly half of are located in Ontario and British Columbia.
The
Hoodoos of Drumheller Valley in Alberta are naturally eroded land formations carved over millions of years that stand about 20 feet tall near Alberta, Canada.
You can visit an abandoned Victorian-era amusement park in Ontario that is rusting away amidst luxury houses.
Canada has some of the longest summer days on the planet because it rests on such a Northerly latitude.
A strictly Canadian treat, BeaverTails are made from fried dough, along with your choice of toppings, including chocolate/hazelnut, Reese’s Pieces and peanut butter.
The Bruce Peninsula Grotto in Ontario is located inside a natural sea cave where the water is almost always a perfect turquoise blue. It is considered to be one of “Mother Nature’s crown jewels.”
Canadian ice wine is made to take advantage of its freezing temperatures and is a delicious dessert.
Miniature World, housed within the famous Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia, is home to over 85 stunningly detailed scenes, including a Dickensian London, the Great Canadian Railway and a futuristic scene of the year 2201.
Avonlea on Prince Edward Island inspired the Anne of Green Gables story. Now also a Netflix show.
Pools of water in Timmins, Ontario, date back two billion years old, making them the world’s oldest.
The Haughton Crater in Nunavut is said to be the closest thing to Mars on Earth.
Joggins Fossil Cliffs in Nova Scotia hold fossils, including the earliest known reptile, dating back more than 300 million years. The site is so spectacular that it was featured in Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species.”
Mysterious wreckage of a small plane has been lodged in a tree in Mission, British Columbia, since at least 1971
Québec City is the only place north of Mexico where city walls still exist.
You weigh less in Canada than in the US because Canada has lower gravity.
Whistler in British Columbia has one of the lengthiest ski seasons on the continent.
Yukon is one of the best places in the world to watch the
Northern Lights in the world.
Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal is one of Canada’s most stunning churches, with religious services including Celine Dion’s wedding and former Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau’s funeral having taken place here.
The Shoe Museum in Toronto is the resting place of Elvis Presley’s famous “blue suede shoes.”
There is a giant Pierogi statue in Glendon, a village in Alberta which is considered one of the “Giants of the Prairies,” a collection of sculptures that can be found across North America.
The Sasquatch caves in Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia are home to Bigfoot himself. Yes, really.
Canada is home to the world’s largest skating rink on the Rideau Canal in Ottawa.
You can visit the world’s largest dinosaur statue in Drumheller, Alberta, which is four times larger than a real T-Rex.
George Street in St. John’s, Newfoundland, has more bars per square feet than any other place in North America.
There are various places in Canada where you can drive your own dog sled pack.
Vancouver has it’s very own Jimi Hendrix shrine.
In true Banksy style, artist, Adam Lamb spruced up Toronto’s fading neighbourhood watch signs with various pop culture references and cartoons.
Canada has the most doughnut shops per capita.
Stratford, Ontario is home to the Shakespearean theater, where the likes of Maggie Smith and William Shatner have performed.
The CN Tower in Toronto holds the world’s tallest metal staircase.
Toronto Harbourfront with CN Tower. The CN Tower’s most thrilling attraction,
The EdgeWalk is the world’s highest full circle hands-free walk on a
5 ft (1.5 m) wide ledge 356m/1168ft (116 storeys) above the ground.
And if that’s not enough, to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday, admission to Canada’s parks is free for all of 2017, during all of our Sesquicentennial year.
If you’re visiting Toronto, be sure to check
out Canada’s First Original Rage Room
Click images for larger image
The CN Tower – Opened to the public on June 26, 1976
The Canada Life Building with
Weather Beacon,
University Ave. Toronto
An important landmark since the 1930s
Click for larger image
The Canada Life Building, on University Ave. in Toronto has been a landmark since the early 1930s. The weather beacon, added in 1951 served the community with weather- forecasts, long before computers and smart phones.
I recall seeing the weather beacon from just over 10 miles (16 Km) away, before the skyscrapers obliterated the view. The lights were upgraded to led bulbs in December 2019 to conserve energy, the first major upgrade since 1951.
In 1931 the Statute of Westminster, 1931, which
was an Act of the British Parliament, gave Canada
its autonomy. This statute marks the independence
of Canada as the nation that it is today.
“The Canada we know today comprises ten provinces and three territories. The process leading to the entry of each of these provinces and territories into Canadian confederation is a story worth telling. The following texts present the social, economic and political conditions that existed when these provinces and territories joined Canada. Emphasis is placed on the specific experiences of each province or territory, and on the similarities between the various provinces and territories. You will become acquainted with the principal characters and you will be plunged into the main discussions. You will get an idea of what Canada was like during these various moments in its history.”
How Canada Grew – Historical anecdotes about the growth of the nation.
Flags of Canada
Flag
Year(s)
Jurisdiction
Coat of Arms
Population 2019
1965 Present
National Flag of Canada Capital Ottawa Ontario
37,314,442
1965 Present
United Kingdom Ceremonial
The Provinces Flags & Population
1980 present
Newfoundland and Labrador Capital St. John's
523,790
1858 present
Province of Nova Scotia Capital Halifax
965,382
1964 present
Province of Prince Edward Island Capital Charlottetown
Six Nations Iroquois Of The Grand River First Nation
Six Nations (or Six Nations of the Grand River) is the largest First Nations reserve in Canada, with a total of 25,660 members. Some 12,271 are reported living on this reserve. It is the only reserve in North America that has representatives of all six
Iroquois nations living together. These nations are the Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca and Tuscarora. Some Lenape (formerly known as Delaware) also live in the territory. The Six Nations reserve is bordered by the County of Brant, Norfolk County, and Haldimand County, with a subsection reservation, the New Credit Reserve, located within its boundaries. The acreage at present covers some 46,000 acres (190 km2) near the city of Brantford, Ontario. This represents approximately 5% of the original 950,000 acres (3,800 km2) of land granted to the Six Nations by the 1784 Haldimand Treaty.
There are many First Nations reserves across the country and most if not all have a less
than stellar history. In many cases the Natives have been relegated to areas without
resources or economical access to markets. Both the federal and provincial authorities have dealt with native issues in a far less than scrupulous manner.
There are some today who consider the First Nations peoples as a conquered people and their lands a conquered lands but nothing could be further from the truth. Settlers as
they multiplied signed treaties with the natives guaranteeing them self governance. As
resources were discovered the natives were often forced from economically rich
areas to wasteland with little or no compensation. Natives were often swindled out of
land and resources by unscrupulous negotiators. Deals negotiated and agreed to were in
some cases altered before being put into law, discrepancies not to be discovered until sometime later.
The truth is that the ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples has been seized, environmentally exploited and many treaties and agreements between the Canadian Governments and Indigenous groups are to this day being dishonoured.
To say the least, we have treated our First Nations peoples rather shabbily and dishonestly. These are the same people who stood by us and fought our enemies to keep
what we have today. Natives suffered a relentless attack on their heritage, being forced to abandon their culture and language. Grants and promises made have been systematically eroded by less than honourable negotiators. As poorly as we have treated our First Nations peoples in Canada, the natives south of our borders have been treated far more disgracefully and continue to be to this very day.
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