Canada has given the world the real Winnie the Pooh, the phrase "Beatlemania," and the man who invented the Academy Awards. If it weren’t for Canada, we might not have the pie-in-the-face gag, basketball, time zones, or the dotted white line on the middle of highways.
And anyone who still thinks Canada is dull obviously doesn’t know about the Canadian who was the longest serving prisoner on Alcatraz, or the night that members of Parliament threw books and toy balloons at each other during a wild debate in the House of Commons. The Great Canadian Trivia Book explores the noteworthy and the notorious, the factual and the phenomenal, the obscure and outlandish sides of the Great White North.
Authors
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Description conventions
- rda
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 971.002
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 21
- Distributor
- Canadian Electronic Library (Firm),
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- n-cn---
- ISBN
- 9781459727595 9780888821881
- LCCN
- F1008.3
- LCCN Item number
- K43 1996eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaBNVSL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (239 pages)
- Published in
- Ottawa, Ontario
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)thg00930136 (OCoLC)911205361 (CaOOCEL)439405
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaBNVSL
Table of Contents
- Cover 1
- Contents 6
- Acknowledgements 16
- Preface 18
- 1) HISTORICAL ODDITIES 20
- Is it true that a Chinese explorer "discovered" Canada long before the Vikings or other European explorers sailed here? 21
- Was Canada considered an important colony to Britain from the start? 22
- Are there any sites in the United Kingdom dedicated to Canadian hero Sir Isaac Brock? 23
- Was the Rideau Canal in Ottawa ever used for wartime activities, as was originally intended? 24
- Is it true the Hudson Bay Company gives the Queen a traditional payment each year of elk and beaver pelts? 26
- Did Canadians fight in the American Civil War? 27
- What names, other than Canada, were suggested before we officially became a country in 1867? 28
- What is the difference between the French and English versions of "O Canada"? 29
- Was the last spike made of some precious metal to mark the completion of the CPR? 31
- Is it true Louis Riel should not have been hanged for treason because he was not a Canadian citizen? 33
- What was Canada's first overseas war? 34
- Why did Canada's World War I fighter pilots wear silk scarves around their necks? 35
- Is it true that Canada once had a plan to invade the United States? 36
- Did Newfoundland have its own national anthem before joining Confederation? 37
- Was the Red Ensign ever Canada's official flag? 38
- Is it true that Canada almost didn't get the chance to stage Expo 67 in Montreal? 39
- How many Canadians fought in the Vietnam War? 41
- Who was the ill-fated Great Lakes steamer the Edmund Fitzgerald named after? 42
- 2) THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT 44
- Was the Uncle Tom of the book Uncle Tom's Cabin from Canada? 45
- I've heard that the old pie-in-the-face gag, seen in so many silent movies, was a Canadian invention. True or false? 46
- Has a Canadian author ever won the Nobel Prize for Literature? 47
- When and where was the first movie publicly shown in Canada? 48
- What instrument did bandleader Guy Lombardo play? 50
- Is Winnie the Pooh really named for Winnipeg? 52
- Were the Warner Brothers of movie fame Canadian? 53
- Did a Canadian really invent the quiz show? 54
- Which Canadian has won the most Academy Awards? 55
- Who are some of the Canadian actors who have received Academy Award nominations? 56
- Is it true that a Canadian invented the Academy Awards? 57
- Is there a Canadian connection to the term Beatlemania? 59
- Why did people believe that 1970s Canadian band Klaatu was The Beatles reunited? 61
- Who was the Canadian member of the chart-topping American rhythm-and-blues band The Young Rascals? 63
- Do Canadian records and albums make good collectors' items? 65
- What is the story behind the French-Canadian folk song "Alouette" and its translation? 67
- 3) FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA 68
- Does Canada own the North Pole? 69
- What are the Northern Lights, and do they produce sounds? 70
- Where is Canada's largest island and how many islands are there in the country? 72
- Does Canada have a desert? 73
- Where was Canada's first oil boom? 74
- Where is the geographical centre of Canada? 75
- Are the icebergs that flow past Newfoundland a common phenomenon there? 76
- Our nation's capital is often referred to as Ottawa-Hull. Does that mean Hull is also the capital of Canada? 78
- Is Newfoundland the only place in the world in a halfhour time zone? 80
- What are the strongest currents in the world? 81
- Why is Labrador, despite being physically attached to Quebec, a part of Newfoundland? 82
- If Quebec separates into a distinct country, would Canada still be the second largest country in the world? 84
- Where was the worst rainstorm in Canada? 85
- What can you tell me about Meech Lake — the lake, not the agreement? 86
- 4) MONEY, MONEY, MONEY 88
- Whose portrait appears on the $1,000 bill? 89
- How did the shinplaster get its name? 90
- How long have Canadians paid income tax and who is responsible for the system? 91
- I have half of a Canadian $20 bill. Is it worth anything? 92
- When was the original $1 coin, the silver dollar, first circulated? 94
- How much Canadian money is in circulation in Canada on a given day, and where is it? 96
- How long does Canadian paper money stay in circulation, and what happens to bills that get too old to use? 97
- 5) AND NOW SPORTS FANS 98
- Has hockey always been the most popular sport in Canada? 99
- Did Canada introduce football to Americans? 100
- How did ice hockey get its start in Canada? 101
- Did Lord Stanley do anything of importance beside donate the hockey cup that bears his name? 103
- The 1994 lockout of National Hockey League players almost meant no Stanley Cup playoffs. Has that ever happened? 105
- What was boxing champion George Chuvalo's record when he finally hung up the gloves? 106
- Why is five-pin bowling so popular in Canada? 107
- If I get hit by a puck at a National Hockey League (NHL) game, what legal recourse do I have? 108
- How many Canadian players were involved in the professional women's baseball leagues in the 1940s? 109
- What were the original teams in the World Hockey Association? 110
- Has Canada ever had any international success in soccer? 112
- Who won Canada's first Olympic gold medal? 113
- How did Canada fare at the Summer Olympics that were held two years apart instead of the usual four? 114
- Who was the first National League Hockey player to wear a helmet? 115
- How did the University of Ottawa's teams get the name Gee-Gees? 116
- How long have companies been producing hockey cards in Canada? 118
- Did any Canadian Football League teams, before the league's expansion, ever play games against their counterparts in the United States and win? 119
- Was the first game of basketball, invented by Canadian James Naismith, similar to what we see today? 121
- What can you tell me about the professional basketball team in Toronto before the Raptors? 123
- What constitutes a shot on goal in a hockey game? 125
- 6) THE POLITICAL ARENA 128
- How outrageous have our MPs been during debates? 129
- What is the story behind the original The Fathers of Confederation painting? 130
- Who would run the country if the prime minister died or became ill and couldn't handle the responsibilities? 132
- Is it true that a Canadian was once prime minister of Britain? 133
- Who, besides members of Parliament, can mail letters free of charge, and who picks up the cost? 134
- Where did Parliament conduct its business after fire destroyed part of the Parliament Buildings in 1916? 135
- Who was responsible for introducing Canada's first medicare legislation? 137
- Can members of Parliament take their House of Commons chairs with them when they leave politics? 139
- What is the origin of Rideau Hall in Ottawa? 141
- 7) THE FAMOUS AND INFAMOUS 144
- Was Jack the Ripper a Canadian? 145
- Who was the Canadian who did the first advertised radio broadcast? 146
- Did poet Robert W. Service once act in Hollywood? 147
- I am told the prisoner who spent the longest time on Alcatraz was Canadian. True? 149
- Who was the first person to drive across Canada in a car? 151
- What is the story behind the poem written in response to Canadian John McCrae's famous work "In Flanders Fields"? 152
- Why did John Wilkes Booth spend some time in Canada shortly before assassinating U.S. president Abraham Lincoln? 153
- Is it true the Sweet Marie chocolate bar has Canadian origins? 155
- Who was "Farini, Champion of Niagara?" 156
- Does Canada have a patron saint? 158
- Did Jumbo, the famous circus elephant who was killed in Canada, die when charging a train to protect two companions? 159
- Who is the guy pictured on the Canadian Tire money? 161
- Whatever happened to Isabel Le Bourdais, the woman who created a nationwide sensation in the 1960s with her book on the Steven Truscott murder case? 162
- 8) THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF SCIENCE 164
- I have often wondered — just how do astronauts go to the bathroom when they are in space? 165
- Is there a difference between a U.S. billion and a Canadian billion? 166
- How much blood is in the human body, and how much would a person have to lose to die? 168
- Is there any truth to the idea that keeping the crust piece of a sliced loaf of bread in the package as long as possible keeps it all fresh? 169
- How common is heart disease in Canada? 171
- Who was the first person to successfully receive insulin once Dr. Frederick Banting finished experimenting on dogs? 172
- What are some of the offbeat gadgets for which Canadian inventors can take credit? 174
- Did Canada ever have an outbreak of leprosy? 176
- What causes lightning, and how often does it strike ground, buildings, or people in Canada? 177
- Did Alexander Graham Bell invent the telephone in Canada or in the United States? 178
- Why is there a national historic site for Marconi in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, if the first transatlantic message travelled between England and Signal Hill, Newfoundland? 180
- Who are the volunteer weather watchers who monitor Canada's skies for the federal weather office? 181
- Who was the first person to report a UFO in North America? 184
- 9) SOME FINAL TANTALIZING TIDBITS 186
- Why is it that when I fly into Toronto they put a tag on my luggage with the letters YYZ? 187
- What can you tell me about a Canadian passenger airline that was bombed in the 1940s? 188
- Apollo astronauts on the first moon walk left messages behind from every country. What did Canada's say? 189
- Is it fact or fiction that Canadian beer is stronger than American beer? 190
- Who are the people responsible for the Gideon Bibles found in hotel rooms across Canada? 192
- Is the World's Biggest Bookstore in Toronto really what it claims to be? 194
- What is the story behind the cholera epidemic in Canada in the nineteenth century? 195
- If Toronto's CN Tower were to fall over, how far would it reach? 197
- Is it true that the world's largest cheese was made in Canada? 199
- Whatever happened to the custom-built car called the 67X that was used as a promotion for Canada's Centennial in 1967? 200
- What was the best year to be born in Canada? 202
- Have Canadians always driven cars on the right-hand side of the road? 204
- How heavy are the furry caps worn by guards at the Change of the Guard ceremony on Parliament Hill in Ottawa? 206
- Does the difference between the Imperial gallon and the American gallon have its origins in the American Revolution? 208
- How many people touch a piece of mail sent from, say, Toronto to Vancouver? 209
- Is the miniskirt a Canadian invention? 211
- How many museums are there in Canada? 212
- How did my favourite drink, Newfoundland Screech, get its name? 214
- What is the Order of Canada and who receives it? 215
- Who decides what subjects are commemorated on postage stamps? 217
- How does Canada's postal code work? 219
- If a pregnant woman gives birth in an airplane after it leaves the ground, what is the child's registered birthplace? 220
- Is Quebec the only province where it is against the law to turn right on all red lights? 221
- What can you tell me about Canada's railway post offices? 222
- Remembrance Day ceremonies commemorate the First World War ending on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. But in what time zone was that eleventh hour? 224
- Why is someone from Calgary called a Calgarian? Is there a formula that determines how to refer to a resident of a particular town or city? 225
- Is the snowblower an invention we can attribute to someone from the Great White North? 226
- Do the digits in my Social Insurance Number (SIN) mean anything? 228
- Where is Canada's only free-standing stone spiral staircase located? 230
- Are there more Canadian tea drinkers than coffee drinkers? 231
- Do the numbers of my telephone area code actually mean anything? 233
- What was Canada's connection to the world system of time zones? 235
- Where did the idea of painting dotted white lines down the centre of highways get started? 237
- What can you tell me about the origin of Canadian whisky? 239
- Why do Canadians pronounce the last letter of the alphabet as "zed" while Americans say "zee"? 240
