More True Facts About Canada

1. Canada consumes more macaroni and cheese than any other nation in the world.

2. Residents of Churchill, Canada, leave their cars unlocked to offer an escape for pedestrians who might encounter Polar Bears.

3. Prostitution is legal in Canada. Buying the services of a prostitute is not. This places the legal onus on the people that are usually in the position of power, rather than sex workers themselves.

4. The first Canadian casualties of the Afghanistan war were from an American pilot bombing a training exercise. Way to go, America.

5. Licence plates in the Canadian Northwest Territories are shaped like polar bears. They're beary cute!

6. In 2010, a Canadian man rescued a newborn baby from a dumpster, only to find out he was the father.

7. In Newfoundland, Canada, the Atlantic Ocean sometimes freezes so, as is custom in Canada, people go out and as is custom in Canada, people go out and play hockey on it.

8. Santa Claus is technically Canadian! Every Christmas, 1 million letters are addressed to Santa Claus at his own postal code: "H0H 0H0, North Pole, Canada."

9. With 1,896 km (1,178 mi) of road, Yonge Street in Canada is the longest street in the world.
10. The Mall of America is actually owned by Canadians.

11. The U.S. / Canada Border is the longest international border in the world and it lacks military defence. Not sure what that says about the fact that America's newest president is currently so concerned with building a literal wall along America's Mexican border.

12. Canada has no weapons of mass destruction since 1984 and has signed treaties repudiating their possession. They also don't allow people to carry guns (except with a hunting license).

13. "Canada" is an Iroquoian language word meaning "Village." Canada basically got its name by mistake. When Jaques Cartier, a French explorer, came to the new world, he met with local Natives who invited them to their ‘kanata’ (the word for ‘village’). The party mistakenly thought the name of the country was “Kanata” or Canada.

14. If you want to weigh less, go to Canada! Large parts of Canada have less gravity than the rest of Earth. The phenomenon was discovered in the 1960s. Though the weakness is slight—one part in 25,000, or a tenth of an ounce for a 150-pound (68-kilogram) person—scientists have argued for years about the cause.

15. Some Police Departments in Canada give out "positive tickets" when they see people doing something positive. However, it should be noted that Canadian Police Departments, like their US neighbors (or should I say, neighbours??) are still known for. However, it should be noted that Canadian Police Departments, like their US neighbors (or should I say, neighbours??) are still known for racial profiling and carding. The Black Lives Matter movement is an integral part of the fabric of Canadian politics.

16. Americans have invaded Canada twice, in 1775 and 1812. They lost both times.

17. In Canada money has Braille-like markings on the bills for the blind.

18. Canada is a lot bigger than the US in land mass, but our population is considerably less. The populations of Los Angeles and New York City would be around 30 million people. The entire nation of Canada has around 32 million people.

19. During WW2, Canada gave out buttons to people who tried to enlist but were refused due to medical reasons to show their willingness to fight.

20. Canada consumes the most doughnuts and has the most doughnut shops per capita of any country in the world.

21. Canada and Denmark have been fighting over an uninhabited island by leaving each other bottles of alcohol and changing their flags since the 1930s. Here's the story: Far in the Arctic North lies the barren and desolate Hans Island. The uninhabited half-square-mile island, possessing no apparent natural resources, is a bizarre sliver of territory for two countries to fight over. However, since the early 1930s, this nondescript rock has been at the center of an ongoing disagreement between Canada and Denmark. Hans Island is technically located in both Danish and Canadian waters. Denmark's minister of Greenland affairs visited the island in 1984 and planted a Danish flag. At the base of the flag, he left a note saying, "Welcome to the Danish island," along with a bottle of brandy. And since then, the two countries have waged a not-quite-serious "whiskey war" over Hans Island. When Danish military go there, they leave a bottle of schnapps. And when [Canadian] military forces go, they leave a bottle of Canadian Club and a sign saying, 'Welcome to Canada.'

22. There's a service called "Cleaning for a Reason" in the U.S. and Canada that cleans the houses of women with cancer for free so they can focus on their health.

23. When flights got diverted or grounded during 9/11, Canada housed, fed, and sheltered over 33,000 passengers.

24. One of the thirteen articles in the 1781 U.S. Articles of Confederation states that if Canada wants to be admitted into the U.S., it will automatically be accepted. Canada has yet to take them up on the offer.

25. In 2015, a Canadian man was arrested after tying more than 100 balloons to a garden chair and flyingover the city of Calgary.

26. It's estimated that 93,000 Canadians live in the U.S. with expired visas, more than any other group of immigrant. Yet, people in America are far less likely to accuse Canadians of being illegal immigrants than those of other countries.

27. Canada's lowest recorded temperature was -81.4 degrees fahrenheit (-63 celsius) in 1947.

28. Basketball, while invented by a Canadian, was actually invented in the United States.

29. Famous Canadian celebrities include Justin Bieber, Michael Buble, Joni Mitchell, James Cameron, Jim Carrey, Celine Dion, Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, Mike Myers, Ryan Reynolds and William Shatner.

30. Dog food is tax-deductible in Canada.

31. Sometimes Canadians refer to dollars as bucks. Like, 45 dollars could be called 45 bucks. There isn't one clear reason why, but most people think it's in reference to the days when people would trade things for deerskin, otherwise known as bucks. "I'll give you five bucks for that wagon!"

32. The average Canadian watches 21 hours of television per week. 128,000 Canadian households have TV’s in the bathroom.

33. French and English are the two official languages in Canada. It was recently announced that they are thinking of also adding sign language.

34. Canadians drink more fruit juice per capita than any other country.

35. If you die in Canada, you die in real life.

36. Canadian radio stations are required by law to play a certain percentage of music from Canadian artists.

37. Once, 60 million pounds of maple syrup was stolen from a reserve in Quebec.

38. Canada is home to the world’s smallest jail – in Rodney, Ontario; it’s only 24.3 square meters (270 square feet).

39. There are parts of Canada where, at certain times of the year, the sun never sets and at other times it never rises.

40. A bear cub named Winnipeg was exported from Canada to the London Zoo in 1915. A little boy named Christopher Robin Milne loved to visit Winnipeg (or Winnie for short) and his love for the bear cub inspired the stories written by his father, A.A. Milne, about Winnie-the-Pooh.

41. Canada holds the record for the most gold medals ever won at a single Winter Olympics, winning 14 at the 2010 games in Vancouver.

42. Canadians love ketchup so much we have ketchup flavored chips, and they're delicious.

43. On July 20, 2005, Canada became the first country outside Europe and the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide after the enactment of the Civil Marriage Act. Same-sex adoption has also been legal in all provinces and territories under varying rules.

 

And this year we are celebrating our 150th birthday as the greatest country in the world. It will be a year long party because we are awesome and no single day can contain our greatness.