Beautiful landscapes, a maple leaf flag and famously friendly people: there are some aspects of Canada that almost everybody knows about. But there's much, much more to the country than mountains and manners. Here are some fun titbits about Canada that make this much-loved destination even more fascinating.
Canada is, geographically speaking, the second largest country in the world, and it has more miles of seafront than anywhere else. With three oceans (Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic) framing the country and plenty of irregularly shaped islands and bays, Canada's wild northern reaches rack up huge quantities of coast. While it’s difficult to get an exact measurements, Canada has about 151,000 miles (243,011km) of land touching the sea.
In addition to its ample shores, Canada has a larger total area of freshwater lakes than any other nation on Earth. The country is home to some of the world’s largest lakes, with 563 exceeding 39 square miles (100sq km) and five of the world’s largest 10 either completely or partially within its borders. There are plenty of smaller lakes too, with an estimated 879,800 in total from coast to coast.
Canada is a relatively young country, but visitors to Quebec City will have no trouble finding a hefty dose of old-world charm. The Old Quebec neighbourhood is surrounded by a 2.5-mile (4km) fortification first erected in 1690, and today the city wall is the only one of its kind still standing in Canada or the United States. Visitors can take a tour of the fortification to learn more about its history, and that of the city that still stands within it.
Most people know that Canada has two official languages – French and English – but many other languages are spoken in different parts of the country. The vast Northwest Territories are home to many vibrant Indigenous communities that have worked hard to retain their traditional tongues. In addition to English and French, the territory recognises nine Indigenous languages belonging to the Athabaskans, Inuits and Algonquians, helping to keep the little-spoken languages alive.
Ice hockey is Canada's official winter sport and by far the sport most commonly associated with the country, but Canada has an official summer sport too. Lacrosse is somewhat similar to hockey – two teams working to score in netted goals – but is played on a grassy field with a ball and netted sticks. The sport has been played by Indigenous peoples in North America for nearly 1,000 years and in 1994 Canada passed the National Sports Act to officially recognise both hockey and lacrosse.
If you hear a Canadian talking about a 'loonie' or 'toonie' it's got nothing to do with Bugs Bunny – they’re referring to their country’s one- and two-dollar coins. The one-dollar coin, or 'loonie', was introduced in 1987 to replace paper dollar bills and earned its nickname from the picture of a loon on the coin's tails side. The two-dollar coin, or 'toonie', hit Canadian pockets in 1996, and its nickname was a natural counterpart to 'loonie' as it was worth two dollars.
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Canada is famous for its natural beauty and huge swathes of woodland. With around 362 million hectares of forest, much of it untouched, the country can claim about 9% of the world’s total forests, and about 40% of the country’s landmass is covered with trees. Thanks to strong environmental protection and plenty of space, Canada's forests are unusually stable, with only 0.5% deforestation since 1990.
Canada has a complicated relationship with its Indigenous peoples, which has often been marked by gross injustice and tragedy. Despite this, the First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities are growing in strength – both demographically and in cultural impact. A 2020 report to Parliament lists Indigenous peoples as both the youngest and fastest-growing population in Canada.
Canada is rich in natural resources and while it’s well known for its wood, wheat and oil, most people probably aren't aware that the country is also the world’s second largest producer of uranium. Uranium is used primarily as fuel in nuclear reactors and Canada has facilities to both mine and process the element. The bulk of it can be found in northern Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin, considered to have the world’s largest deposits of high-grade uranium.
A glance at any globe will show you that the land border between Canada and the United States is a long one – so long, in fact, that it’s been declared the longest international border in the world at 5,526 miles (8,898km). Canada has an advantage here in having just one direct neighbour, so its entire land border is shared with a single country, and it borders the US not only along its southern edge but along the Alaskan part too.
Like names across Canada, the name of the country's most populous province is derived from an Indigenous word. 'Ontario' comes from an Iroquois term that translates as 'sparkling water' – presumably referring to the Great Lakes – and was first used to describe the area in 1641. The region was briefly titled 'Upper Canada' and 'Canada West' by the British, before officially becoming the province of Ontario in 1867.
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The Northwest Territories are famed for the polar bear-shaped licence plates that adorn their vehicles. The NWT introduced the unique plates in 1970 in celebration of the territory’s centennial. The plates are designed to adhere to the standardised North American size and have proven so popular that they’ve become collector's items the world over and are periodically stolen from parked cars.
If you visit any of Canada’s major cities you’re bound to hear dozens of languages being spoken by people from all walks of life. Canada is a nation of immigrants and people continue to come from around the world to make the country their home. Since its confederation in 1867, more than 17 million people have emigrated to Canada, resulting in almost unparalleled cultural diversity.
Canada's wild national parks are the envy of the world and they take up huge swathes of the country. Largest of the lot is Alberta’s Wood Buffalo National Park, which sits at 17,275 square miles (44,741sq km), making it larger than Denmark or Switzerland and twice the size of Israel. Wood Buffalo isn’t the only biggie though, and several others, especially in Canada’s north, are well over 8,000 square miles (20,720sq km).
Toronto is known for its shopping, particularly along Queen Street, and it supplements its main retail districts with a huge network underground. The PATH underground shopping complex features more than 19 miles (39km) of walkways with over 1,200 shops, restaurants, offices and other businesses, while also connecting several subway stations. The oldest parts of PATH date back to 1900 and link together the space below more than 75 buildings.
It wasn’t the Spanish, English or French that first joined Indigenous peoples on the land now known as Canada, and there’s plenty of evidence that Norse sailors landed in northern Newfoundland as early as the 11th century. The Vikings left their mark at L’Anse aux Meadows, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where archaeologists have unearthed and preserved the remains of eight Viking structures alongside an array of other artefacts.
Canadians are very proud of the fact that author AA Milne reportedly based his popular Winnie the Pooh character on a real-life Canadian bear he encountered at London Zoo in England. When Canadian soldier and veterinarian Harry Colebourn bought a bear cub from a hunter in White River, Ontario, he named the creature ‘Winnipeg Bear’, which he shortened to ‘Winnie’. When he was deployed to Europe during the First World War he brought Winnie with him, and ended up donating the animal to London Zoo, where it was witnessed by Milne and his son.
If you look at the very top of your globe you’ll find Alert, Nunavut, the northernmost place on Earth where humans lay their heads to rest every night. The settlement is primarily a research station and while it’s always occupied, individual residents tend only to live there temporarily. It sits near the tip of Ellesmere Island on the shores of the Lincoln Sea – only 508 miles (2,092km) from the North Pole.
It’s not all ice and snow in Canada – the country contains a full-fledged desert in the southern part of British Columbia. The area around the town of Osoyoos is semi-arid and full of antelope brush, meaning it looks more like Arizona then any classic Canadian landscape. The area is also much warmer than most of Canada, which has made it one of the country’s top wine-growing regions.
Everyone knows that Canadian winters can be brutally cold. Temperatures in the north have reached as low as -63ºC (-81ºF) in the past, and even the southern provinces tend to spend the winter months below zero. To put that into perspective, the average surface temperature on Mars is -62ºC (-80ºF), meaning that on rare and particularly inhospitable days it might be even colder in Canada than on the Red Planet.
If you think putting pineapple on pizza is a culinary crime, you have a Canadian to blame. Legend has it that Hawaiian pizza was first served at the Satellite Restaurant in Chatham, Ontario by chef Sam Panopoulos in the 1960s, after he decided that the standard pizza toppings of the time were uninspiring. The resulting dish was apparently a hit with his customers and ham and pineapple has since become one of the most popular pizza combinations in the United States.
Rats are among the world's most common pests, but you aren’t likely to see a single one in the province of Alberta. In the 1950s the government implemented a rat control programme that wholly removed the resident rat population. Squeamish visitors might, however, want to avoid an area in Manitoba called the Narcisse Snake Dens. It houses the largest concentration of snakes in the world, with 75,000 red-sided garter snakes living in its limestone sinkholes.
Whether it’s at an indoor rink or on a frozen pond, skating is an extremely popular pastime in Canada, especially during the winter. It’s no surprise then that the country has the world’s largest naturally frozen skating rink. Ottawa’s Rideau Canal freezes over every year, creating a skating path that’s 4.8 miles (7.7km) long, equivalent in size to 90 Olympic rinks.
Canada is famous for its Tim Hortons coffee and doughnut shops, which are in high demand since, on a per capita basis, Canada consumes more of the sweet treats than any other country. While there are other doughnut-selling chains as well as artisanal types and those sold in grocery stores and bakeries, Tim Hortons does dominate the market with more than 1,500 franchises across Canada.
Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving in a similar way to their neighbours: with turkey, yams and pumpkin pie. The big difference is that the festival takes place on the second Monday in October, while Americans wait until late November – perhaps because the more northern Canadian harvest takes place earlier in the year. Generally a less important occasion than it is in the States, Thanksgiving isn’t even a statutory holiday in every Canadian province.
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The difference between high and low tide can often be dramatic, but at the Bay of Fundy on the Canadian east coast the change is truly staggering. Parts of the bay, which sits between the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, differ in depth by an average of 38.4 feet (12m) between tides – more than enough to expose towering rock formations like the Hopewell Rocks.
From Justin Bieber to Ryan Gosling and Celine Dion, Canada has got its fair share of global celebrities. However, you might not know that Superman was co-created by Toronto-born artist Joe Shuster, who based the comic's Daily Planet newspaper on the Toronto Star. Canadians also argue that Santa Claus is a citizen, and the post service writes replies to letters sent with the H0H 0H0 postal code. Santa even holds a Canadian passport, though other Arctic countries also claim the big man as their own.
Maple syrup is exceptionally Canadian. A common ingredient in Canadian kitchens and enshrined in the public consciousness by the maple leaf on the national flag, around 75% of the world's maple syrup is produced in Canada every year – almost all of it in the province of Quebec. In 2020, Canada produced 134.5 million pounds (61 million kg) of maple syrup, worth an estimated CA$515 million (£341m/$389m).
If you feel a little lighter in the area around Hudson Bay, you’re not imagining things: there is actually less gravitational pull there. According to scientists, people weigh roughly one tenth of an ounce (2.8g) less there than in other parts of the world – apparently because glacial ice pushed the land down during the last Ice Age and it hasn’t quite managed to bounce back up again.
If you want to get in touch with the government of Canada there’s no need to look up the phone number. Just call 1-800-O-Canada, a catch-all official line where you can get information on everything from COVID-19 travel requirements to employment insurance, or anything else that might require the expertise of a government agent. The line is open Monday through Friday during regular business hours.