Mark Kearney - The Big Book of Canadian Trivia

THE BIG BOOK OF
CANADIAN TRIVIA

THE BIG BOOK OF
CANADIAN TRIVIA

Mark Kearney and Randy Ray

Copyright Mark Kearney and Randy Ray, 2009

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Editor: Allison
Hirst Design: Erin Mallory
Printer: Webcom

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Kearney, Mark, 1955
The big book of Canadian trivia / Mark Kearney and Randy Ray.

ISBN 978-1-55488-417-9

1. Canada--Miscellanea. I. Ray, Randy, 1952- II. Title.

FC61.K425 2009 971.002 C2009-900285-X

1 2 3 4 5 13 12 11 10 09

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

J. Kirk Howard, President

Front cover (left to right): Top: Barbara Ann Scott (courtesy Library and Archives Canada, PA-165291); the Bluenose II (courtesy LAC, PA-30803); Elizabeth Arden (Alan Fisher/Wikimedia Commons). Middle: postage stamp remembers Canadian women who helped with the war effort (courtesy Canada Post Corporation, 1991. Reproduced with permission); Seagrams VO (Randy Ray); Marilyn Bell (courtesy City of Toronto Archives, f1244_it2128). Bottom: A.E. LePage (courtesy Royal LePage Real Estate Services, Ltd.); Canadian four-dollar bill; the Last Spike, November 7, 1885 (courtesy LAC, C-003693).

Printed and bound in Canada.
www.dundurn.com

For a Big Book allow us a big list of family and friends to dedicate our latest trivial pursuit to

Janis

Catherine

The Ray boys: Chris, Andrew, Marcus (and Duffy, of course) and the Ray grandchildren: Aryana, Sydney, and Hazel

Shirley Kearney and the late Basil Kearney

Various publications in Canada and the U.S. that have faithfully published our trivia over the years, including Forever Young, Boomer Life Magazine and Chill Magazine.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

W hen you have stories about everything from Tim Hortons doughnuts to the Halifax explosion, Molson beer to the introduction of the loonie, Joni Mitchell to Simon Whitfield, and Red Green to CCM bicycles, you know its going to take a big book to cram in all that amazing Canadiana.

The Big Book of Canadian Trivia contains all that and much more.

From history and sports to music and business, this book will enlighten you about the many threads that weave through the tapestry that is Canada. For fans of our previous books, this new collection takes some of the best items from our more than 20 years of research into this country and blends them with an array of new information weve dug up since our last book Whatever Happened To? Catching Up with Canadian Icons.

Think of this book as something of a Greatest Hits CD of Canadian trivia. Weve gathered together some of the most surprising, delightful, and stirring moments from Canadas long history and added in as bonus tracks an array of new, compelling Canadiana.

And as a tip of the hat to all those Canadians who grew up as keen observers of the culture and history of our neighbours to the south, weve added a sprinkling of American trivia that should be a fun test of your knowledge about goings on across the border.

Many of you grew up watching the Oscars, listening to American rock and roll, or indulging in Sunday afternoons with NFL football on the tube, and weve got some quizzes on those topics and others to test your brainpower.

Of course, even The Big Book of Canadian Trivia cant encompass everything, so if you want to continue to dabble please visit our website www.trivaguys.com for more factual fun and tantalizing trivia tidbits.

Whether you read our Canadian trivia in this, our latest book, or on our website, were pleased to have you along for the ride as we take you on a trip that explores the lighter side of Canada.

Enjoy!

CHAPTER 1
Blast from the Past: Historic Canada

HISTORY HODGEPODGE

The word Canada is derived from the Huron-Iroquois word Kanata, which means village or settlement. The term was used to describe Stadacona (the current site of Quebec City) by two Amerindians who accompanied Jacques Cartier on his 1535 return voyage from France.

Although we ended up with the name Dominion of Canada, there were several others discussed at the time, in the press as well as among politicians and citizens.

Some of the favourite suggestions were New Britain, Laurentia, and Brittania. A union of the Maritimes has also been discussed, and Acadia was the front-runner name for that. It was also considered a possibility for the entire country.

Other suggestions included Cabotia, Columbia, Canadia, and Ursalia. By agreeing to the name Canada, both Lower and Upper Canada had to change their names, to Quebec and Ontario respectively.

Several thousand people living in what is now Canada participated in the U.S. Civil War. The soldiers fought mostly for the North and the cause of opposing slavery, but others fought on the Souths side. Some who fought from Canada were former slaves who had escaped into southwestern Ontario.

They Said it!

The acquisition of Canada this year, as far as the neighbourhood of Quebec, will be a mere matter of marching, and will give us experience for the attack of Halifax the next, and the final expulsion of England from the American continent.

Thomas Jefferson, circa 1812, in a letter to Colonel William Duane

Oh, by the way, did we tell you the war is over? The Battle of New Orleans, made famous in the 1959 song by American singer Johnny Horton, took place a month after the War of 1812 ended. The British and Americans had signed the Treaty of Ghent, officially ending the war, on December 24, 1814. But it took several weeks for the news to reach military officials, and this final battle took place in January 1815.