Interesting Facts

	The Royal Mounted Canadian Police (RCMP or Mounties) do not always wear their well-known red uniforms. The red "dress" uniforms are only worn at special occasions.
	The CN Tower, located in Toronto, Ontario, is the world's tallest building at 553.33m (1,815 ft., 5 inches).
	At the University of Toronto in 1922, Sir Fredrick Banting and Charles Best discovered insulin, a drug that has saved the lives of millions of diabetics around the world.
	Canada is bordered by three oceans - the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.
	The Great Lakes, shared by the United States and Canada, consist of one fifth of the world's fresh surface water.
	Canada is 9,984,670 km². That's almost the same size as the whole of the continent of Europe and about a third the size of Africa. You could fit the United Kingdom into Canada almost 40 times!
	Canada has two official languages - English and French.
	The Queen of England, Elizabeth II, is still the head of state of Canada.
	As of July 1, 2003, there were over 31 million people living in Canada. There are over 20 million people living in Mexico City, Mexico.
	Approximately 85% of Canadians live within 300 km of the US border.
	Canada and the United States share the world's longest unprotected border.
	The French-controlled islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon are just 16 kilometres off the coast of Newfoundland.
	Canada adopted the familiar red-and-white maple leaf flag in 1965. Before then Canada's flag was the British Union Jack.
	Canada uses a similar monetary system to Australia and the United States, with dollars and cents making up its currency.
	Canada uses a coin to represent $1. When first released, the coin had a picture of a loon (a type of bird) on it. Canadians took to calling the coin a 'loonie'. When a two-dollar coin was released, people called it a ‘toonie' (two-nie).
	The leader of the Canadian government is called the prime minister. In Canada, the government is formed by the national party which wins the election (winning most seats in parliament) and the leader of that party is appointed as prime minister.
	Canada celebrates Canada Day on July 1.
	There are six times zones in Canada.
	One of the most well-known Canadian foods is French Canadian and is called poutine. Poutine is made out of french fried potatoes, gravy and cheese curds.
	Canadians may put mayonnaise, gravy, vinegar, salt and pepper or ketchup (or a combination of two or more of those condiments) on their french fries.
	Canadians consume more donuts per capita than any other country in the world.
	The highest temperature recorded in Canada was 45.0 C in Saskatchewan in 1937. The coldest temperature recorded in Canada was -63.0 C in the Yukon in 1947.
	Though Canada is a secular country, Christian religious holidays are still observed. In Canada, Christmas Day and Easter Monday are national holidays.
	Vikings temporarily settled L'Anse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland 1,000 years ago, beating Columbus to North America by over 400 years. Snorri Thorbrandsson, who was born at the settlement, may have been the first child born to Europeans in North America.
	Canada's First Nation Peoples, sometimes called Indians, native Canadians or Aboriginals, crossed over a land or ice bridge between Alaska and Russia about 14,000 years ago.
	The Inuit of Northern Canada do not call themselves Eskimos. Eskimo is an Algonquin Indian name for the Inuit, could be construed as derogatory and means "eaters of raw meat".
	Lake Superior is so large that it has its own tide. The lake rises and falls a few centimetres due to the gravitational pull of the moon. Waves obscure the tide so much that it is difficult to measure.
	The name "Canada" comes from a First Nations word "kanata" meaning settlement or village.
	It was First Nations people who first collected sap from the maple tree to refine the sugar within it, turning it into maple syrup.
	There are over 600 Native Canadian First Nations in Canada.