Weird, funny and interesting facts about Canada

Canadians are a very distinctive people whose traditions and beliefs are due in no small part to the country's location, climate, and historical past. The following interesting facts about Canada and Canadians themselves are a prime example of their distinctiveness.

Famous Canadians

In fact, Canada has given the world quite a few famous personalities, but not everyone knows about their Canadian origins. Thus, this list includes actors who have achieved fame in Hollywood, musicians and even authors of graphic novels.

Here's a list of the most famous of them all:

• Justin Bieber is a musician;
• Michael Bublé is a singer;
• James Cameron is a filmmaker;
• Jim Carrey is an actor;
• Celine Dion is a singer;
• Ryan Gosling is an actor;
• Rachel McAdams is an actress;
• Mike Myers is an actor;
• Ryan Reynolds is an actor;
• William Shatner is an actor, writer;
• Brian Adams is a musician;
• Neil Young is a singer;
• Avril Lavigne is a singer;
• Joe Schuster is the co-author of the graphic novel Superman.

Facts about the geography of Canada

As we can see, Canada surprises the world not only with its stellar natives, but also with some geographical facts that are perhaps only possible in this country.

Here are some of the most interesting features:

• Canada is the second largest country in the world;
• Ottawa is the capital of Canada and one of the coldest capitals in the world;
• Montreal has the second largest number of French speakers after Paris;
• Canada is home to 9% of total renewable water resources;
• Canada has six time zones;
• The city of Calgary in the province of Alberta has a strange feature — a weather phenomenon that can cause air temperatures to rise by 10 degrees in a matter of minutes. The phenomenon is called a Chinook wind;
• Despite its vast territory, Canada has one of the lowest population densities. There are only three people per square kilometre;
• Almost half of Canada's population was born in other countries;
• It rains 330 days a year in the community of Ocean Falls, British Columbia;
• The sunniest place in Canada is Estevan in Saskatchewan. There the sun shines for 2,537 hours a year.

Interesting facts about living in Canada

Canadians like to spend time in front of the television and prefer to live in cities. Many people around the world can agree with them on that.

• In Canada, 81% of the population lives in urban areas;
• Canadians can deduct a number of things on their tax returns. For example, dog food is not tax deductible;
• Canadians like to end a sentence with the word Eh;
• Canadians call the one-dollar coin a "Looney."
• In Canada, 17% of the population are smokers;
• Canadians spend 21 hours a week watching TV. 128,000 Canadian homes have a television in the bathroom.

Sport in Canada

Perhaps few countries in the world can boast such a number of Olympics held and such a love of winter sports.

• The national sports in Canada are hockey and lacrosse;
• In Canada, the baseball glove was invented in 1883;
• Canada has hosted the Olympics three times — Montreal (1976), Calgary (1988) and Vancouver (2010);
• The first game of indoor hockey was played on March 3, 1875 in Montreal, Vancouver.

Known inventions

In fact, the list of outstanding inventions of Canadians is quite large, below are listed only the most significant.

• A popular board game called Trivial Pursuit was invented in Canada;
• The first telephone was invented in Canada by Alexander Graham Bell;
• The game of basketball was invented by Canadian-American teacher James Naismith;
• The snowmobile was invented by Canadian Joseph-Armand Bombardier;
• Canadian scientist Thomas Ahern patented an electric water heater and an electric furnace;
• Canadian filmmaker Graham Ferguson invented IMAX. The digital system was widely used in all cinemas around the world;
• Insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas, was first discovered by Canadian physician Frederick Bunting and his assistant Charles Best;
• University of Toronto biophysicist James Till and his colleague Ernest McCulloch have proven the existence of stem cells.

Food and Drink in Canada

Canadians love to eat, and you can't take that away from them. By the way, they love to drink too, but it's not at all what you think.

• Canada is famous for its ice wine, which is made from pressed frozen grapes. It is usually a dessert type of wine;
• Cheddar is the most popular cheese in Canada. On average, Canadians consume 10.6 kilograms of cheese per person per year;
• Canada has the highest number of donut shops per capita than any other country;
• Canada has the largest number of people in the world drinking fruit juice.

Other interesting facts about Canada

• The smallest prison in the world is located in Canada, with an area of 24.3 square meters;
• Saskatchewan does not have daylight saving time;
• The West Edmonton Shopping Centre in Edmonton, Canada is so huge that it is the fifth largest in the world;
• Canada produces the most uranium in the world;
• In Canada, there are 459 cars for every thousand people;
• The lobster, measuring 9.3 kg, is the largest recorded lobster. It was caught in Nova Scotia in 1977.