Curious Facts about Canada

Curious Facts about Canada

Did You Know?

Sir Henry P.P. Crease. Emily Carr. Tugboat Annie. Panning gold in Halifax. The Saskatchewan Giant. The Cape Breton Giant. A Boy Hero. Sir John McDonald

Sir Henry P.P. Crease the first practising barrister in British Columbia, became in 1861 its first attorney-general – a post he held till 1870, when he became a B.C. supreme court judge.

Canadian greatest woman artist Emily Carr (1871-1945): born in Victoria, British Columbia, she studied painting in California and Europe. Then worked for years without recognition in Canada. Discouraged she quit painting for 15 years, but took up her brushes again after meeting members of the now famous Group of Seven. Today her paintings are represented in all major Canadian collections.

Tugboat Annie better known to movie fans as Marie Dressler, was born Leila Koerber at Cobourg, Ontario, in 1860. She won an Academy award and averaged a new picture every two months for four years – yet her movie career didn’t start until she was over 70 years of age.

Facts about Toronto. Queen Park in Toronto. Photograph by Elena

Panning gold in Halifax: A man named John Campbell was the first to pan gold along the shores of Halifax County. He and the hundreds of gold seekers who followed him never made fortunes. Yet Nova Scotia’s production per man and gold yield per ton was better than that of either California or Australia.

The Saskatchewan Giant Eduard Beaupre of Willow Bunch Saskatchewan wore size 25 shoes. At 2.48 metres he was too tall to ride horses – but he could pick one up with one hand.

The Cape Breton Giant: Angus MacAskill, the Cape Breton Giant, stood almost 2,4 metres tall and weighed 225 kg. He smoked a mallet-sized pipe that held sixth of a pound of tobacco and drank rum from a wooden bowl that held equivalent of three full glasses.

Sir John A. Macdonald, the man who did more than any other to bring about Canadian Confederation. Had he lived in any other country. His birthday, January 11the, would be appropriately celebrated, but few Canadians know this is his birthday.

A boy hero: While strong men doubted Joe Cracker of Herring Cove, Nova Scotia plunged into heavy seas to rescue survivors from H.M.S. La Tribune that foundered and was wrecked off Tribune Head, Nova Scotia 1n 1797. Joe Cracker was just 13-years old.

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Spherical slumber: Charles and Abigail Bowers were the first settlers of Ohio, Shelburne Country, Nova Scotia. Abigail was known as a resourceful woman who had seventeen children. She solved the problem of beds for them by putting her ten boys in a round bed with all the bed covers made circular in order to prevent unequal portions.

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The most English city in North America is Victora, British Colombia. To the delight of themselves and tourists the natives hang flower baskets on the downtown lampposts.

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A mysterious levitation in 1880: Two men working in a field in East Kent, Ontario, heard a peculiar, loud noise nearby. Turning they saw boulders an stones flying upwards from an area near them. After the stone fell back to the ground, they investigated the spot, but found no trace of an explosion or other disturbance which could have flung the stones high in the air.

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Profiteering. In 1889, seven cast iron stoves bought for $29.50 each in Vancouver were sold at McLeaon, N.W.T. for $250 each.

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John Buchan, Governor-general of Canada in 1935-1940 was a skilled novelist and a man of letters. He took a keen interest in literature, and it was he who initiated the governor-geenral’s literary awards that are now made annually.

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Canada’s mini desert: A small are of roughly 24 km by 48 km, lying to the south of Penticton, British Columbia is a genuine desert. Only flora and fauna that are typical of desert environment exist here, including prickly pear cactus and rattlesnakes. Its annual rainfall – little more than 19 cm is actually less that of the Sahara desert.

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Linus, a Clydesdale horse in Fredericton, New-Brunswick, had hair to spare. Mane, 4-2 m. long, foetop 3 m long, tail 3-7 m. 1920.

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In the beginning of the XXe century, Canadian newspapers carried stories about the high rent rates for houses in Toronto, making it difficult for clerks and mechanics to obtain decent housing. The average rate at the time was $150 a year.

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Shock was prescribed as a cure for the paralyzed spine of Mrs. Jean Fry Finigan. The great Halifax explosion in 1917 was the shock that completely cured the then 22 year old girl.

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A significant milestone was passed in 1953 – for the first time oil production ($198 million) exceeded the value of gold production ($140 million).

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Blue Moon. On September 26, 1950, a 200 000 km2 forest fire in British Columbia caused sulphur particles to form in the upper atmosphere. Because of this, the Moon looked blue to viewers in Great Britain.

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Going to great lengths: In the days of the big sailing ships Nova Scotia had a fleet that covered every ocean. Beginnning at Yarmouth in 1763 to the end of the 19th Century this province was a world leader in ship building and sailing.

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The rope riggings for sail control of a typical windjammer of this era totalled about 29 km of length.

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The era of the Hobos: During the 1930’s thousands of men travel across and to all parts of Canada on the tops of freight train car seeking jobs that just weren’t obtainable.

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The Great depression began with the crash of the New York stock market in 1929 and continued until World War II broke out 10 years later. At its height in 1933, more than 1,500,000 out of Canada’s total population of 10,500,000 were on welfare. It had been 10 years of youthful stagnation and starvation wages.

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World basketball champions without peer the Edmonton Grads. Let’s face it men. The best group in the entire history of sports in Canada was a team of girl basketball players, called the Edmonton Grads. From 1915 to 1940, under their coach Percy Page, they utterly destroyed all competition in Canada, the USA and Europe, winning 502 of 522 games, including 27 of the 27 the played in Olympic tournaments. In 1940, with no one left to defeat, the disbanded.

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Color choice: Purchasers of early For cars were told they could have any color they wanted – so long as it was black.

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The Turkey is known as the American bird in Turkey

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Rescue Record. In a period of 40 years, reg. Gaudaur, a boatman of often treacherous lake Simkoe (56 km North of Toronto), saved more than 60 persons from drowning.

Regards from Canada. Illustration by Elena.