# Happy Canada Day! Canadian trivia test **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 1, 2003, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624 "2003-07-01T18:18:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624/1 "2003-07-01T18:18:43Z")
No fair consulting reference works…! 1. What does “Nunavut” mean, and in what language? 2. Name a city besides Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal that has been the capital of Canada (while it was a British colony). 3. Who led the Patriotes Revolt in Quebec in 1837-1838? 4. Which Saskatchewan town’s church bell, long missing, is a symbol of the Métis? 5. Under whose premiership did Newfoundland join Confederation? 6. One of the British colonies that would make up Canada was the first in the British Empire to outlaw slavery. Which one? 7. And who was governor at that time? 8. Who was the first Canadian Governor-General of Canada? 9. What was promised to Prince Edward Island to convince it to join Confederation, that wasn’t fulfilled until the 1990s? 10. What crusader for women’s rights got marijuana outlawed because she believed it was a conspiracy of the “black and yellow races”? 11. Which province is the only officially bilingual one? 12. Besides Quebec, which is the only province with same-sex civil unions? 13. What was the first province to join Canada after the first four? 14. British Columbia was formed when Vancouver Island was united with which other British colony? 15. The Quiet Revolution began in Quebec after the death of which arch-conservative premier? 16. What are Kim Campbell’s real given names? 17. In which province or territory is Canada’s highest point located? 18. Which major cities are located at either end of the Saint Lawrence Seaway? 19. Which First Nation’s cancer rate skyrocketed after they were employed to carry uranium ore to make the first atomic bombs? 20. What is the English title of the novel _Bonheur d’occasion_, and who wrote it? 21. Which Canadian folk musician was killed in a plane crash in 1983? 22. In which province or territory are Kuujjuaq, Inukjuaq, and Kangiqsualujjuaq located? 23. What was Canada’s first international bestselling book? 24. Under which prime minister was gay sex legalized? 25. Which Canadian city includes the world’s second-largest church dome, second-largest botanical gardens, and tallest inclined tower? BONUS HARD QUESTION: In a single period between two general elections, five different Conservative prime ministers served. Name them and what happened to them. ---
**Author:** ![yoyo3500](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/5daacb/32.png) [@yoyo3500](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyo3500)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624/2 "2003-07-01T18:40:14Z")
If I can answer any of these, does that mean I have to become a Canadian? Ignorance is bliss. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624/3 "2003-07-01T19:48:34Z")
Crossing on a ferry with my car (canadian plates) from Lewis, DE to Cape May, NJ, the only question the policeman asked me was, “Who the VP of the US?” I answered it smartly and drove on board. If any one of these questions was required at the border crossing into Canada, I’d never get back into my own country. …given that I don’t know a single correct answer, I’m not sure I would disagree with Canadian authorities. (hangs head in shame…) Happy Canada day to you as well… ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624/4 "2003-07-01T20:10:20Z")
Oooh, oooh! I know! I know! Joey Smallwood! (I’m not Canadian, but we spent three years in Newfoundland. I don’t think I could answer many of these!) ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624/5 "2003-07-01T20:14:15Z")
I’ll put my answers in a spoiler box. [spoiler]1. “Nunavut” means “Our land” in Inuktiuk. 1. Kingston, Ontario (my home town) was once the capital of Canada. Its City Hall, still used, was the seat of government. 2. Louis Papineau. 3. dunno 4. Joey Smallwood. 5. I’ll guess Nova Scotia 6. Dunno 7. Charles Vincent Massey 8. A really big ass bridge! 9. Huh, no idea. 10. Nouvelle Brunswick 11. All of them now. 12. Manitoba, in 1871 13. New Caledonia 14. Maurice Duplessis 15. I don’t know her middle name, but her real first name is Avril. Do “Sk8er Boi” for us, Ms. Campbell! 16. Mount Logan is in the Yukon. 17. Well, the end of the Seaway is in Quebec. I suppose that would make the other end Detroit, but technically, all the Great Lake are part of the Seaway, so take your pick - Chicago? Milwaukee? 18. Dunno 19. Gabrielle Roy wrote it, but I honestly don’t know the English title. I read it en francais. 20. Beats me. 21. Nunavut? 22. I would have to guess “Anne of Green Gables.” 23. Pierre Trudeau 24. Montreal BONUS: I can’t keep all the early short-term PMs straight with a program and a map. I’m guessing most of them had ugly beards. [/spoiler] [edited to fix coding] ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624/6 "2003-07-01T20:16:23Z")
Oh, shit. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624/7 "2003-07-01T20:18:33Z")
Uh, **Rick** , you forgot the spoiler box 😃 And I was about to say that number 12 was out of date too. And **Rick** ’s right about #18. Nearly any city on the Great Lakes could be the “western end” of the St. Lawrence Seaway, though I think the answer they’re looking for is Duluth, Minnesota. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624/8 "2003-07-01T22:02:26Z")
1. Batoche 2. Upper Canada (via 7. William Jarvis) 3. Emily F. Murphy 4. Ontario 5. The Dene? 6. Roy – the happiness of the occasion? (Guess not!) 7. Stan Rogers ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624/9 "2003-07-01T22:14:19Z")
Most of the answers were right. Here are the ones that haven’t been: 1. And who was governor at that time [when Upper Canada abolished slavery]? 2. Besides Quebec, which is the only province with same-sex civil unions? (Note: civil unions, not marriage.) 3. What are Kim Campbell’s real given names? 4. Which major cities are located at either end of the Saint Lawrence Seaway? (Note: you’re thinking of the combined Saint Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes Waterway. The Seaway proper is on the St. Lawrence River.) 5. What is the English title of the novel _Bonheur d’occasion_ [by Gabrielle Roy]? 6. In which province or territory are Kuujjuaq, Inukjuaq, and Kangiqsualujjuaq located? 7. What was Canada’s first international bestselling book? 8. Under which prime minister was gay sex legalized? (Note: you’re close!) BONUS HARD QUESTION: In a single period between two general elections, five different Conservative prime ministers served. Name them and what happened to them. BTW: it’s Nouveau-Brunswick, not Nouvelle. (as a _Néobrunswickois_, it’s important to me 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624/10 "2003-07-01T22:27:04Z")
Oh, and here’s a bit more grist: 1. What is Quebec’s provincial flower? 2. What important biological compound was isolated in 1921 in Toronto, and what are the names of two of the researchers who did it? 3. What travelled from Poldhu, Cornwall, England, to St. John’s, Newfoundland, on December 12, 1901, and who sent it there? 4. Why is question #27 not quite fair for this test? 5. Which province’s motto is _Splendor sine occasu_ (splendour without diminishment)? 6. Which city is closest to the longitudinal centre of Canada? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624/11 "2003-07-01T23:12:23Z")
The answer to questions 1-25 is “Who cares? It’s _Canada_.” Otto\<----wearing his jaunty Canada t-shirt with pictures of Mounties in honor of Canada Day ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624/12 "2003-07-01T23:16:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by yoyo3500 \* > \*\*If I can answer any of these, does that mean I have to become a Canadian? > > Ignorance is bliss. \*\* This type of response is not IMHO worthy. BTW, you might want to correct that “Ignorance is bliss” quote -it doesn’t exactly put your post in a good light when said properly. ---
**Author:** ![Wearia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Wearia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wearia)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624/13 "2003-07-01T23:20:37Z")
1. Newfoundland wasn’t confederated in 1901 and so that question isn’t technically about Canada. If you don’t mind **matt** , I’ll throw up a few of my own: 1. What year were Alberta and Saskatchewn confederated? 2. What province or territory has the highest average wages for its people? 3. Which Prime Minister introduced GST? 4. Which province has no PST? 5. Which Province joined confederation because it blew all its money on a railroad? 6. Which PM spent less than a year in office? 7. What was the first war that Canada took place in as a country? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624/14 "2003-07-01T23:53:08Z")
[spoiler]24. Pearson. Trudeau was Justice Minister. (Slaps forehead) 1. La fleur-de-lis. 2. Insulin. Banting and Best. 3. A wireless radio signal - Marconi? 28 Answered 1. Gosh, I don’t know 2. Winnipeg, I think 3. 1905? 4. Alberta or Ontario 5. Mulroney 6. Alberta, definitely 7. Didn’t they all? 🙂 8. Many Prime Ministers have spent less than a year in office. 9. World War I. The Boer War is not the correct answer. ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624/15 "2003-07-02T00:23:41Z")
1. Wasn’t York the capital of Canada during the War of 1812? ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624/16 "2003-07-02T00:38:54Z")
1. William Jarvis? 2. British Columbia 3. Quebec City and ?Brockville 4. 1905 5. Ontario 6. Sasketchewan 7. Joe Clark, maybe Kim Campbell too ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624/17 "2003-07-02T02:08:18Z")
Jesus, what’s wrong with me? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624/18 "2003-07-02T03:05:17Z")
1. [John Graves Simcoe](http://www.londonhistory.org/simcoe.htm) 2. [Nova Scotia](http://canada.justice.gc.ca/en/dept/pub/mar/3.html) - Manitoba has passed an Act which would recognise such unions, but it’s not yet in force. 3. Kingston, Ontario (where Lake Ontario flows into the St. Lawrence) and Quebec City (where the St. Lawrence broadens into to the Gulf of St. Lawrence.) 4. Can’t remember; read it en français. 5. Nunavut. 6. Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town ? 7. New Brunswick 8. September 1, 1905 - you’re all coming for our centennial in two years, right? It’ll be a party! 9. PEI, in 1873 10. Tupper, Meighen, Clark, Turner, Campbell 11. WWII. Canada entered the Great War automatically when Great Britain declared war; the Empire as a whole was at war. By 1939, the Statute of Westminster was in force and Canada had full international sovereignty. On the outbreak of war in 1939, a vote was held in the Canadian Parliament, and Canada declared war on Germany on September 10, 1939, a week after Britain did. (A little episode I taught in my Con Law class this year.) For the Bonus Question, see my answer to [Hamish’s thread on this topic](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=162168&highlight=tupper) back in February. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624/19 "2003-07-02T03:08:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wolfian \* > \*\*2. Wasn’t York the capital of Canada during the War of 1812? \*\* Yes, but York was re-named Toronto, so it’s excluded by **matt’s** question. I would add Quebec City to **RickJay’s** answer to this question. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624/20 "2003-07-02T03:25:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Northern Piper \* > \*\*737. WWII. Canada entered the Great War automatically when Great Britain declared war; the Empire as a whole was at war. By 1939, the Statute of Westminster was in force and Canada had full international sovereignty. On the outbreak of war in 1939, a vote was held in the Canadian Parliament, and Canada declared war on Germany on September 10, 1939, a week after Britain did. (A little episode I taught in my Con Law class this year.) \*\* The answer is World War I. You’re answering a different question… WWII would be the correct answer to “What was the first war Canada entered on its own accord?” or some such thing. But the question was “what was the first war Canada took place in as a country?” which is kind of nonsensical, but interpreted as closely as I can tell, means took PART in as a country. Canada did take part in WWI, as a unique country. While the Constitutional framework of the time made the entrance into the war automatic, Canada was, as a belligerent, a distinct country with its own command structure and units, fighting as soldiers of Canada. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-canada-day-canadian-trivia-test/185624.md?page=2)