# On the naming of Canada **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 18, 2024, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443 "2024-04-18T03:35:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2024, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/61 "2024-04-20T14:45:59Z")
Here in Tallahassee, our traffic court building is sandwiched between a liquor store and cannabis dispensary. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/62 "2024-04-21T07:04:32Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Warm and fuzzy nostalgia indeed! And @Spoons has a far better memory than me – I recall the jingle now that it’s been shoved in my scatter-brained face, but I never would have remembered it on my own! Thanks! I just remember it because when I was growing up in Toronto, you couldn’t get away from it. It was sung on radio ads on my parents’ favourite radio station (CFRB 1010 AM, as you might have guessed), and appeared as musical notes in newspaper ads. No other supermarket chain had as catchy a jingle as Dominion, as I recall. William Shatner may have shilled for Loblaw’s, where “More than the price is right,” but it wasn’t nearly as memorable or as long-lived as Dominion’s slogan and jingle that lasted for years. This is FQ, so maybe we should end this hijack about a supermarket. ---
**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:** [April 21, 2024, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/63 "2024-04-21T15:28:24Z")
It is probably not a good idea to change Canada’s motto to the Latin translation of “it’s mainly because of the meat”. But maybe it explains the fur trade. I had forgotten that slogan completely. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/64 "2024-04-21T16:10:15Z")
I think that would be _ **praesertim carnis causa** _, which isn’t quite as catchy as _ **a mari usque ad mare** _. You could go with _ **carnis castorumque causa** _, “because of the meat and the beavers,” though: it alliterates nicely with _Canada_. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/65 "2024-04-21T16:59:30Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > I thought they got the name from a guy drawing letters out of a bag and saying: “C - ay? N - ay?..” 😉 Thank you. This is what we said in 1989 when I was in 5th grade. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/66 "2024-04-21T18:28:48Z")
Canada’s motto (unofficial): Non sumus Americani. . (translation: We are NOT Americans) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/67 "2024-04-21T18:53:40Z")
Hey! Some of us are! And have decades of both CRA & IRS tax returns to prove it… ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/68 "2024-04-21T19:00:17Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > You could go with _ **carnis castorumque causa** _, “because of the meat and the beavers,” I don’t speak Latin but “carnis” is suggestive of “carnal”, so it might lead to the impression of the national motto being “because of carnality and the beavers”, which is probably not ideal. ---
**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:** [April 21, 2024, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/69 "2024-04-21T20:59:30Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Canada’s motto (unofficial): Non sumus Americani. Resisting two invasions by Americans, and having two provinces founded by political refugees from the U.S., will tend to do that. ---
**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:** [April 21, 2024, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/70 "2024-04-21T22:16:11Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > “because of carnality and the beavers”, which is probably not ideal. For a long time, the Hudson’s Bay Company had an in-house magazine, focussing on the history of the HBC and its role in the Canadian North-West. Because of their historical origins, they called it _The Beaver_. Eventually it was taken over by Canada’s History Society and upgraded to a good quality magazine. They kept the name. Until the internet, when they started getting complaints from schools that little Johnny and Jennie were getting some … unusual … results when they were doing on-line research for their history projects. Now it’s just _Canada’s History_. Dull and respectable title. Still good quality, comes out six times a year. Highly recommended for anyone interested in Canadian history. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/71 "2024-04-21T22:26:50Z")
Same thing happened to Beaver College, which was originally a women’s college to boot. Now it’s Arcadia University. > **[Arcadia University](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcadia_University?wprov=sfla1)** > > Arcadia University is a private university in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, with a Glenside mailing address. The university enrolls approximately 3,200 undergraduate, master's, and doctoral students. The 94-acre (380,000 m2) Glenside campus features Grey Towers Castle, a National Historic Landmark; the university also includes a campus in Christiana, Del., as well as several centers around the world. > The Arcadia University legacy begins in 1853, in Western Pennsylvania, when Sylvania Jones ... ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/72 "2024-04-21T23:07:11Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > national motto being “because of carnality and the beavers”, which is probably not ideal. Be thankful he forgot to mention the sheep. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/73 "2024-04-21T23:14:45Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > > [@dtilque](#): > > > > Canada’s motto (unofficial): Non sumus Americani. > > Resisting two invasions by Americans, and having two provinces founded by political refugees from the U.S., will tend to do that. Yeah, but I think that the rest of the world has trouble telling the difference is probably the biggest factor. And the worse the US’s reputation gets, the more that Canadians ascribe to the motto. ---
**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:** [April 21, 2024, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/74 "2024-04-21T23:17:03Z")
Thankfully, The Beaverton lives on. I note doing a Google for “beaver” that at least the first page of results seem highly appropriate. Perhaps that magazine should take the protective covers of their furniture legs and give less credence and attention to anguished cries and apocryphal concerns. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/75 "2024-04-21T23:26:24Z")
Either that or the schools should configure Google for “safe search” mode. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2024, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/76 "2024-04-22T20:55:02Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > > [@dtilque](#): > > > > Canada’s motto (unofficial): Non sumus Americani. > > Resisting two invasions by Americans, and having two provinces founded by political refugees from the U.S., will tend to do that. Canada: A luxury apartment over a meth lab. ---
**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:** [April 23, 2024, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/77 "2024-04-23T01:18:28Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > > [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > > > And by the way, have you folks down south not realised that Dominion Voting Systems is just one more example of the hidden in plain sight Canadian infiltration? > > You fiends! Who knows? If Giuliani and Powell had focused on this instead of dead Hugo Chávez, maybe they would have got some traction! ---
**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:** [April 24, 2024, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/78 "2024-04-24T03:23:50Z")
Now that would sound snazzy in Latin! Or not. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2024, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/79 "2024-04-24T03:35:13Z")
Well, Google Translate gives me this: “Canada: Luxuria diaetam super meth lab.” Guess they didn’t have meth labs in ancient Rome. ---
**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:** [April 24, 2024, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/80 "2024-04-24T03:38:51Z")
Well, not ordinary ones. Historian: Let’s just blame lead poisoning. No need to further corrupt the masses… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443.md?page=5)