What do you think of the Jeopardy contestants responses in this Canadian Cities category?

[An_Gadai]

@Leaffan

Beats me. You can read about the history on Wikipedia.

It’s a beautiful, quaint little town. Of course Ireland has hundreds of towns more quaint and beautiful, but Niagara-on-the-Lake is unique for Ontario.

I’ve been there, it is pretty nice.

[Ulf_the_Unwashed]

@Svejk_1

*one notable exception is that question about the Olympic velodrome, how can you not get that?

Actually I think a lot of people would legitimately not get that. It was easy for me as I follow the Olympics and was a teenager in '76, therefore paid a lot of attention to the Montreal Games. But if you were born in, say, 1984 and weren’t all that interested in the Olympics, I’m not sure you’d be able to identify Montreal as the city in question as opposed to say Toronto or Vancouver. Or to put it in my terms…were those Australian Olympics back in the fifties or early sixties, were they in Sydney or Melbourne? The Italian ones in Rome or Milan? They were before my time and reside in the folder called Ancient History, and I don’t think the answers are obvious.

[pulykamell]

I got one. I don’t think I’ve even heard of three of the other cities.

[Leaffan]

@Svejk_1

I got two and I live in Montreal. I think it’s a little pathetic that this is on CBC right now tbh. It’s pretty sad if you have to derive a sense of superiority from the fact that foreigners don’t know you’re unimportant cities* on the basis of somewhat cryptic clues. You can’t fault people for not realizing that the TCH starts on an island. The answers were bad though in that the military guy kept naming cities that weren’t in the right province.

*one notable exception is that question about the Olympic velodrome, how can you not get that?

I mostly agree with you, which is why I asked what other people thought of the clues/answers. But, this is Jeopardy, and what kind of lob balls should they have given the contestants?

“It’s a big city on Lake Ontario where the Blue Jays play!”
“It’s an island city in Quebec and home to Canada’s Formula One race!”

Nah, I think the questions were about the right level of competitiveness for Jeopardy. The military dude should have just kept quiet. He was clueless, placing Edmonton in Ontario, and Winnipeg in Saskatchewan.

[Svejk_1]

@Ulf_the_Unwashed

Actually I think a lot of people would legitimately not get that. It was easy for me as I follow the Olympics and was a teenager in '76, therefore paid a lot of attention to the Montreal Games. But if you were born in, say, 1984 and weren’t all that interested in the Olympics, I’m not sure you’d be able to identify Montreal as the city in question as opposed to say Toronto or Vancouver. Or to put it in my terms…were those Australian Olympics back in the fifties or early sixties, were they in Sydney or Melbourne? The Italian ones in Rome or Milan? They were before my time and reside in the folder called Ancient History, and I don’t think the answers are obvious.

True, true, it’s just that I mentioned living in MTL, and that I called those other cities ‘unimportant’. Saw what you want about MTL but it’s not unimportant

[Svejk_1]

@Leaffan

I mostly agree with you, which is why I asked what other people thought of the clues/answers. But, this is Jeopardy, and what kind of lob balls should they have given the contestants?

“It’s a big city on Lake Ontario where the Blue Jays play!”
“It’s an island city in Quebec and home to Canada’s Formula One race!”

Nah, I think the questions were about the right level of competitiveness for Jeopardy. The military dude should have just kept quiet. He was clueless, placing Edmonton in Ontario, and Winnipeg in Saskatchewan.

Agreed - it’s mostly noteworthy because of him. I guess what gets people is the combination of relatively unfamiliar places and the difficulty of the clues. For Victoria they could have gone with ‘capital of BC’, for instance

[Pixel_Dent]

Four out of five. I missed the first question. I guessed the Swan question correctly simply because I’d been to a play there and inferred the connection to the Avon river.

However I grew up in a border city listening to CBC Radio so I probably am more Canada aware than your average American.

[silenus]

4/5. I missed Banff. The rest were easy, especially the “Avon” one.

[borschevsky]

@Svejk_1

Agreed - it’s mostly noteworthy because of him.

Part of this was the game situation though, I think. This was the last category and he was in third place, so he was betting high and guessing at everything. The other contestants were content to stay with the totals they already had.

[Jackknifed_Juggernaut]

@That_Don_Guy

Better put this in a spoiler, so others can see the questions first:

I knew Montreal and Moose Jaw, and guessed Banff. I should have known Victoria, but of course I said Vancouver, and I don’t think I was alone in that. I would have never gotten Stratford.

Exactly what you said.

[Suburban_Plankton]

Native Californian here; I got 4 of 5.

I had no idea on Stratford (though I should probably have gotten it from the ‘Avon River’ clue). Banff was an educated guess, and I was certain of the other 3.

[OldGuy]

Similar to others I got 4/5 missing Stratford. Banff and Victoria were deductions/guesses rather than knowing.

[kenobi_65]

American. Got the final three. Annoyed with myself for missing the second one, as I’ve heard of the festival.

[Robot_Arm]

@Ulf_the_Unwashed

Actually I think a lot of people would legitimately not get that. It was easy for me as I follow the Olympics and was a teenager in '76, therefore paid a lot of attention to the Montreal Games. But if you were born in, say, 1984 and weren’t all that interested in the Olympics, I’m not sure you’d be able to identify Montreal as the city in question as opposed to say Toronto or Vancouver. Or to put it in my terms…were those Australian Olympics back in the fifties or early sixties, were they in Sydney or Melbourne? The Italian ones in Rome or Milan? They were before my time and reside in the folder called Ancient History, and I don’t think the answers are obvious.

I know all the Olympic host cities back to 1960. Whether I could remember them fast enough to ring in is another question.

[N9IWP]

Guessed Vancouver for the train one
Did not know there was a Stratford in Canada
Knew Banff, Montreal, and Moose Jaw

Brian

[Leaffan]

@Pixel_Dent

…
However I grew up in a border city listening to CBC Radio so I probably am more Canada aware than your average American.

And that’s the thing really. Most of the population of Canada is within a few hundred miles of the US border. We are force fed your culture whether we like it or not. It’s like drinking out of a fire hose.

It’s impossible not to learn about the US strictly by osmosis. You’d have to be brain dead to not know about states and capitals and politicians and foreign policy and celebrities and reality TV and sports and EVERYTHING. It’s the constant hum in the background all the time.

Whereas Canada is just a tiny neighbour with a similar culture and some strategic transplants into your music, TV, and movie culture that we tend to brag about. But we’re insignificant globally and I totally get that. We know more about you than you know about us.

Still, the questions were at a fair and competitive level for Jeopardy.

[Quint]

To be fair it is hard to get Victoria as the terminus of the trans Canada highway since a ferry is required to get there.

[Robot_Arm]

@Leaffan

Whereas Canada is just a tiny neighbour with a similar culture and some strategic transplants into your music, TV, and movie culture

…and game show hosts.

[Leaffan]

@Robot_Arm

…and game show hosts.

Hockey players too. I forgot about the hockey players…

[Northern_Piper]

@Quint

To be fair it is hard to get Victoria as the terminus of the trans Canada highway since a ferry is required to get there.

But you can take your car there by ferry. And the Trans-Canada starts on another island: Mile 0 is in front of the City Hall of St John’s, capital of Newfoundland and Labrador.