The Edmontonians on this board are going to let you have it for this one.
Iqualuit
Well, if it makes you feel better, we only chose Ottawa as our capital so that we could be smug when an American guessed that Toronto was the capital.
I thought it was because Stompin’ Tom Connors did a song about the Rideau Canal.
Isn’t it Mooseport or Mooseburg? Something like that.
Less than 90% of Americans (and I’d wager it’s much less) can’t identify all six New England states, and it’s in our own damn country. Neither New York nor New Jersey (or hey, New Mexico) are in New England, Dumbasses.
As for Canada, I was pretty sure it was Ottawa. Toronto would have been my next guess, but it seemed too well known for that to be true.
I can. I damn well better be able to. It was on my final Geography exam in 11th grade and I aced that sucker. 
Would you believe that every Australian I’ve ever met, including but not limited to my relatives, is from that mystical place? I think that’s it’s really just a dumping ground for a time portal from the future to deal with overpopulation…
No more than 41%*
In 2002 Roper and National Geographic looked at Geographic illiteracy in 18-24 year olds in a number of Countries, including the U.S. and Canada, using 56 geography questions.
On average answering circa 70% of the questions correctly were young adults in order:
Sweden (71%), Germany(68%) and Italy (68%)
Followed by France (61%) Japan (55%) Great Britain (50%) Canada (48%) the U.S. (41%) and Mexico(38%).
I submit that on a World Wide comparison level there really isn’t much difference between Canadians and US’ers as far as geographical knowledge. Some, but really not much (Blasphemy! Flame On! Grab Your Torches!).
*To the OP:
Since 11% of Americans can’t find the U.S. on a map, and 41% seem relatively geographically literate: What % of Americans can name the capital of Canada?
No more than 41%
Well, shit, I didn’t know the capital of Canada, and I never realized it until this thread. Now I feel like a dumbfuck.
And once again I’m surprised - I didn’t know there was a Honda plant in PEI.
I kid, really - I’ve heard of the Charlottetown Accord although I have no idea what was agreed to.
About a year ago, I was wondering what the capital of Ontario was, Ottawa or Toronto, so I looked up the official Ontario website, and…it was surprisingly hard to find that information! Lots and lots and lots of stuff about how Ottawa was the federal capital, but it took me at least ten minutes to figure out that it was, indeed, Toronto. Kinda odd.
Spelled Iqaluit
Nunavut, where U doesn’t necessarily follow Q (in fact, it usually doesn’t).
Whitehorse is the capital of Yukon.
Why is Yukon Territory and Territory of Nunavut singular, however Northwest Territories are plural?
qwest, reporting this evening from Yellowknife, capital of Northwest Territories.
Bill Bryson has some hilarious things to say about Canberra, in his book on traveling in Australia. Apparently it’s oddly suburban and boring. He spent some time inventing fun tourist slogans, like “Canberra- There’s Nothing To It!”, and “Canberra- Why Wait For Death?”.
jimmmy, thank you for your factual response. There’s some interesting stuff in the full survey (warning, pdf): http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geosurvey/download/RoperSurvey.pdf
I postulate that more Americans can find the location of Missouri or New Jersery on a map than can name Ottawa as Canada’s capital. Since only 30% of Americans could locate Missouri and New Jersey, I think we can say that no more than 30% is the answer to the OP.
In reality, I’m going to guess it’s somewhere between 5% and 15%.
I knew it was Ottawa.
Of course, my mom and my grandpa were born there. And I’ve been to visit there seven times. And I want to move there someday. So I might be a special case.
I knew it.
But only when it started to become a recurring question in the crossword.
I assume that’s all articles; I wonder what the ratio is for headlines.
The times I’ve been to Canada, it certainly feels like there’s an awful lot of attention paid to the goings-on in the US, based on the newspaper and magazine headlines. And I know for a fact that the show put on in the late summer of 2004 by the Second City Comedy Club of Toronto had faaaar more references to the US than Canada – I got annoyed midway through the show and started keeping track. It was something like 5 to 1. And this, in the capital of Anglophone Canadian culture! I can only hope they were putting it on for us tourists. Still, funny show…
Easy – it’s the one where, if you roll up the bottom third, you can see the profile of two angry guys butting heads. “John” and “Jacques,” the two solitudes personified. Cute story, huh? I assumed every Canadian would have heard it, but I mentioned it to a Canuck aquaintance once, and it was new to him.
“C” is the capital in Canada
As for DC being more newsworthy than Ottawa: Given that all of the recent wars (anyone on this continent seems to care about) have been tied directly back to DC, it was a very fair assumption. Name me the last country Canada invaded.
Afghanistan