“Canada” (CC BY 2.0) by kevin dooley
Bring to mind the facts that you know about Canada and they’re probably the most obvious ones – the Mounties always get their man, it’s the world’s biggest single producer of maple syrup and there’s a crazy mix of both imperial and metric measurements. But, as you might expect from the second-largest country in the world (after Russia), there are a whole different set of facts that are less well known.
It has the world’s longest coastline
At 202,080km or 125.567 miles, Canada’s coastline is longer than any other country’s in the world. So long, in fact, that if you decided that you were going to walk all the way around it and set off today you’d still be walking in four and a half years’ time. What’s more, you will have walked past the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific Oceans along the way.
It’s been as cold as Mars
“Mars – Crater” (Public Domain) by mariagatmariagat
Anyone who’s been to Canada in the winter will know that it can get pretty seriously chilly – Ottawa’s average temperature in January is a little over -14°C. But back in 1947 the settlement of Snag, deep in the Yukon hit an all-time low of -63°C, around the same temperature you’d experience on one of the warmer days on Mars.
It’s a casino lover’s paradise
Cities like Las Vegas and Macau might be the high-profile casino centers but Canadians love to try their luck too. Right now, a huge new 330,000 sq.ft. casino is nearing completion in the center of Toronto and you only have to go online and browse site after site to see that there are numerous generous offers and bonuses available to encourage Canadians to enjoy their favorite games on the internet too.
You could fit whole countries into its national parks
Just as the cold is taken to extremes, so are the wide, open spaces. So, if you wanted to fit either Switzerland or Denmark in Alberta’s Wood Buffalo National Park you could, with ease. Alternatively, either Israel or Albania would fit very snugly in the Northwest Territories’ Nahanni National Park Reserve. It’s also the country where you’ll find 10% of all the world’s forests and nearly 20% of its fresh water in over 30,000 lakes including 560 of them that are bigger than 100 sq. km.
It’s where the Hawaiian pizza was invented
“Athena Pizza – Hawaiian Pizza” (CC BY 2.0) by elsie.hui
It’s unlikely but it’s true. The lasting legacy of the restaurateur Sam Panapoulos, who sadly passed away in 2017, was the pizza that tends to divide the population in equal measures. It came about because he and his brothers were looking for something different for their Ontario restaurant and thought the sweet and savory contrast would be popular. The pizza was named after the brand of tinned pineapple they were using – and the rest is history!
As you’d expect, there are a million and one other interesting facts about Canada and we’ll leave you with one of the most surprising. Did you know that the familiar Canadian interjection “eh” has even earned a place in the country’s official dictionary?