10 amazing facts about Canada

1. At 9 984 670 sq km and comprised of 6 time zones, Canada is huge!

2. Canada is also home to the longest street in the world. Yonge Street in Ontario starts at Lake Ontario, and runs north through Ontario to the Minnesota border, a distance of almost 2000 kilometres.

3. While we’re talking ‘longest’, here’s another record: Canada has the world’s longest coastline at 202 080 km.

3. It’s thanks to a little bear from Canada called Winnipeg that A.A. Milne invented Winnie-the-Pooh for his son Christopher.

4. Actor Leslie Nielsen is Canadian and his brother Erik was theDeputy Prime Minister of Canada for two years, from 1984 to 1986.

Leslie and Erik Nielson, even when you become deputy Prime Minister you can still be upstaged by your brother wearing a

dress.

5. Canada basically got its name by mistake. When Jaques Cartier, a French explorer, came to the new world, he met with local Natives who invited them to their ‘kanata’ (the word for ‘village’. The party mistakenly thought the name of the country was “Kanata” or Canada.

6. Canada is home to about 55 000 different species of insects.7. Montreal is home to many beautiful churches and is often called

The City of Saints or City of a hundred bell towers8. Ontario is believed to be home to the world’s smallest jail, which

measures only 24.3 sq metres.9. The Hotel de Glace in Quebec is built every year using 400 tons of

ice and 12 000 tons of snow. Every summer it melts away and every winter it is rebuilt.

This ice hotel in Quebec is rebuilt every year to open for three months. It takes 50 workers a month and a half to construct.

10. Famous Canadians include Pamela Anderson, Avril Lavigne, Keanu Reeves and Jim Carrey.