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10 things you didn’t know about Canada
1. More Snakes in Winnipeg Than Anywhere Else – Just 130-km north of Winnipeg is the Narcisse Snake Dens conversation area, where each spring, tens of thousands of red-sided garter snakes slither out from their dens for a few weeks from mid-April to early May.
2. Secret Underground Laboratory in Sudbury, Ont. – Canada is at the forefront in the international search for new forces and forms of matter thanks to SNOLAB. Designed for the study of neutrino and dark matter physics, it’s the deepest clean laboratory in the world dedicated to this type of work.
3. McGill put the Green in Greenbacks – We’ve taken a lot of jabs from the U.S. for our Monopoly-coloured Canadian currency, but what most don’t realize is the green ink used for American money was invented at McGill University in Montreal, in 1857, by Thomas Sterry Hunt.
4. Harvest Icebergs in Labrador and Newfoundland – Every spring, massive islands of ice broken off of glaciers in Greenland parade through ‘Iceberg Alley’, past the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland. Entrepreneurs are harvesting chunks of these cool marvels for some pretty unique products, including wine, vodka, beer, and even skincare products.
5. Built a UFO Landing Pad in St. Paul, Alta – One of Canada’s most unique Centennial projects in 1967 was the building of the world’s first UFO Landing Pad in St. Paul, Alberta. The town provided the land, and local businesses provided building supplies and labour for the raised cement pad.
6. We Have the World’s Safest Highways (for Animals) – There are million-dollar highway overpasses in Banff National Park which have been used by grizzly and black bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars, moose, elk, deer, bighorn sheep, wolverine and lynx. By 2014, there will be 38 wildlife underpasses and six overpasses from Banff National Park’s east entrance to the border of Yoho National Park.
7. Alberta has a National Park Larger Than Switzerland – Wood Buffalo National Park straddles the border of Northern Alberta and southern Northwest Territories. It was created in 1922 to protect the world’s largest herd of roaming Wood Bison, and the park is also home to the last known nesting site of whooping cranes.
8. Vancouver Island is Home To an Annual Bathtub Race – It’s a crazy competition that started as Nanaimo’s Centennial event in 1967. The first year close to 200 ‘tubbers’ raced a 36-mile course in converted bathtubs – 48 finished. Today, the high-performance “bathtubs” cover the 90-minute course the last weekend of July, as part of the weekend-long Nanaimo Marine Festival, which includes a Bathtub Parade. 2013’s race day is July 28.
9. Buffalo Was Almost a Province – The province of Buffalo proposal was spearheaded in the early 1900’s by Sir Frederick Haultain, who was the first Premier of the Northwest Territories. His proposal failed to sway Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier, and in 1905 the section of N.W.T. was divided via a north-south line, creating Alberta and Saskatchewan in the process.
10. We Speak on Behalf of Santa Claus – It’s thanks to thousands of kind Canadians that kids around the world get answers to their letters and emails to Santa each year. Canada Post volunteers have answered more than 1 million letters in 30 languages (including braille). They ask that you don’t include cookies, but do include the postal code: HOH OHO.
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