July 1 2017 is the 150th anniversary of the confederation of Canada. Congrats @Tideland Prius @Mendel Leisk and our other Canadian users. Old time Canadians remember this from the Canadian Centennial in 1967. The photo is from the World's Fair that year, Expo '67 in Montreal Canada.
i was up there on a camping trip as a child, the mosquito's were as big as birds! cheers to our northern neighbors!
Expo '67 coinciding with the centennial made that year much more special. There aren't any large events like that this year. We were only 4 provinces upon confederation - Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Sir John Alexander Macdonald was the first Prime Minister of Canada Canada is an anglicized spelling of the Iroquois name Kanata meaning village The "Last Spike" driven into the railroad that connected eastern and western Canada was at Craigellachie, B.C. in 1885. (cra-GAL-la-key) Speaking of connecting the country, at Nipigon, Ontario, there is a bridge (Nipigon Bridge) that is part of the Trans-Canada Highway. It is literally the single point that connects the two country (and was damaged last winter, effectively cutting off the two parts of the country) New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province St John's, Newfoundland is the foggiest and windiest city in Canada (where weather instruments exist). I think there's also an unwritten rule where your house can't be the same colour as your neighbours so you see colourful streets compared to other parts of Canada. Snag, Yukon recorded the lowest temperature in Canada (and North America) at -63°C, Feb 3, 1947 The name of the province comes from the Cree name for the Saskatchewan River, “Kisiskatchewanisipi” or “swift-flowing river.” Nunavut means "our land" in Inuktitut. It was formed on 1 April, 1999, separating itself from the Northwest Territories, forming Canada's 3rd territory. Nunavut has no road connection to the rest of Canada. Churchill, Manitoba is the polar bear capital of the world. It is situated in a migration route so polar bear sightings are frequent in town. (It too has no road connection to the rest of Canada. You can get there by plane or rail) Old Crow, Yukon is situated on the Porcupine River (along where the porcupine river cariboo herd migration route lies). It's nearly entirely Gwich'in speaking people (called the Vuntut Gwitchin). It's accessible by canoe via the Porcupine River (if you start near Eagle Plains) or by air. IIRC, it's the smallest airport that has accepted a Boeing 747 (may need to fact check that). By next summer, one can finally drive to the Arctic Ocean year-round as a permanent road from Inuvik, NWT (in-NOO-vik) to Tuktoyaktuk, NWT (tuck-toy-YAK-took) will be completed. There are two places on the map where the U.S. territory is cut off from the mainland and where Canadian territory is connected by land via the U.S. only. Point Roberts, WA is a small peninsula that is south of the 49th parallel where U.S. residents must cross into Canada to get to the rest of Washington state. Similarly, Campobello Island, New Brunswick residents must cross into Maine if they wish to drive via land routes into Canada (The other option without crossing the international border is to take two ferries to the "mainland") We produce something like 80% of the world's maple syrup (2015 stats). Quebec produces 90% of the country's maple syrup. U.S., Japan and Germany receive the majority of our production. Ontario is the world's leading producer of icewine.
I think the time zone for Newfoundland is the only one that is a half hour different than its neighbors.
That is correct. The timezone map also gets wonky up in the Arctic. No idea why they just didn't draw a straight line up the longitude to the North Pole. There is also French territory just off the coast of Newfoundland
Give me Tim Horton's coffee and doughnuts along with Laura Secord chocolates. I am not so sure about beaver tails and poutine though. They happened after I left Canada.
in 1985 I worked on a dialup communication program for American Honda, In 1986 I wrote a similar program for Honda Canada that used their nationwide x.25 network, DATAPAC. In 1987 I spent the year in Toronto providing support and helping translate the user interface into French (the programmers spoke 11 languages, none of which was French) Oddly our users only wanted it to PRINT French, they wanted the onscreen prompts in English (Quebec required legal paperwork in French). While I grew up near Vancouver BC (Bellingham WA) and vacationed in Victoria, I only ever lived in (suburban) Toronto, Markam. I was employed in the US for 14 years by a Canadian firm (Barrick Gold) Last year I vacationed at Vancouver, St Johns and Halifax. For a US citizen, I am alert to Canadian Culture, I have been Curling! I watched Red Green! I have been to a Doug and the Slugs concert! (That will date me)
Many years ago I taught a class in Toronto and is my practice, opened it with a joke. In my most Southern accents: "Do you'all know why you have to convert to dollars in the US but tourists pay in dollars in Canada?" The room became QUIET. "Because Yankees are too dumb to convert currency." And the room relaxed. Switching voices to 'Bob' we had a great class. Many years before when Dad and Mom drove five boys to Maine via Quebec, we pulled off to a one pump shop to get gas. Everyone wanted an ice cream but,"Ne parle Anglaise." So I switched to my three years of Oklahoma francaise and after they stopped giggling, their English improved and we got ice cream. It was summer and I still remember the knock down sexy girls walking down the road. Bob Wilson
I was in Toronto at a low point in currency exchange ( $1Cdn = $0.62 USD) I was earning $35,000 USD but my check was $55,000 CDN. My next employer, in NV, offered to match my previous salary and I went from a contractor (no benefits) at $55,000 CDN to an employee at $55,000 USD. Best salary match ever! And yes, my employer was Canadian and should have known better.
Let's compare 50 years of progress. Canada & US were both beginning their conversions to the metric system. Can dad is now totally metric except for a few cases. I understand cars economy is still advertised in MPG (Imperial) in addition to metric. They still buy 2 x 4 lumber for building. I believe the US tour down all the early metric road signs. In both Canada & US, the smallest paper currency was the dollar, but Canada also had a 2 dollar bill. Since then, both bills have been replacesd by coins, including the new 2 dollar one that glows in the dark. The US still has 1 dollar paper. Both countries had a 1 cent coin. Canada has since retired their penny, rounding prices to the nearest nickel. The US still counts their pennies.
