Canada – General Quiz

1.What is Canada's total area?

Canada`s total area is 9.985.000 km².

2. How long is the Canada-United States border?

The Canada–United States border is the world’s longest international boundary. The boundary
stretches for 5,525 miles (8,891 km) from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean to the west.
It cuts across lakes, forests, glaciers, and towns. There are 13 US state that border Canada. (1)

3. Which part of Canada juts deeply into the heartland of the United States, its southernmost point,
Pelee Island, being south of 11 states of the United States?

4. How much of Canada's population lives in urban centres?

In 2017, 81.35 percent of the total population in Canada lived in cities. (2)

5. What influence does education in Canada reflect?

According to Rodney Clifton, Canada is the "only country without a national office of education:
all other nations, including all other federated nations, have national offices of education that coordinate
and/or administer various aspects of their educational system" (p. 7). While there are many similarities
among Canada's systems of education, they have each developed in unique ways. These systems are
profoundly influenced by the distribution of the population of 31 million across the vast country, which
covers four and one-half time zones. More than 80 percent of Canadians live in urban centers within 100
miles of the border with the United States.

6. How many of Quebec's people have French as their primary language?

Canadian society has developed as a mosaic of peoples, beginning with aboriginal populations
and then followed by French, British, and other European settlement. Canada has two official languages:
English is the mother tongue of 61 percent of the population, and French is the mother tongue of 26
percent. Most French speakers live in Quebec, where they make up 82 percent of the population, but
there are also many French speakers in New Brunswick, Ontario, and Manitoba. Education is available in
both official languages, but to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the region. In the last two
decades of the twentieth century, immigrants from all parts of the world were attracted to Canada, with
the largest proportion coming from Asia.
7. What is the French influence apparent in in Canada?

The name “Canada” likely comes from the Huron-Iroquois word “kanata,” meaning “village” or
“settlement.” In 1535, two Aboriginal youths told French explorer Jacques Cartier about the route to
kanata; they were actually referring to the village of Stadacona, the site of the present-day City of
Québec. For lack of another name, Cartier used the word “Canada” to describe not only the village, but
the entire area controlled by its chief, Donnacona.

8. What is the word Canada a derivation of?

The name was soon applied to a much larger area; maps in 1547 designated everything north of
the St. Lawrence River as Canada. Cartier also called the St. Lawrence River the “rivière du Canada,” a
name used until the early 1600s. By 1616, although the entire region was known as New France, the area
along the great river of Canada and the Gulf of St. Lawrence was still called Canada

9. Who used the name Canada to refer to the area around the settlement which is now Quebec city?

Jacques Cartier, a French explorer, was the first European to ascend the St. Lawrence Gulf,
claiming "Canada" for France (and the coming addition of a newly founded "Acadie" – known today as
the Province of Nova Scotia) to create a dominion known as New France. Cartier and his crew first visited
in the 1535 a Iroquois settlement of 500 persons called Stadacona, in a site located in present-day
Quebec City. He came back in 1541 with some 400 persons to establish Fort Charlesbourg-Royal, the
earliest known French settlement in North America (whose site is located in the former town of Cap-
Rouge, which merged into Quebec City in 2002). The fort was abandoned a year later in large part due to
the hostility of the natives combined with the harsh winter.

10. What was the name New France used for?

New France (French: Nouvelle-France), also sometimes known as the French North American
Empire or Royal New France, was the area colonized by France in America, beginning with the
exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New
France to Great Britain and Spain in 1763 under the Treaty of Paris (1763).

11. When was the name Quebec used instead of Canada?

12. What 1867 Act created a confederation of colonies called the Dominion of Canada?

The Proclamation of Queen Victoria.

13. What parts of Canada are referred to as the North?

Northern Canada, colloquially the North, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously
defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to three territories of Canada: Yukon,
Northwest Territories, and Nunavut.
14. Which part of Canada remains one of the least settled and least exploited parts of the world?

Northen Canada.

15. What is the Canadian Shield centred about?

It`s centered about Hudson Bay.

16. Canada's highest peak, Mount Logan, in the St. Elias Mountains of southwestern Yukon Territory,
rises to what height?

Canada's highest peak, Mount Logan has an altitude of 5.959 m.

17. How much of the world's supply of fresh water does Canada have, in percentage?

Canada has 7% of the world's renewable fresh water. Aug 13, 2018.

18. How much of Canada's total area is covered by lakes and wetlands? How much of Canada's land area
is covered with forest?

Nearly 9% of the total area of Canada is covered by freshwater including lakes, rivers, and
glaciers. The country is known for its abundance of fresh water. 31,752 of lakes in the country are
greater than 3 square km in size. 561 of these lakes have a surface area that is more than 10 square
km.Jun 4, 2019.

19. What drainage basin is dominated by Canada's longest river, the Mackenzie River, which flows 2,635
miles from its source to its mouth and, with its many tributaries, drains 690,000 square miles?

The Arctic drainage basin.

20. What two factors limit the usefulness of Canadian rivers?

The water of even the healthiest rivers and lakes is not absolutely pure. All water (even if it is
distilled) contains many naturally occurring substances -- mainly bicarbonates, sulphates, sodium,
chlorides, calcium, magnesium, and potassium. Many factors affect water quality. Substances present in
the air affect rainfall. Dust, volcanic gases, and natural gases in the air, such as carbon dioxide, oxygen,
and nitrogen, are all dissolved or entrapped in rain. When other substances such as sulphur dioxide, toxic
chemicals, or lead are in the air, they are also collected in the rain as it falls to the ground.

Rain reaches the earth's surface and, as runoff, flows over and through the soil and rocks, dissolving and
picking up other substances. For instance, if the soils contain high amounts of soluble substances, such as
limestone, the runoff will have high concentrations of calcium carbonate. Where the water flows over
rocks high in metals, such as ore bodies, it will dissolve those metals. In the Canadian Shield, there are
large areas with little soil and few soluble minerals. Consequently, the rivers and lakes in these areas
have very low concentrations of dissolved substances.
Another factor influencing water quality is the runoff from urban areas. It will collect debris littering the
streets and take it to the receiving stream or water body. Urban runoff worsens the water quality in
rivers and lakes by increasing the concentrations of such substances as nutrients (phosphorus and
nitrogen), sediments, animal wastes (fecal coliform and pathogens), petroleum products, and road salts.

Industrial, farming, mining, and forestry activities also significantly affect the quality of Canadian rivers,
lakes, and groundwater. For example, farming can increase the concentration of nutrients, pesticides,
and suspended sediments. Industrial activities can increase concentrations of metals and toxic chemicals,
add suspended sediment, increase temperature, and lower dissolved oxygen in the water. Each of these
effects can have a negative impact on the aquatic ecosystem and/or make water unsuitable for
established or potential uses.

21. Which is the only part of Canada that does not have a winter season with average temperatures
below freezing and with contin For warm winter weather, no major city east of the Rocky Mountains
comes close to the balmy climate enjoyed by the three large cities in southwestern British Columbia:
Victoria, Vancouver and Abbotsford. uous snow cover?

22. Which was the lowest and which was the highest temperature ever recorded in Canada?

The coldest place in Canada based on average yearly temperature is Eureka, Nunavut, where the
temperature averages at −19.7 °C or −3.5 °F for the year. However, the coldest temperature ever
recorded in Canada was −63 °C or −81.4 °F in Snag, Yukon.

The highest temperature officially recorded in Canada is 45 °C (113 °F) on July 5, 1937 at Midale
and at Yellow Grass, two small towns in southeastern Saskatchewan. The Canadian high sits far below
North America's all-time maximum temperature of 56.7 °C (134 °F) recorded in Death Valley, California
on July 10, 1913.

23. Who, in Canada, as they fish, hunt, and trap for a living, are directly affected by abuses of the
ecology?

The Inuit.

24. Which are the distinctive animals of the tundra, the land type of the Arctic and subarctic regions?

The distinctive animals of the tundra are seals and polar bears, the latter feeding on seals, and
musk oxen, buffaloes, caribou, arctic hares, and lemmings, which feed on the tundra vegetation and are
prey for wolves and white Arctic foxes. Few birds make the tundra their year-round habitat, great snowy
owls and ptarmigan being exceptions. Numerous birds that normally live in mild climates, however,
often fly to the tundra for nesting. Two large birds that do this are the snow goose and the Canada
goose.

25. Where may bison, which are often called buffaloes and were encountered by the first settlers to
cross the Canadian prairies in enormous herds, be seen today?
 In Canada, they can be found in parts of British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Alberta,
Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.

26. What are the reasons why the native peoples of Canada made little impact on the natural
environment?

Because of their simple and harmonic life connected to the nature, and because of the lack of
industrial technology.

27. What did Europeans go to Canada to develop and export?

The earliest European settlements in Canada were the fisheries of the East Coast, especially the
Grand Banks off Newfoundland. Boats from France, Portugal, Spain, and Great Britain would traverse the
Atlantic, fish for a summer and then return laden with fish. The trade was originally dominated by fishers
from southern Europe. In Catholic countries, demand for fish was much greater. It was from the
northern nations of Britain and France that the first settlers came, however. Spain, Portugal and the
south of France had abundant supplies of salt because in the warm climates it was a simple matter to
evaporate seawater. They would thus bring barrels of salt with them to the fishing grounds, salt the fish
aboard ship, and return to Europe never having touched land. In the colder and wetter climate of the
British Isles and northern France, salt was in scarce supply. To preserve the fish, they were dried by
hanging them on large fish racks on the coast of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. These drying stations
were active for months of the year, and eventually permanent settlements grew up around them. These
small settlements totalled only a few thousand people, but they were many of the first European arrivals
in North America. Canada's economic development in colonial times was based on the economic policy
of mercantilism. This economic idea sought to derive the maximum material benefit from the colony, for
the homeland, with a minimum of imperial investment in the colony itself. The ideology was embodied
in New France through the establishment under Royal Charter of a number of corporate trading
monopolies including La Compagnie des Marchands, which operated from 1613 to 1621 and the
Compagnie de Montmorency, from that date until 1627. It was in turn replaced by La Compagnie des
Cent-Associés created in 1627, by the King of France, Louis XIII and the Communauté des habitants in
1643. These were the first corporations to operate in what is now Canada. Canadian Economy (beyond
the level of subsistence farming) was primarily based on exports of a series of staples—fish, fur, timber,
wheat—that shipped to Britain and the British Empire. Industrialization came much later.

28. Within a narrow strip of land along the U.S.-Canada border, making up about 10 percent of the total
national area, live some 90 percent of the people. Why?

29. How many Canadians descend from one of the two founding nations, Britain and France?

In the 2016 Census, 3.2 per cent of Canadians listed English as their single ethnic origin (or
1,090,930) and a further 15.1 per cent (5,221,150 people) listed English as one of their ethnic origins.
30. Why was there more movement of Canadians to the United States than Americans to Canada during
the 19th and 20th centuries?

31. How many Indians and Inuit are estimated to have been in what is now Canada when Europeans
began settling it?

An estimated 200,000 Indians (First Nations) and Inuit were living in what is now Canada when
Europeans began to settle there in the 16th century. For the next 200 years the native population
declined, largely as a result of European territorial encroachment and the diseases that the settlers
brought.

32. According to the legal definition given in the Indian Act of 1876, what are people legally defined as
Indians known as?

Legal definition given in the Indian Act of 1876. People legally defined as Indians are known as
status Indians. Indians who have chosen to give up their status rights or who have lost them through
intermarriage with those of European ancestry are called nonstatus Indians. Not all people who self-
identify as "Aboriginal" are considered "Indians" under the terms of the act. Only those on the official
Indian Register maintained by the federal government (or a local "band list" in some cases) are Status
Indians, subject to the full legal benefits and restrictions of the Act.The Indian Act pertains only to First
Nations peoples, not to the Métis or Inuit.

33. How many reserves are there in Canada and how many status-Indian bands occupy them?

According to Statistics Canada in 2011, there are more than 600 First Nations/Indian bands in
Canada and 3,100 Indian reserves across Canada. Examples include the Sturgeon Lake First Nation, which
like many bands, has only one reserve, Sturgeon Lake Indian Reserve No. 101.

34. The Inuit, whose estimated population of more than 27,000 live in scattered camps and settlements
of 25 to 500 people, have become increasingly dependent upon government social and welfare
programs. Why?

35. What is the linguistic composition in Canada?

A multitude of languages are used in Canada. According to the 2011 census, English and French
are the mother tongues of 56.9% and 21.3% of Canadians respectively. In total 85.6% of Canadians have
working knowledge of English while 30.1% have a working knowledge of French. Under the Official
Languages Act of 1969, both English and French have official federal status throughout Canada, in
respect of all government services, including the courts, and all federal legislation is enacted bilingually.
New Brunswick is the only Canadian province that has both English and French as its official languages to
the same extent, with constitutional entrenchment. Quebec's official language is French, although, in
that province, the Constitution requires that all legislation be enacted in both French and English, and
court proceedings may be conducted in either language. Similar constitutional protections are in place in
Manitoba. Canada's Official Languages Commissioner (the federal government official charged with
monitoring the two languages) has stated, "[I]n the same way that race is at the core of what it means to
be American and at the core of an American experience and class is at the core of British experience, I
think that language is at the core of Canadian experience."

To assist in more accurately monitoring the two official languages, Canada's census collects a number of
demolinguistic descriptors not enumerated in the censuses of most other countries, including home
language, mother tongue, first official language and language of work. Canada's linguistic diversity
extends beyond the two official languages. "In Canada, 4.7 million people (14.2% of the population)
reported speaking a language other than English or French most often at home and 1.9 million people
(5.8%) reported speaking such a language on a regular basis as a second language (in addition to their
main home language, English or French). In all, 20.0% of Canada's population reported speaking a
language other than English or French at home. For roughly 6.4 million people, the other language was
an immigrant language, spoken most often or on a regular basis at home, alone or together with English
or French whereas for more than 213,000 people, the other language was an Aboriginal language.
Finally, the number of people reporting sign languages as the languages spoken at home was nearly
25,000 people (15,000 most often and 9,800 on a regular basis).

36. What church do most Canadians claim affiliation with?

Religion in Canada encompasses a wide range of groups and beliefs. Christianity is the largest
religion in Canada, with Roman Catholics having the most adherents. Christians, representing 67.3% of
the population in 2011, are followed by people having no religion with 23.9% of the total population.
Other faiths include Muslims (3.2%), Hindus (1.5%), Sikhs (1.4%), Buddhists (1.1%), and Jews (1.0%).
Rates of religious adherence are steadily decreasing. The preamble to the Canadian Charter of Rights
and Freedoms refers to God. The monarch carries the title of "Defender of the Faith". However, Canada
has no official religion, and support for religious pluralism and freedom of religion is an important part of
Canada's political culture.

37. Which was the peak year of immigration in Canada in the 20th century?

Population fluctuations

Record numbers of immigrants were admitted in the early 1900s when Canada was promoting the
settlement of Western Canada. The highest number ever recorded was in 1913, when more than
400,000 immigrants arrived in the country. Other record levels of immigration have been registered
during political and humanitarian crises, including in 1956 and 1957, when 37,500 Hungarian refugees
arrived in the country, and in the 1970s and 1980s, when a large number of Ugandan, Chilean,
Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian refugees came to Canada.

Since the early 1990s, the number of landed immigrants has remained relatively high, with an average of
approximately 235,000 new immigrants per year.

The population of immigrants born in European countries other than those of the British Isles started to
increase in the late 1800s, slowly at first and then more rapidly, peaking in the 1970s. This
transformation consisted of three major waves. The first wave began in the late 1800s and early 1900s,
with the arrival of new groups of immigrants from Eastern Europe (Russians, Polish and Ukrainians),
Western Europe and Scandinavia.

A second immigration boom following World War II continued to favour immigration from the British
Isles, but a significant number of immigrants also arrived from Western Europe (Germany and the
Netherlands) and Southern Europe (Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia and Portugal) from the 1950s to the 1970s.
At the time of the 1971 Census, 28.3% of immigrants were born in the United Kingdom and 51.4% were
born in another European country. Lastly, Canada admitted immigrants from Eastern Europe (including
the Russian Federation and former Soviet republics, Poland and Romania) in the 1980s and 1990s,
following political changes in Communist bloc countries, including the fall of the Berlin Wall and the
breakup of the Soviet Union.

38. Whereas Canada's immigration policy is nondiscriminatory regarding ethnicity, some individuals are
given preference. Who are they? [Those with special talents or with capital to invest.]

39. Which was the major factor in Canada's population growth during the 20th century?

By the first two decades of the 20th century, it had rebounded, embarking on a long-term
trajectory of growth. The reasons for this growth included high fertility rates and declining death rates,
both of which were brought on by gradual socio-economic improvements.

40. For many years Canada encouraged its manufacturing industries through protective tariffs on the
import of manufactured goods. What was another cornerstone of Canada's economic policy before
compliance with international rules on trade and the signing of a free-trade agreement with the United
States (1988) reduced protection for the manufacturing industry?

41. In 1977 Canada established a fishing zone along both coasts, Atlantic and Pacific, to give the country
more control over the management of its ocean fish resources. How wide is it?

42. Canada has about 15 percent of the world's total installed hydroelectric generating capacity. Most of
Canada's suitable hydroelectric sites have already been developed, except where?

43. What does Canada's forest industry has to struggle constantly against?

Canada's forest industry has to struggle constantly against the threats of fire, insects, and
disease. Some control of insects has been achieved through the aerial spraying of insecticides, but this
practice also eradicates insect-eating birds and predator insects.

44. Canada catches only a very small percentage of the fish taken from the world's oceans, but it ranks
first among countries in volume of fish exports. How come?

45. What can mine closings result in in Canadian single- industry communities?

46. What industries in Canada employ more people than all other industries combined?
 Canada's 3 Major Industries

Canada has a GDP of $1.6trillion ranking 10th nominally and 15th by PPP. Canada has a GDP growth rate
of an estimated 0.5% which is projected to grow to 2.2%. The GDP per capita in 2014 was $56100 ranking
10th nominally and 9th by PPP. Services contribute 69.8% to the GDP followed by industry at 28.5% and
agriculture at 1.7%. Canada has an unemployment rate of 6.6%, an inflation of 1% and 12.9% of the
population live below poverty line.

The Canadian labor force is estimated to be 19 million people. The labor force per sector is estimated as
follows: services with 76%, manufacturing 13%, construction 6%, agriculture 2%, and others make up 3%
of the labor force. Canada has a public debt of $582 CAD which is 33.8% of the GDP. The revenues are
estimated at $682.5 billion against expenses of about $750 billion. Canada has an estimated $65.82
billion in foreign reserves and donates an estimated $4.1 billion.

Industry, in its broadest sense, includes all economic activity, but for convenience commentators
divide it into three sectors: primary, secondary and tertiary. Primary manufacturing involves harvesting
natural resources; secondary, manufacturing; and tertiary, the service industries. All these elements
make up Canada's industrial system, which has become increasingly complex over time. Canada is
considered a “developed” country in that it has, as part of its economy, a developed industrial base. (See
also Economic History; Regionalism; Regional Economics; Technology.) The result of these dramatic
changes was a sharp decline in manufacturing in the 2000s, and a return to export-oriented natural
resource extraction as the main basis of the Canadian economy. These themes intensified following the
Great Recession of 2008, led by a financial crisis in the United States (one which Canada mostly avoided).
Nonetheless, after 2008, industrial jobs decreased significantly as manufacturing facilities closed or
moved to the southern US or Mexico, particularly in the Ontario-dominated automotive assembly and
parts industries. Technology and manufacturing firms such as Nortel and BlackBerry also closed or
downsized. The oil and gas industry, which had focused on the development of the Alberta oil sands
deposits, especially since the 1990s, faced difficulties as the price of oil declined to unprofitable levels
and oil pipelines, such as the Keystone XL, were delayed or rejected.Overall, the growth in the service
economy has increased significantly, and is the largest segment of economic output. In addition,
information technology, financial services, retail and foodservice have all become key aspects of the
tertiary industrial sector.

47. How many stock exchanges does Canada have?

In total there are 3,985 companies listed on the exchanges, 1,561 on the TSX and 2,424 on the
TSXV. It's the TSX where you'll find Canada's most well-known companies, like Research in Motion and
Suncor Energy.

48. The 1988 free-trade pact between Canada and the United States enhanced the volume of trade
between the two countries. How much of Canada's foreign trade was with the United States in the late
1980s?
49. The Trans-Canada Highway was opened officially in 1962; that made it possible to drive the entire
length of the 4,860-mile route from St. John's, Nfd., to where?

50. Which is the busiest Canadian airport?

Busiest airport in Canada

Since 2010, Toronto-Pearson and Vancouver International have been the two busiest airports by both
passengers served and aircraft movements.

51. Canada is an independent federal parliamentary state, the head of which is the reigning monarch of
which country?

52. How many provinces and territories does Canada consist today?

Today, Canada includes ten provinces and three territories. Most of the acts that established the
provinces and territories of the Canadian federation, are acts of the British Parliament, as the federal
union in 1867 did not mark Canada's independence from Great Britain.

53. Many of the rules and procedures of the Canadian Parliament are not laid down in the Constitution
Act but are established by what?

54. What safeguards the preservation of both the English and French languages in Canada?

55. When the constitution was patriated to Canada in 1982, it was amended to include a Charter of
Rights and Freedoms. Which was the only province that did not approve the constitution?

56. Who appoints the personal representative of the crown in Canada, the governor-general?

The Governor General of Canada (French: Gouverneure générale du Canada) is the federal
viceregal representative of the Canadian monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II.

57. Who becomes the prime-minister in Canada?

The prime minister of Canada (French: premier ministre du Canada) is the primary Minister of
the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and Canada's head of government. The current, and 23rd, prime
minister of Canada is the Liberal Party's Justin Trudeau, following the 2019 Canadian federal election.

58. How many major national political parties are there in Canada?

The two dominant political parties in Canada have historically been the Liberal Party of Canada
and the Conservative Party of Canada (or its predecessors) however, the social democratic New
Democratic Party (NDP) has risen to prominence and even threatened to upset the two other established
parties during the 2011.
59. All judges, except police magistrates and judges of the courts of probate in Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick, are appointed by the governor-general in council, and their salaries, allowances, and
pensions are fixed and paid by the Parliament of Canada. When do they cease to hold office?

60. How many degree-granting institutions does Canada have?

Postsecondary education systems in Canada. Reports to the Canadian Information Centre for
International Credentials (CICIC) indicate that there are more than 200 public and private institutions in
Canada that grant degrees.

Sources:

1. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/us-states-that-border-canada.html

2. https://www.statista.com/statistics/271208/urbanization-in-canada/

3. https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/water-overview/quality.html#sec1

4. https://www.climatestotravel.com/climate/canada

5. https://www.britannica.com/place/Canada

6. https://www.currentresults.com/Weather-Extremes/Canada

7. https://www.britannica.com/place/Canada/Soils-and-plant-and-animal-life

8. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/us-states-that-border-canada.html

9. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca

10. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/canadian-culture-customs-and-traditions.html

11. http://www.world-stock-exchanges.net/canada.html

12. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/population

13. https://canadianvisa.org/life-in-canada/economy/structure

14. https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/crown-canada/governor-general.html