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150 Little Known Canadian Facts #18
July, 2017
- Did you know that Québec’s energy is 99% renewable? Hydropower is the province’s main generator of energy, and natural gas is used to produce the remaining 1%. The hydroelectric generating stations produce 100 times less greenhouse gas than coal-fired power stations. Also, Canada is the second largest hydroelectricity producer in the world as of 2014 and accounts for nearly 60% of this country’s energy supply.
- Carrie Best was a poet, writer, journalist and activist, and in 1946, she founded Nova Scotia’s first Black owned and published newspaper called The Clarion. From 1952 to 1964, she hosted radio program called Quiet Corner. In 1979, she received the Order of Canada.
- The first organized ice hockey game in Canada was held in Montréal in 1875, after McGill University student J.G.A. Creighton established a set of game rules. McGill also had the world’s first official hockey team. For the hat trick, McGill also won the first “world championship” in 1883.
- Near Selkirk, MB, you’ll find the only stone fort still intact in North America: Fort Garry. Situated in Fort Garry National Park, this fort was built by the Hudson’s Bay Company in the 1830s. It was a strategic place for the fur trade, as well as a jumping off point to get to the Northwest Territories. The fort was also a training camp for the RCMP, a prison and a mental institution.
- Want authentic Mexican food? Go to Winkler, AB. This town is home to the descendants of 6,000 Mennonites who went to Chihuahua, México in the 1920s.
- Little Limestone Lake in Manitoba is the world’s largest and best example of a marl lake. Marl is calcium carbonate, and this lake is rich with it. When the water gets warm, the calcium converts to calcite and turns the water a milky turquoise. When the water gets cold, the calcite dissolves and the water is crystal clear.
- In Timmins, ON, you’ll find the world’s oldest pool of water. At 2 miles below sea level in a base metal mine is a pool of water that University of Toronto geoscientists have dated at 2 billion years old.
- Below the busy streets of Toronto is PATH, the world’s largest underground shopping complex, according to Guinness World Records. PATH has 17 miles worth of tunnels and around the same amount of retail space as West Edmonton Mall.
- AB
- Carrie Best
- Fort Garry
- hockey
- hydropower
- Manitoba
- marl lake
- McGill University
- oldest pool of water
- PATH
- Winkler
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