Fun Facts
- North America’s first hotel made of ice officially opened in Québec at Montmorency Falls Park, a well-known park in the Québec region. Everything, from the furniture to the glasses, is carved from ice.
- Prince Edward Island was called “Abegweit” by the Mi’kmaq Indians, who lived there for over two thousand years before the arrival of the Europeans. The name means “lying down flat” but is freely translated as “cradled by the waves.”
- Nunavut is home to about half the world’s polar bears.
- In the Athapaskan language, the word Yukon means “the great river” or “big river.” On June 21, the summer solstice, the sun never sets in some parts of Yukon. All over the territory, you can read a book outdoors all night.
- The first dictionary was published in Canada in 1635. It was in Huron (a First Nations language) and French.
- Frederick Banting, a Canadian doctor and researcher working with Charles Best, discovered insulin in the 1920s. It was a lifesaving discovery for people with diabetes. The researchers sold the rights to their formula for one dollar so that insulin could be made cheaply and benefit diabetics everywhere.
- Do you know about the windchill factor? A breeze always makes the weather feel cooler than it really is. The coldest windchill ever recorded in Canada was in Pelly Bay, NWT. On January 13, 1975, the actual recorded temperature was -51 degrees Celsius (-60°F), but with the windchill it felt like -92 (-134°F)! A good day to stay indoors.
Mysterious Canadian Monsters and Their Cousins
You have probably heard of the Loch Ness monster in Scotland, but did you know that her cousin Ogopogo was spotted in Canada’s Lake Okanagan, British Columbia, in 1926, seven years before anyone heard about Nessie? According to people who have spotted him, Ogopogo is between fifteen and twenty feet long, with a strange horselike head. British Columbia is also the home of Sasquatch, a seven-foot hairy humanoid character who lurks in the forests. He is obviously closely related to Bigfoot, which has sometimes been seen in the northwest United States. Perhaps the people of British Columbia have very good imaginations or else the mountains, lakes, and forests provide appropriate habitat for mysterious creatures. Cadboro Bay in Victoria, on Vancouver Island, is where Cadborosaurus was seen several times by boaters. Apparently this monster is greenish brown and looks like a sea serpent. Make sure you take a camera if you travel in British Columbia—you will quite likely see moose, bear, deer, and possibly something more exotic! At the very least, you can tell a tall tale when you get back home.
