10 Random Facts About Canada

There are a lot of fascinating things about this country that often get overlooked, but in honour of Canada's 145th birthday, here are ten random, cool, interesting, and rather noteworthy facts about the place I call home.

1. Our famous Maple Leaf Flag was adopted on February 15, 1965.  Although, red and white have been the official national colours since 1921, and the maple leaf has been an emblem of the country since the 18th century. 

2. Canada set a new world record for the most gold medals ever won by a single country in the Winter Olympics in 2010 (in Vancouver) with 14.

3. Canada is almost 41 times larger than the UK, but at 34 million people is only about half as populated.

4. The oldest program in Canadian broadcasting history is Hockey Night In Canada. It first was on the radio in 1931, and in the Fall of 1952 the first TV hockey game was broadcast nationally on CBC.

5. Contrary to popular belief, Canada does not own or control the north pole.  Technically, no country has sovereign rights there. 

6. Almost half of the 5 million people living in Toronto were not born in Canada, making it more diverse than Miami, Los Angeles, or New York.

7. Although first performed in 1880, 'O Canada' was not officially adopted as the national anthem until 1980.

8. Newfoundland was the first part of North America to be explored by Europeans (the Vikings), but it was the last to become a province in 1949.

9. The Canadian film and television industry is worth two billion dollars annually (1.3 billion domestic production, 700 million foreign).

10. It's no secret that Canada is large, it's the second biggest country in the world at nearly 10 million square kilometres.  A cool fact is that if you're standing on the east coast of Newfoundland, you're closer to Ireland than you are to Saskatchewan.