Canadian History Trivia

Question 1

Who was the political leader who led the campaign to introduce universal health care?

Answer 1

Tommy Douglas

Thomas Clement “Tommy” Douglas, was a Scottish-born Canadian social-democratic politician and Baptist minister. He was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 1935 as a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.

Question 2

Which once and future Prime Minister lost the 1874 election after it became known that he offered bribes during the construction of the transcontinental railway?

Answer 2

Sir John A. Macdonald

Question 3

The Hudson’s Bay Company is the world’s oldest chartered trading company. What product gave this company its start?

Answer 3

Fur

Question 4

What three oceans border Canada?

Answer 4

Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic

Question 5

What medical breakthrough led to a 1923 Nobel Prize for Frederick Banting and J.J.R. Macleod?

Answer 5

the discovery of insulin

Question 6

Which Canadian province has the largest land size?

Answer 6

Quebec

Question 7

In the federal Parliament, what is a law called before it is passed?

Answer 7

a bill

Question 8

The country’s worst health crisis, spread by troops returning from overseas services in the First World War, was caused by what disease?

Answer 8

influenza

Question 9

In 1942, a national plebiscite sparked a fierce debate over military service and national unity. What was this plebiscite about?

Answer 9

conscription

Question 10

Which mountain is Canada’s highest?

Answer 10

Mount Logan, in the Yukon

Question 11

Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte was taken hostage and murdered in the crisis initiated by which extremist separatist group?

Answer 11

FLQ (Front de liberation du Quebec)

Question 12

Who was the first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada?

Answer 12

Bertha Wilson

Question 13

Who was Canada’s prime minister during the Second World War?

Answer 13

William Lyon Mackenzie King

Question 14

Canada is a part of the voluntary association of countries that used to belong to the British Empire. What is this association called?

Answer 14

The Commonwealth

Question 15

What was the name of Canada’s flag before the Maple Leaf?

Answer 15

Red Ensign

Question 16

During what war did Canadian doctor Norman Bethune create the first mobile blood transfusion clinic in 1936?

Answer 16

Spanish Civil War

Question 17

Which province elected the first female provincial premier in 1993?

Answer 17

P.E.I. (Catherine Callbeck)

Question 18

Which province was, in 1916, the first to grant women the right to vote?

Answer 18

Manitoba

Question 19

Which province was, in 1940, the last to grant women the right to vote?

Answer 19

Quebec

Question 20

On Aug. 31, 1976, Carallyn Bowes became the first woman to accomplish this, a feat that took 133 days to complete.

Answer 20

running across Canada

Question 21

Canada’s first post office was established in Halifax in 1755. The first Deputy Postmaster General was this American thinker and revolutionary.

Answer 21

Benjamin Franklin

Question 22

On Feb. 26, 1972, Michel Girouard and his pianist, Rejean Tremblay, got married, the first of this kind of wedding in Canadian history.

Answer 22

a same sex marriage

Question 23

In 1833, painter Joseph Legare opened Canada’s first one of these, in Quebec City

Answer 23

an art gallery

Question 24

This Canadian prime minister won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in developing the UN Emergency Force in 1957.

Answer 24

Lester B. Pearson

Question 25

Who was the first Canadian woman in space, flying aboard the American space shuttle Discovery from Jan. 22 to 30, 1992?

Answer 25

Roberta Bondar

Question 26

This sport, which origin-ated among the Algonquian tribes of the St Lawrence Valley, is the oldest organized sport continuously played in North America.

Answer 26

Lacrosse

Question 27

This kind of suit was developed in 1941 by W.R. Franks and his colleagues at the University of Toronto to allow pilots to carry out high-speed manoeuvres without losing consciousness.

Answer 27

The G-suit

Question 28

This bridge, at 12.9 kilometres in length, is the longest bridge in the world to cross ice-covered saltwater.

Answer 28

Confederation Bridge (between P.E.I. and New Brunswick)

Question 29

In response to the temperance movement, Toronto pharmacist John J. McLaughlin invented this drink in 1907 as a popular alternative to alcohol.

Answer 29

Canada Dry Ginger Ale

Question 30

Which province’s entry into Confederation had to be moved up a day due to concerns that the original date, April 1, 1949, was April Fool’s Day?

Answer 30

Newfoundland

Question 31

This prime minister holds the record for the shortest term, 69 days, from May 1 to July 8, 1896.

Answer 31

Sir Charles Tupper

Question 32

This prime minister holds the record for longest unbroken term, serving 15 straight years in office, from July 11, 1896, to Oct. 6, 1911.

Answer 32

Sir Wilfrid Laurier

Question 33

The oldest dinosaur bones in Canada, fossils that are approximately 200 million years old, were found in what province?

Answer 33

Nova Scotia (at the Bay of Fundy, near Parrsboro)

Question 34

Canada’s most northerly point is this cape in Nunavut.

Answer 34

Cape Columbia

Question 35

John Ware, nicknamed the “Smoked Irishman,” started ranching in Alberta in the late 1880s and was the first black one of these in Canada.

Answer 35

a cowboy

Question 36

Which of the following slogans is best associated with Canada’s constitution?

a. Liberty, equality, fraternity
b. Peace, order and good government
c. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

Answer 36

b) Peace, order and good government

Question 37

Name the trade agreement that links Canada, Mexico, and the United States, and which went into effect in 1994.

Answer 37

NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)

Question 38

What was the name of the route used by fleeing American slaves to get to Canada?

Answer 38

The Underground Railroad

Question 39

Which American War sped the move toward Confederation?

Answer 39

The American Civil War

Question 40

In 1959, John Diefenbaker’s government cancelled the development of what new warplane?

Answer 40

The Avro Arrow

Question 41

What year was Dr. Emily Howard Stowe, Canada’s first female doctor, granted a medical licence?

Answer 41

1880

Question 42

Using tanks and a garden hose with no nozzle, Charles Merle Rolston of Vancouver opened the first one of these in Canada in 1908.

Answer 42

a gas station

Question 43

What Canadian city houses the longest continuously operating ballet company in Canada?

Answer 43

Winnipeg, since 1939