In preparation for Canada Day 2026, the 159th birthday of Canada, here’s a quiz to test your knowledge about Canada.
1. What did inventor Alexander Graham Bell propose as the standard telephone greeting?
2. Which three Canadian prime ministers were elected by Prince Albert voters?
3. The governments of Canada and Japan agreed in 1928 to restrict annual Japanese immigration to Canada to how many people?
4. After escaping from enslavement in the United States and enduring discrimination in Nova Scotia, who led a contingent of disillusioned Black settlers from Halifax to Sierra Leone in 1792?
5. What RCMP ship, now permanently docked at the Vancouver Maritime Museum, was the first to cross the Northwest Passage from west to east?
6. What was donated to Winnipeg General Hospital as a result of the first official curling match at the Manitoba curling club in Winnipeg, held Dec. 11, 1876?
7. True or false: from 1927 to 1951, the Indian Act made it illegal for First Nations people to raise money amongst themselves to hire a lawyer or pursue a legal claim.
8. Which Canadian province or territory has the longest coastline?
9. The 11-point maple leaf on today’s Canadian flag is based on an earlier design with how many points on the maple leafs?
10. Under what circumstances did Canadian Prime Minister John Thompson die on Dec. 12, 1894?
Answers
1. “Ahoy!” The greeting “hello” was Thomas Edison’s idea.
2. Sir Wilfred Laurier, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and John G. Diefenbaker.
3. 150.
4. Thomas Peters.
5. St. Roch.
6. A barrel of oatmeal.
7. True.
8. Nunavut, whose extensive mainland and more than 36,000 islands give it 144,689 km of coastline.
9. 13 points. That shape proved too hard to discern from afar or in the wind, so the number of points was reduced.
10. Thompson, at age 49, had a heart attack and died while lunching with Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle.
Sources: Canada’s History Society, and Prince Albert Daily Herald
