In honour of Canada Day here are ten quick facts about the Great White North:

1. It is the world’s second largest country.

2. My British friends call it “Canadia” to annoy me.

3. Popular Canadian creations include: Basketball, Superman (co-created with American writer, Jerry Siegel) Five Pin Bowling, the Wonderbra, Standard Time, the paint roller and Insulin.

4. My British friends insist on referring to our official winter sport as “ice hockey,” also to annoy me.

5. Contrary to what many might think, soccer is actually the sport with the most registered participants in Canada (saw that on CTV news the other night).

6. I once met a pair of American tourists in France who were pretending to be Canadian, but cracked under the pressure when I asked where in Manitoba they were from. They later confessed that they were masquerading as such out of fear that being from America would get them beaten up (not an uncommon story, from what I hear).

7. Tommy Chong, Peter North and Wolverine were all born in Canada.

8. In 2004 the “father of Medicare”, Tommy C. Douglas, was declared the greatest Canadian of all time after a nationwide vote, though the entire shebang loses a bit of credibility when confronted with the fact that Celine Dion was #27.

9. It was 141 years ago today that the British colonies of the Province of Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia shacked up, giving birth to the federation of Canada in the process (so says Wikipedia). It’s grown in size quite a bit since 1867 and even cut the British umbilical in 1982.

10. Poutine is awesome.

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Now that the history lesson is over, here are a few of my favourite Canadian tunes, the last of which can be heard in pubs the world over (I actually first heard it in Taiwan):

Rheostatics - Saskatchewan

Stompin’ Tom Connors - Cross Canada

Stan Rogers - Barrett’s Privateers

Incidentally, Stompin’ Tom and Stan Rogers were voted 13th and 60th respectively in the same vote for the greatest Canadian back in 2004.

There you have it, Happy Canada Day!!!