In preparing for Canada Day, we often reminisce about times gone by.  But have we perhaps been lazy with our heritage and our own education?  Here are the top 100 things all Canadians should know about – either at a cocktail party or in answer to your children’s questions.  We’re bracing ourselves for lots of comments about what we may be missing…  please add your thoughts below.  We sometimes forget that we are our children’s best teachers and role models.  So if a few of these things are fuzzy in your mind… you’ve got a fun activity brewing for the long weekend.

Canadiana Factoids and Icons you should know enough about to teach your kids:

  1. The RCMP Musical Ride
  2. Lord Simcoe
  3. General Wolfe
  4. The Group of Seven
  5. The Queen
  6. The Bluenose
  7. Winnie the Pooh
  8. Hudson’s Bay Company
  9. The Metis
  10. The Halifax Explosion
  11. The Ripple Rock
  12. The War of 1812
  13. Pier 21
  14. Wampum
  15. Anne of Green Gables
  16. The Fundy Tides
  17. Permafrost
  18. Joual
  19. General Montcalm
  20. The Loyalists
  21. Billy Bishop
  22. The Great Lakes
  23. Upper and Lower Canada
  24. Montreal Smoked Meat
  25. The Governor General
  26. Stanley Park
  27. The Senate
  28. The Rocky Mountains
  29. Mosquitoes
  30. Bre-x
  31. Portaging
  32. How to paddle a canoe
  33. Residential Schools
  34. the Seal Hunt
  35. Peacekeeping
  36. Eh
  37. Conservatives, Liberals, the NDP and the Green Party
  38. The Bloc Quebequois
  39. Plains of Abraham
  40. French and English
  41. Canadian Tire Money
  42. Two Versions of our Anthem
  43. Tim Horton’s
  44. Remembrance Day
  45. WW1
  46. WW2
  47. Conscription
  48. Prohibition
  49. The Great Depression
  50. Why Alberta pays no provincial tax
  51. Oil Sands
  52. Beaver Dams
  53. The First Nations
  54. Alexander Graham Bell
  55. Universal Health Care
  56. Don Cherry
  57. Ice Fishing
  58. The Order of Canada
  59. The Stratford Festival
  60. Toronto International Film Festival
  61. The longest unguarded border in the world
  62. CBC
  63. Icewine
  64. Canada vs. Russia
  65. Lacrosse is our National Sport
  66. The Second City
  67. The Original Six
  68. Cirque de Soleil
  69. Ben Johnson
  70. Montreal Exhibition
  71. Calgary Olympics
  72. Whistler
  73. McGill University
  74. Distinct Society
  75. Free Trade
  76. Fringe Festivals
  77. Sociable
  78. Molson and Oland
  79. The Navy
  80. Toronto Film Festival
  81. Algonquin Park
  82. Banff Springs National Park
  83. Gold Rush
  84. Dogsledding
  85. The Globe and Mail
  86. The National Post
  87. The Giller Prize
  88. The Voice of Fire
  89. Canada Council for the Arts
  90. Melting Pot vs. Mosaic
  91. Representation by Population
  92. Canada Day
  93. The Moose
  94. The Beaver
  95. The Trans Canada Railway
  96. The Titanic
  97. The meaning of the icons on our coins and bills
  98. The Muskoka Chair
  99. Digby Scallops
  100. Lumberjack shirts

– Jill Amery sincerely thanks all of the grade school teachers that made recalling these tidbits possible.  She is a bit fuzzy on some details though, but blames only herself for that.

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