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.

Medicine Hat City Hall

Constructed in 1983, the new City Hall was a major centennial project for Medicine Hat. Built to replace the aging and inadequate original city hall located just a block away (and now demolished) the new building is still quite modern looking after nearly three decades in use.  The bold design features sharp angles and rounded edges covered with 2950 square metres of exterior glass, accented further by locally produced red brick. The design was meant to reflect the shapes of the South Saskatchewan river valley. 

Located along the banks of the river and on the corner of 1st Street and 2nd Avenue, City Hall is next door to many other prominent civic landmarks including Finlay Bridge, the Courthouse, Riverside Park, the Public Library, and the Esplanade.  As you might expect, it's one of the most unique buildings in Medicine Hat. Explore my images of the interior here. Also, check out another photo set I did of City Hall at Christmas.

New city hall construction model from the early 1980s.

New city hall ca. 1983

Scenes in June

Leading into the Canada Day long weekend I already feel like I've got a bunch of summer outings under my belt.  Between work, hangouts, dinners, more work, and my walks around downtown, I feel like June has been a pretty diverse month.  My photo series Around the Hat has also given me the motivation to explore a lot more than usual, and it's honestly made me more appreciative of my surroundings.  I'm wandering a lot, which is more fun than it might sound.  I don't even feel the need to go into many details here, I just wanted to share a few of the backdrops that have played host to some of my summer moments thus far.