Canada - Facts for Kids

History & Heritage

The Vikings were the first Europeans to reach Canada. They arrived in Newfoundland more than 1,000 years ago and built a small settlement called L’Anse aux Meadows!

The Underground Railroad helped many people escape slavery in the United States by coming to Canada in the 1800s!

Canada became its own country on July 1, 1867. The country still shares a monarch with the United Kingdom, and Queen Elizabeth II was Canada’s head of state until 2022!

irst Nations peoples have lived in what is now Canada for over 12,000 years—much longer than the pyramids in Egypt have been standing!

The Canadian Pacific Railway was finished in 1885, creating a rail line that connected Canada from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast!

The Fathers of Confederation met in Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island in 1864 to talk about joining the colonies together and creating the country of Canada!

L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland is the only known Viking settlement in North America and is over 1,000 years old!

Canada's Parliament Buildings in Ottawa were built in the 1800s and their style was inspired by castles!

Early European settlers in Canada learned how to survive cold winters from Indigenous peoples, who taught them about warm fur clothing, snowshoes, and how to find local foods.

Canada’s oldest city is St. John’s in Newfoundland. European explorers visited the area in 1497, and it later grew into a permanent town in the early 1600s!

Fun & Interesting Facts

Canada has a tiny jail in Rodney, Ontario that is only about 24.3 square meters (270 square feet)—about the size of a small classroom—making it famous as one of the world’s smallest jails!

The longest place name in Canada is Pekwachnamaykoskwaskwaypinwanik Lake in Manitoba—a 31-letter name that comes from the Cree language and means “where the wild trout are caught by fishing with hooks”!

Canada produces about 70% of the world’s maple syrup, and most of it comes from the province of Quebec!

Kids can send letters to Santa Claus at the North Pole using the special Canadian postal code H0H 0H0—and Santa and his helpers often send a reply!

The world’s longest beaver dam is in Alberta, Canada. It’s about 800 meters (half a mile) long and so big that scientists can even see it from space in satellite pictures!

Montreal is the largest French-speaking city in North America and one of the biggest French-speaking cities in the world, after Paris!

In Canada’s Northwest Territories, license plates are shaped like polar bears! The fun design started in 1970 and is one of the most unique license plates in the world.

Winnie the Pooh was inspired by a real black bear from Canada named Winnie. A Canadian soldier rescued the bear, and later a boy who visited her at the zoo named his teddy bear after her—leading to the famous Winnie-the-Pooh stories!

Canada has many amazing dinosaur footprints. Some giant dinosaur tracks found in Alberta are about 65 centimeters (2 feet) long—showing where huge dinosaurs once walked millions of years ago!

Canada has many giant roadside landmarks, including the world’s largest axe, fiddle, hockey stick, and huge totem poles.

Nature & Wildlife

Canada has one of the largest populations of wild bears in the world, including black bears, grizzly bears, and polar bears that live in its forests, mountains, and Arctic regions!

The snowy owl, like Harry Potter's Hedwig, lives in Canada's Arctic regions!

Canada’s boreal forest is one of the largest forests in the world and is home to billions of birds that nest and raise their chicks there each year!

Moose in Canada are amazing swimmers and can dive underwater for about 30 seconds to eat water plants. On land, they can run up to about 55 km/h (34 mph)—almost as fast as a horse!

Canada's Spirit Bear, also called the Kermode Bear, is a rare white bear that isn't a polar bear!

eluga whales in Canada’s Arctic waters are sometimes called “sea canaries” because they make lots of whistles, chirps, and squeaks as they communicate with each other under the sea!

One of the world’s largest buffalo jumps is in Alberta, Canada. At Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, Indigenous hunters once guided herds of bison over a cliff to provide food and supplies for their communities.

The Thousand Islands in Ontario, Canada, actually have 1,864 islands—even though the name says “thousand”!

Canada’s Vancouver Island has giant old-growth trees—some so wide that roads pass right beside their huge trunks, making them look big enough for a car to drive through!

Canadian Innovations

The paint roller was invented in Canada by Norman Breakey in 1940, making it much faster and easier to paint big walls!

A Canadian inventor helped create the first practical electric wheelchair to help injured veterans after World War II, giving many people the freedom to move around more easily!

Peanut butter was first patented by Canadian inventor Marcellus Gilmore Edson in 1884, when he created a way to grind roasted peanuts into a creamy paste!vve!

A Canadian helped invent the plastic garbage bag in 1950, creating a cleaner and easier way to collect trash in homes and hospitals!

A Canadian inventor named Thomas Ahearn created an early electric car heater around 1890.

A Canadian scientist helped invent modern instant mashed potatoes, making it easy to turn potato flakes into creamy mashed potatoes in just a few minutes!

The egg carton was invented by a Canadian newspaper editor in 1911!

Weather & Climate

Canada’s coldest temperature was −63 °C (−81.4 °F) in Snag, Yukon, in 1947—so cold that it can sometimes be colder than temperatures on Mars!

Some parts of Canada, especially in the mountains, can get more than 6 meters (20 feet) of snow in a single winter.

In parts of Nunavut in northern Canada, the Sun can stay up for weeks or even months in summer and stay below the horizon for weeks in winter!

In parts of Canada, warm Chinook winds can make temperatures jump by dozens of degrees in just a few hours—sometimes even about 40 °C—turning a freezing winter day into a warm one very quickly!

Windsor, Ontario gets more lightning than any other city in Canada, with thunderstorms and lightning on about 50 days each year!

Regina, Saskatchewan is the sunniest capital city in Canada, with about 2,338 hours of sunshine every year!

Some Canadian cities have indoor tunnels and skywalks that connect buildings, so people can walk to shops, offices, and subway stations while staying warm during cold winters!

The city of Thompson, Manitoba, is one of the best places in the world to see the Northern Lights!

St. John’s, Newfoundland, is famous for its wild weather and is one of the foggiest, snowiest, and windiest cities in Canada!

In parts of Alberta, Canada, warm Chinook winds can change the weather so quickly that people say you can experience all four seasons in one day!

More Fun Facts

Canada has a “polar bear jail” in Churchill, Manitoba, where problem polar bears are kept for a short time until they can be safely released far away from town!

Canadians invented the Crispy Crunch chocolate bar in 1930. This crunchy peanut-butter treat is very popular in Canada and can be hard to find in other countries!

The Canadian city of Nanaimo in British Columbia is famous for Nanaimo Bars—a sweet dessert with three delicious layers: a crumb base, creamy custard filling, and chocolate on top!

The Quebec Winter Carnival mascot is a jolly snowman named Bonhomme who wears a red cap and sash!