Happy Canada Day!

July 1st marks Canada Day. On this day in 1867, the British North America Act passed, forming the modern state of Canada. At that time, just three colonies made up Canada: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada. The Province of Canada was split into two provinces named Quebec and Ontario. Canada kept evolving and now has ten provinces nad three territories. By 1949, the last province, Newfoundland, joined. Nunavut, the newest territory was created in 1999 by dividing the Northwest Territories.

Canada has probably enriched your life, even if you’ve never been there. Canadian inventions include:

The Blackberry
The television camera
The telephone (Alexander Graham Bell was born in Scotland, but he lived in Brantford, Ontario when he invented the phone)
Basketball
The snowblower
The Wonderbra
The paint roller
Trivial Pursuit

A few more interesting Canadian facts:

Canada is the second largest country (in land mass)
Canada is a bilingual nation, with English and French being the two national languages
Canada (or kanata) is an Iroquoian word meaning village
The border between Canada and the USA is the world’s longest international border
Canada is a parliamentary democracy. It’s not a socialist nation, but offers social programs such as healthcare, unemployment insurance, education, and old age pensions.

So on this day, raise a drink (a rye and ginger or Rickard’s Red perhaps) and toast 145 years of Canada!