Fun fact#592
Canada has the longest coastline
Canada's coastline runs over 200,000 kilometres, longer than the next ten countries combined thanks to its Arctic islands.
Canada
More lake surface than the rest of the world combined, and a coastline longer than the next ten countries put together.
15 entries · 7 stories, 8 fun facts
Canada at a glance
The practical numbers, before the stories.
- Capital
- Ottawa
- Currency
- Canadian dollar (CAD)
- Official language
- English and French
- Climate
- Continental and cold over most of the country, milder on the Pacific coast, Arctic in the far north.
- Best time to go
- June–September, or January–March for winter travel
- Time zone
- UTC−3:30 to UTC−8 across six zones
- Driving side
- Right
- Plugs and voltage
- Type A / B, 120 V
Worth knowing: Newfoundland runs half an hour offset from Atlantic time.
Planning a trip to Canada
The decisions that determine whether the trip works, whichever country you are going to.
Canada holds more lake area than every other country added together, and its coastline runs past 200,000 kilometres once the Arctic islands are counted. One national park is larger than Switzerland. One province runs half an hour offset from its neighbours for reasons dating to 1935.
The entries gathered here lean into that scale: the town where cars are left unlocked so people can hide from polar bears, the railway tunnels bored in a figure of eight to tame a mountain grade, the strategic maple syrup reserve that genuinely exists. The practical takeaway is that Canadian distances behave like Australian ones. Budget days, not hours.
Entries from Canada
Fun fact#595
Canada holds most of the world's lakes
Canada contains more lake area than the rest of the world put together, with over two million lakes.
Fun fact#596
Newfoundland has its own time zone
Newfoundland runs half an hour ahead of Atlantic time, a 30-minute offset kept since 1935.
Fun fact#599
Churchill is the polar bear capital
Bears gather near Churchill each autumn waiting for Hudson Bay to freeze, and the town leaves cars unlocked as bear shelters.
Fun fact#600
Quebec keeps French alive
Quebec's language laws protect French in commerce and signage, and it is the only province where French is the sole official language.
Fun fact#602
The Rockies have a spiral tunnel
Two figure-eight tunnels were bored into the mountains in 1909 to reduce a dangerously steep railway grade.
Fun fact#604
Canada's national park is bigger than Switzerland
Wood Buffalo National Park covers about 44,800 square kilometres, larger than Switzerland.
Story#672
Snow on the Icefields Parkway
It snowed in June. We pulled into a viewpoint, three other cars did the same, and six strangers stood in a line watching a glacier disappear behind cloud without saying anything.
Story#676
Bear bell arithmetic
We were told to make noise. After two hours of singing badly we stopped, and thirty seconds later a black bear crossed the trail ahead. We resumed singing immediately.
Story#679
The tide at Fundy
We walked on the sea floor in the morning and kayaked over the same spot after lunch. Sixteen metres of water arrived while we ate.
Story#682
Poutine at two in the morning
Minus twenty outside and a queue out the door. The man in front of us explained that the cheese must squeak, and that anything else is not poutine but a tragedy.
Story#686
Northern lights over the highway
The driver pulled over without warning and turned off the headlights. Green went across the whole sky in about four seconds and then rearranged itself for an hour.
Fun fact#778
Maple syrup has a strategic reserve
Quebec maintains a global strategic maple syrup reserve to stabilise prices between good and bad harvests.
Story#886
A hostel kitchen in winter
Nine nationalities, one pot of soup, minus twenty-eight outside. Somebody's grandmother's recipe was reconstructed by committee and it was excellent.
Story#890
The overnight train that ran late
Freight has priority, so passenger trains wait on sidings. We were eleven hours late and the dining car simply kept serving as if it were a hotel with wheels.
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Canada is one of 36 countries in the library. Read straight through a continent, or start from the map of everywhere we have written about.