The southernmost point in Canada is just south of the northern Californian border! It’s called Point Pelee and it juts out into Lake Erie (one of the five Great Lakes that separate Ontario from the U.S.).

Our national anthem is O Canada!

People think Canada is cold all year round. It is cold – in the winter. In the summer it actually gets quite warm! We can go from 30 degrees Celsius in the summer to -30 degrees Celsius in the winter. We get all four seasons: winter, spring, summer and fall. Unfortunately, winter is the longest season – it begins in later November or early December and continues until March, sometimes even April!

The symbol on our flag is the maple leaf (the leaf of the maple tree). The maple leaf has been a symbol of Canada ever since the first Europeans settled here. The maple tree grows all over Canada, and Native Americans learned how to harvest the sap every spring and showed the European settlers how to do it. Have you ever tried maple syrup (the sap from the maple tree)? It is so delicious! I love maple syrup on pancakes, Tim Horton’s maple donuts, and especially maple sugar candies!

Native Americans are the people who lived here before the Europeans arrived. They are native or indigenous to the Americas. Sometimes they are called Indians, Aboriginals, or First Nations people. Most indigenous people in Canada prefer to be called ‘First Nations.’ They are different from the Inuit (Eskimos) who live in the northern part of the country.

Canadian towns and cities are often named after British places or people (Richmond, Victoria, Newmarket, Stratford, Churchill), European cities (London, Waterloo, Paris – yes, there is a Paris, Canada!) or are Native American words (Petawawa, Kapuskasing, Toronto, Ottawa). We also have some very unique place names: Moose Jaw, Yellowknife, Snowball, Medicine Hat, Red Deer, and Whitehorse, to name a few! There used to be a city called Berlin, but its name was changed to Kitchener after the First World War.

Most people think Toronto is the capital city of Canada, but the capital is actually Ottawa! It is named after the Odawa people who were Algonquian Indians and lived in the area. It is said to mean ‘traders.’

Canada is also a native word – it was the Huron-Iroquois (a native tribe) word for village or settlement. This was the subject of a “Heritage Moments” commercial that was on TV a few years ago. It shows the French explorer Jacques Cartier meeting the natives in 1534: