Now You Know Canada
CBC Books | CBC | Posted: July 7, 2017 12:51 PM | Last Updated: July 19, 2017
Doug Lennox
Just in time for Canada's 150th birthday comes this collection of the best in Canadian questions and answers, covering history, famous Canadians, sports, word origins, geography and everything in between. In these pages, you'll learn the answers to questions like:
- Where did the word Canuck come from?
- How did an aristocratic French girl become a Canadian Robinson Crusoe?
- What famous explorer played hockey in the Arctic?
- Who was the first black woman elected to Canada's Parliament?
- What unlikely team beat Canada for the gold medal for hockey in the 1936 Winter Olympics?
- How did the Halifax Explosion occur?
(From Dundurn Press)
From the book
What does True North mean in the English version of the anthem "O Canada"?
True North was borrowed from Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem in which he refers to Canada as "That True North whereof we lately heard" in reference to its loyalty to Queen Victoria. It does not mean the North Pole or the real north, implying that the northern lands of other countries are false. It is the use of true in its other context of meaning loyal or faithful, as, for example, lovers are described as "true to each other." The line of the anthem is describing Canada as loyal to the Crown: "With glowing hearts we see thee rise,/ The True North strong and free!"
From Now You Know Canada by Doug Lennox ©2017. Published by Dundurn Press.