One of the most beautiful and interesting countries on earth, Canada is full of intriguing facts and figures, with these 14 points giving you a brief insight into this wonderful country.

1. The national winter sport of Canada is hockey, a game which was officially first played indoors Tadacip on 3rd March 1875 at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal.

2. The National Hockey League (NHL) is the highest league that any hockey team in Canada or America can compete in and although America has 18 more teams than Canada in the league, Canada dominate the title leader board.

The Montreal Canadiens have won 24 championships in the history of the NHL, whilst the best an American team has managed to date is 11 championships, achieved by the Detroit Red Wings.

3. The CN Tower in Toronto was the largest freestanding structure in the world for 31 years. Opened in 1976, it held the title until 2007 when the Burj Khalifa opened, which is just under 600 feet taller than the CN Tower.

4. Just like ice hockey is the national winter sport of Canada, lacrosse is the national summer sport.

Played only in specialist clubs in the UK, lacrosse was invented in Canada several centuries ago and has remained massively popular since.

The game involves the throwing of a rubber ball that is caught and handled with a lacrosse stick, which is effectively a long handled tennis racket with a loose net where a tennis racket’s firm net would be.

5. Although basketball is regarded as an American game and is known to have been first played in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891, it was actually created by a Canadian professor, James Naismith.

6. Whilst basketball may officially be a Canadian sport, only one team from Canada – the Toronto Raptors – now compete in the NBA.

7. Considering the country’s vast size – covering 3,854,086 square miles, Canada is the second largest country in the world – it is somewhat humorous that the name is a derivative of the word kanata, which literally means village.

8. Having the longest coastline in the world, Canada is bordered by three individual oceans – the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic.

9. Situated in the federal territory of Yukon is the highest mountain in Canada, Mount Logan, which stands 19,551 feet high at its main peak.

10. Approximately 10% of the whole of Canada is taken up by the two million individual lakes and 38 National Parks in the country, with Banff arguably the most popular, as well as being the oldest, founded in 1885.

11. According to immigration statistics for 2008, there were just under 250,000 people granted a permanent visa for Canada. Of this quarter of a million figure, 9,243 people came from the United Kingdom, with the majority coming from China (29,336), India (24,549) and the Philippines (23,724).

12. Due to the vast size of Canada, it falls into six different time zones. With the west coast falling 8 hours behind GMT, the gap slowly decreases until you reach the east coast, which is only 3.5 hours behind GMT.

13. The weather in Canada is some of the most variable anywhere on the globe, with temperatures dropping under 40 degrees centigrade in some parts of the country in winter, whilst others will rarely drop below freezing Levitra point.

14. Information buy cialis online usa provided by Statistics Canada shows that the population of the country has increased every decade since 1851, when detailed records began.

Starting at 2,415,000 people, by 1941 the population had risen to 11,507,000 and 60 years later in 2001 it stood at 31,021,000.

Author Bio: Global Visas are a world leading authority on Canada immigration and Canada visas for private individuals and corporate clients, providing the most comprehensive and up-to-date Canada work visa and visa for Canada advice. Visit GlobalVisas.com for more information.

Category: Recreation and Leisure/Travel/Destinations
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