Canada Citizenship Test- Important Points Part 2

Canadian Symbols

The Canadian Crown

• The Crown has been a symbol of the state in Canada for 400 years.
• Canada has been a constitutional monarchy in its own right since Confederation in 1867 during Queen Victoria’s reign.
• Queen Elizabeth II, who has been Queen of Canada since 1952, marked her Golden Jubilee in 2002, and celebrates her Diamond Jubilee (60 years as Sovereign) in 2012.
• The Crown is a symbol of government, including Parliament, the legislatures, the courts, police services and the Canadian Forces.

Flags in Canada

• A new Canadian flag was raised for the first time in 1965.
• The red-white-red pattern comes from the flag of the Royal Military College, Kingston, founded in 1876.
• Red and white had been colours of France and England since the Middle Ages and the national colours of Canada since 1921.
• The Union Jack is our official Royal Flag.
• The Canadian Red Ensign served as the Canadian flag for about 100 years.
• The maple leaf is Canada’s best-known symbol. Maple leaves were adopted as a symbol by French Canadians in the 1700s,
• The maple leaf has appeared on Canadian uniforms and insignia since the 1850s, and are carved into the headstones of our fallen soldiers buried overseas and in Canada.

Coat of arms and motto

• As an expression of national pride after the First World War, Canada adopted an official coat of arms and a national motto, “A mari usque ad mare”, which in Latin means “from sea to sea.”
• The arms contain symbols of England, France, Scotland and Ireland as well as red maple leaves.
• Today the arms can be seen on dollar bills, government documents and public buildings

Parliament building

• The towers, arches, sculptures and stained glass of the Parliament Buildings embody the French, English and Aboriginal traditions and the Gothic Revival architecture popular in the time of Queen Victoria.
• The buildings were completed in the 1860s.
• The Centre Block was destroyed by an accidental fire in 1916 and rebuilt in 1922.
• The Library is the only part of the original building remaining.
• The Peace Tower was completed in 1927 in memory of the First World War.
• The Memorial Chamber within the Tower contains the Books of Remembrance in which are written the names of soldiers, sailors and airmen who died serving Canada in wars or while on duty.
• The Quebec National Assembly is built in the French Second Empire style, while the legislatures of the other provinces are Baroque, Romanesque and neoclassical, reflecting the Greco-Roman heritage of Western civilization in which democracy originated.

Sports

• Hockey is Canada’s most popular spectator sport and is considered to be the national winter sport.
• Ice hockey was developed in Canada in the 1800s.
• The National Hockey League plays for the championship Stanley Cup, donated by Lord Stanley, the Governor General, in 1892.
• The Clarkson Cup, established in 2005 by Adrienne Clarkson, the 26th Governor General (and the first of Asian origin), is awarded for women’s hockey.
• Canadian football is the second most popular sport .
• Curling, an ice game introduced by Scottish pioneers, is popular.
• Lacrosse, an ancient sport first played by Aboriginals, is the official summer sport.
• Soccer has the most registered players of any game in Canada.

The Beaver

• The beaver was adopted centuries ago as a symbol of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
• It became an emblem of the St. Jean Baptiste Society, a French-Canadian patriotic association, in 1834, and was also adopted by other groups.
• This industrious rodent can be seen on the five-cent coin, on the coats of arms of Saskatchewan and Alberta, and of cities such as Montreal and Toronto.

National Anthem

• “O Canada” was proclaimed as the national anthem in 1980.
• It was first sung in Québec City in 1880. French and English Canadians sing different words to the national anthem

The Order of Canada

• After using British honours for many years, Canada started its own honours system with the Order of Canada in 1967, the centennial of Confederation.
• The Victoria Cross (V.C.) is the highest honour available to Canadians and is awarded for the most conspicuous bravery, a daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice, or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy.
• The V.C. has been awarded to 96 Canadians since 1854, including:
• Then Lieutenant Alexander Roberts Dunn, born in present-day Toronto, served in the British Army in the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava (1854) in the Crimean War, and was the first Canadian to be awarded the Victoria Cross.
• Able Seaman William Hall of Horton, Nova Scotia, whose parents were American slaves, was the first black man to be awarded the V.C. for his role in the Siege of Lucknow during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
•  Corporal Filip Konowal, born in Ukraine, showed exceptional courage in the Battle of Hill 70 in 1917, and became the first member of the Canadian Corps not born in the British Empire to be awarded the V.C.
• Flying ace Captain Billy Bishop, born in Owen Sound, Ontario, earned the V.C. in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War, and was later an honorary Air Marshal of the Royal Canadian Air Force. 
• Captain Paul Triquet of Cabano, Quebec, earned the V.C. leading his men and a handful of tanks in the attack on Casa Berardi in Italy in 1943 during the Second World War, and was later a Brigadier.
• Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray, a navy pilot born in Trail, B.C., was killed while bombing and sinking a Japanese warship in August 1945, a few days before the end of the Second World War, and was the last Canadian to receive the V.C. to date.

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