From Montreal to Moose Jaw: test your knowledge of Canadian cities – quiz

A skating rink in North America’s biggest mall – but where is it? Photograph: Alamy

1. Which city changed its name from Berlin in 1916 to remove any doubts about its allegiance?

   1. Kitchener

   2. London

   3. Kingston

   4. Churchill

2. Which city simulated a German invasion in 1942, fundraising C$3m for the war effort?

   1. Whitehorse

   2. Winnipeg

   3. Fredericton

   4. Guelph

3. Which city shares a nickname with the pop group formed during MTV’s 2000 reality show Making the Band?

   1. Yellowknife

   2. Edmonton

   3. Moncton

   4. Ottawa

4. 

   At one point, there were two teams in the Canadian Football League called the Roughriders and the Rough Riders. Which cities were they from?

   1. Regina and Ottawa

   2. Vancouver and Toronto

   3. Edmonton and Calgary

   4. Winnipeg and Hamilton

5. In 2014, which city officially declared itself to be on unceded indigenous territory?

   1. Quebec City

   2. Montreal

   3. Calgary

   4. Vancouver

6. In which city are residents called “Trifluviens”?

   1. Thorold

   2. Terre Nova

   3. Trois-Pistoles

   4. Trois-Rivières

7. Which city hosts the last Canadian team to win the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup?

   1. Winnipeg

   2. Montreal

   3. Edmonton

   4. Toronto

8. 

   In which city in British Columbia did Cash Money Records CEO – and fifth-richest man in hip-hop – Birdman spend a few years of his childhood?

   1. Kelowna

   2. Burnaby

   3. Prince George

   4. Vancouver

9. Which city is home to North America’s largest mall?

   1. Edmonton

   2. Saskatoon

   3. Mississauga

   4. Burnaby

10. Which of the following is not a real city?

    1. Barefoot Elbow, MB

    2. Moose Jaw, SK

    3. Thunder Bay, ON

    4. Medicine Hat, AB

Solutions

1:A - In May 1916, the town of Berlin, Ontario, voted to change its name. In September that year it officially adopted the name Kitchener, after the former secretary of state for war who was killed in June 1916 when his ship was sunk by a German mine. Kitchener would have been well known to Ontarians for the iconic “Britain Wants You” poster, about which Margot Asquith quipped: “If [he] was not a great man, he was, at least, a great poster.”, 2:B - “If Day” was a large-scale simulation of the German invasion of Winnipeg in 1942. It was designed to answer the question: “How would Winnipeggers deal with the Nazis?” On 19 February, “Nazi” soldiers stormed the city, rounded up civic leaders and burned the union flag before flying the swastika. The event resulted in two real casualties: a soldier who sprained his ankle and a woman who cut her finger while preparing toast during a simulated blackout., 3:D - The nation’s capital, Ottawa was original called Bytown, which is a nickname some still use. More regularly, locals call it O-Town., 4:A - The Saskatchewan Roughriders have existed since 1910, and the Ottawa Rough Riders lasted from 1876 to 1996. The Ottawa team was named for the Canadian contingent who fought with Teddy Roosevelt’s Roughriders regiment in the Spanish-American War. The origin of the Saskatchewan origin is lost to history: possibly the same as Ottawa’s, or possibly from the North West Mounted Police, who were called Roughriders because they broke their own wild horse broncos – which would go at least some way to explaining why the new team might have chosen a name that was almost identical to one of their competitors’. But not very far., 5:D - Vancouver has the third-largest urban population of aboriginal peoples in Canada, including the West Coast Salish nations, the Métis, First Nations and Inuit. The city council declared Vancouver was officially on land that had not been ceded by the city’s original indigenous groups. , 6:D - Trois-Rivières is French for "three rivers", which would suggest that three rivers run through it. Not so. A single river, the Maurice, splits into three arms where it meets the St Lawrence River, making Trois-Rivières the meeting place of two rivers. , 7:B - The Montreal Canadiens or Habs – after Habitants, the early French settlers of Quebec – last won the National Hockey League’s ultimate trophy in 1993, and remain the professional Canadian sports team with the most championships., 8:C - Birdman is the co-founder of Cash Money, which launched the careers of Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj and Drake. The swaggering impresario spent a few years as a child in Prince George, the largest city in northern British Columbia with a population of approximately 76,000. , 9:A - West Edmonton Mall is the largest mall in North America. Until 2004, it also held the world record as largest mall in the world, but now has to console itself with the records for largest indoor lake and largest indoor rollercoaster. , 10:A - Medicine Hat takes its name from the Blackfoot language, Thunder Bay comes from an Ojibwa word and Moose Jaw is thought to be derived from the Plains Cree word moscâstani-sîpiy, meaning "a warm place by the river". There is no Barefoot Elbow.

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