A Capital Idea Trivia Quiz

Answer: Edmonton, AB

Before the city of Edmonton was established, there was Fort Edmonton (AKA Edmonton House)... well, there were FIVE Fort Edmontons. The first one was constructed near present-day Fort Saskatchewan (northeast of Edmonton) by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1795, and it was named for the English hometown of Sir James Winter Lake, who was a deputy governor of the HBC at the time. Over the next 35 years, Fort Edmonton was moved four times to different locations, finally ending up on the site where the Edmonton legislature was built.

The fifth and final Fort Edmonton existed from 1830 until 1914, remaining in use while the legislature was constructed and a city grew. The fort was dismantled in 1915, but a movement to preserve its history eventually led to the establishment of Fort Edmonton Park about five kilometres away, in the southwest quadrant of the city, which includes a replica of the original (fifth) Fort Edmonton.

Incidentally, the site of the original Fort Edmonton (and its Northwest Company rival Fort Augustus) was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1923.

Answer: Victoria, BC

The city of Victoria, on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, got its start as Fort Victoria, constructed by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1843. The impetus for its establishment was the impending agreement between the United States and Great Britain that would define the border between the USA and British North America. The Oregon Treaty was signed in 1846, officially assigning jurisdiction over the territory (the Columbia District) that had been shared for a quarter of a century.

Since 1824, the HBC's Columbia Department headquarters had been situated at Fort Vancouver, on the site of present-day Vancouver, Washington. When it became evident that the region would likely fall under the control of the United States, Chief Factor James Douglas was charged with relocating the headquarters to Vancouver Island. Named for the reigning British monarch (Queen Victoria), Fort Victoria was established in 1843, and it became the focal point for a new settlement, also becoming the capital of the Colony of Vancouver Island when it was established in 1849.

Fort Victoria was demolished in 1864 to make way for the growing community, and then in 1866, the Colony of Vancouver Island and the Colony of British Columbia (on the mainland) were combined under the latter's name, but with Victoria as the capital. In 1924, the location of Fort Victoria was designated a National Historic Site of Canada.

Answer: Fredericton, NB

In the aftermath of the American Revolution, large numbers of loyalists moved north into what remained under British control (AKA, British North America). in late 1783, a group of about 2,000 United Empire Loyalists, including soldiers, settled on the site known as St. Anne's Point (or rather, Pointe-Ste-Anne, as it was formerly a French Acadian settlement).

The following year, the Colony of New Brunswick was partitioned from the Colony of Nova Scotia, and the St. Anne's Point settlement was selected as the site for the new colony's capital by the governor, Sir Guy Carleton, who also gave it the name "Frederick's Town" in 1785 in honour of the second son of King George III, whose full name was Prince Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany. A mere two months later, it was shortened to Fredericton, after it became the official capital of the newly-formed New Brunswick.

Answer: Iqaluit, NU

Present-day Iqaluit is located in the southeastern part of Baffin Island, on Koojessy Inlet at the head of Frobisher Bay. For a very long time, the Inuit people called the area Iqaluit, as it was known as a "place of many fish," and thus important for sustenance in the harsh Arctic climate. But it was never developed as a permanent settlement until a US military base was located there during World War II, which they dubbed the Frobisher Bay Air Base.

After the war, the same site was used as a base for the construction of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line, and eventually it became a legitimate community, with permanent services established by the government (a school, doctors, social services, etc.) in 1959. After the Americans departed in 1963, the first community council was formed.

Although established by non-indigenous visitors, the settlement became a home for the local Inuit population. In 1974, 'Frobisher Bay' gained village status, then it grew into a town in 1980. In 1987, the town's name was changed to Iqaluit, giving official recognition to the traditional name of the region. In 1999, Nunavut was created as Canada's third territory, carved out of the larger Northwest Territories, and Iqaluit was chosen as its capital. Just two years later (2001), Iqaluit was incorporated as a city, becoming Canada's northernmost city.

Answer: Ottawa, ON

The site of present-day Ottawa, Ontario was only established because of the War of 1812. After the war, the British decided to construct an alternative route for shipping and transportation that was not as perilous as the St. Lawrence River, should similar hostilities arise again. The proposed 203 km canal, that today connects Ottawa with Kingston (on Lake Ontario) was constructed along the Rideau River by Lieutenant-Colonel John By of the Royal Engineers between 1826 and 1832.

Lt-Col By and his crew built a town to live in while they completed the canal, and they called it 'Bytown.' After the canal was completed in 1832, the village remained as a viable community. By 1850, it was incorporated as a town, and then as the city of Ottawa in 1855.

Why 'Ottawa'? The site of the city had long been land occupied by the 'Ottawa' Algonquin tribe, from which the Ottawa River also took its name. Due to the waterways in the region, the Ottawa tribe were well-known as traders and merchants amongst the various indigenous tribes of the surrounding regions. The name 'Ottawa' is derived from the Algonquin word 'adawe,' which translates as 'to trade,' which was a fitting name for the tribe.

Answer: St. John's, NL

There are a couple of theories as to how St. John's was so named, but in both instances, the 'St. John' in question refers to the biblical John the Baptist.

One popular belief by residents (not proven) is that the Italian explorer Giovanni Caboto (AKA John Cabot) named the site after the Nativity of St. John the Baptist because that was the day that he sailed into the harbour in 1497. There is actually an entry in a 1565 chronicle of the city of Bristol that states such, but without any corroborating evidence.

The other likelihood is that it was a non-permanent settlement that was used by seasonal Portuguese fishermen. A 1519 map by the explorer Gaspar Corte-Real shows the site as 'São João,' which translates as (you guessed it) 'St. John.'

Either way, St. John's is one of the oldest settlements in North America. Newfoundland was claimed as an English colony in 1610, and then it became a Crown colony in 1825. A little over a decade later, St. John's was declared to be the seat of government for the colony (in 1838). Newfoundland became a Dominion within the British Empire in 1907, and was eventually convinced to join Canada as the its tenth province (in 1949), with St. John's continuing as the capital of the new province. In 2001, the name of the province was expanded to include Labrador, which was made part of the Colony of Newfoundland back in 1909.

Answer: Winnipeg, MB

For a long time before any Europeans set foot in what is today known as the province of Manitoba, the local Cree and Ojibwe peoples had similar names for the rather large lake in the area: 'win-nipi (Cree) and 'wiinibig' (Ojibwe). They both mean 'dirty waters' or 'murky waters,' and aptly described the silt-filled waters that flowed along the river and into the lake. Today, they are called the Red River and Lake Winnipeg.

When the fur trading companies set up Fort Garry near the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, it was continuing a tradition of trading in the region that had long been the practice of the various local indigenous tribes. In 1862, an unincorporated community developed not far from the Hudson's Bay Company fort at the location of what would one day be downtown Winnipeg, and they began to use the local name 'Winnipeg' to differentiate their businesses from that of Fort Garry.

Louis Riel's efforts with the Red River Rebellion led directly to negotiations that brought Manitoba into Confederation, becoming the fifth province in 1870. At the same time, Winnipeg was named the capital of the fledgling province, and just three years later in 1873, Winnipeg was incorporated as a city.

Answer: Whitehorse, YT

Before there was a city named Whitehorse, there was a section of the Yukon River called the White Horse Rapids. They were so named for the foam that was said to resemble the manes of running white horses.

Gold was discovered in the Klondike in 1896, and by 1897, a large number of prospectors were camping in the White Horse Valley, in the area that would one day become downtown in the city of Whitehorse. The Yukon Territory was subsequently carved out of the Northwest Territories in 1898, with the capital initially placed at Dawson City.

White Horse grew with new transportation links (rail, air, and highway), and by 1950, White Horse was incorporated as a city. In 1953, it took over the designation as the capital of the Yukon Territory, and in 1957, officially changed its name to Whitehorse.

Answer: Toronto, ON

Before it was associated with Canada's largest city, Toronto was the name applied to the channel of water between Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching, about 100 km (60 mi) north of the Lake Ontario shoreline. There were fish weirs in the narrow waterway, constructed by the Mnjikaning people thousands of years ago, but still present as stakes of various trees sticking out of the water, hence the Mohawk description 'where there are trees in water,' using the word 'tkaronto,' and the similar Huron word 'ouentaronk.'

But the name did not stay there. Over time, it came to refer to the lake - a map from 1680 refers to Lake Simcoe as 'Lac de Taronto.' In 1686 the Humber River was called 'Passage de Taronto' and later 'Rivère Taronto.' Around 1695, the spelling was changed to Toronto, and in 1750 the French established Fort Toronto just east of the delta at the mouth of the Humber River on Lake Ontario.

The Seven Years' War (1756-1763) ended French colonization efforts in North America, and Fort Toronto passed into the hands of a French fur trader who swore loyalty to the British and turned the fort into a fur trading post. In 1786, Sir Guy Carleton (Lord Dorchester) effected the purchase of just over 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of land from the Mississaugas; and since the name was already in use, he referred to it as the 'Toronto Purchase.'

Upper Canada (the future Ontario) was created in 1791, and the land purchased by Lord Dorchester was intended to be the site of the new capital of the province, bearing the name Toronto. But Lieutenant Governor Simcoe, preferring British nomenclature over native names, named the new capital 'York,' instead. A petition to return the name to Toronto was unsuccessfully launched in 1805, and it wasn't until it was incorporated as a city in 1834 that it was reverted to Toronto. Really, there were already too many Yorks in the world, and this Canadian York had become known as 'Little York' and 'Muddy York' - less than flattering nicknames.

Answer: Charlottetown, PE

Prince Edward Island was originally settled by the French in 1604, who named it Île Saint-Jean. At the conclusion of the Seven Years' War in 1763, the island was ceded to the British, and it became part of the Colony of Nova Scotia, but just six years later in 1769, it would split off and become its own colony, anglicized as St. John's Island. It wasn't until 1798 that it would be renamed in favour of King George III's fourth son, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn.

Charlottetown's beginnings go back to 1720 when the French established a settlement nearby. When the British captured the island in 1758, they built Fort Amherst on the same site, to protect the harbour. After the end of the war (in 1764), Captain Samuel Holland of the Royal Engineers came to survey the new British property, and he selected the place for a new settlement, which he named in honour of King George III's royal consort, Queen Charlotte.

Charlottetown was incorporated as a city in 1855, and less than a decade later (1864) gained newfound status in the annals of Canadian history when it played host to the first conference to discuss the potential of a new confederation.

Answer: Halifax, NS

The area that would one day become Halifax, Nova Scotia was originally inhabited by the Mi'kmaq. The French were the first Europeans to arrive in the early 1600s, and the land was claimed as part of Acadia. In 1710, the British conquered the French, and Acadia was officially ceded to them, which resulted in the creation of the Colony of Nova Scotia. Even so, Acadians and Mi'kmaq still occupied much of the land when the British decided to finally make a concerted effort to physically and militarily occupy Nova Scotia.

In June of 1749, military troops and more than 1,300 colonists arrived to establish a settlement, which they named after George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax (he was the President of the Board of Trade, helping to establish good commerce between England and the colonies). This arrival sparked conflict with the Mi'kmaq and the Acadians, and a war ensued for the next 6 years (Father Le Loutre's War). In response to the threat, a series of fortifications were built, including Citadel Hill in Halifax.

With its establishment, Halifax became the new capital of the Colony of Nova Scotia. It was incorporated as a city in 1842, and much more recently (in 1996), ceased to be a city any longer when the cities of Halifax and Dartmouth, the town of Bedford, and the county of Halifax all amalgamated to become the Halifax Regional Municipality, with the former city now known as the "Community of Halifax, Nova Scotia."

Answer: Regina, SK

Regina was founded in 1882, in anticipation of the planned route of the Canadian Pacific Railway. At the time, the region was all part of the Northwest Territories, and Battleford was the capital. And because the Territorial Lieutenant-Governor (Edgar Dewdney) had purchased a large amount of land in the area, he ensured that it would grow. Dewdney moved the capital to the new settlement, and also had the North-West Mounted Police Headquarters moved from Fort Qu'Appelle.

The existing name of the area, from the local Cree, was "oskana kâ-asastêki," which translated as "pile-of-bones" (referring to the many buffalo bones by the nearby creek). But when it came time to name the new settlement, the decision was made by Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll (she was married to the Governor-General of Canada). She decided on 'Regina' (Latin for 'queen') as a reference to her mother, Queen Victoria.

Regina was incorporated as a city in 1903, and when Saskatchewan became a province in 1905, the city continued in the role as its capital.

Answer: Yellowknife, NT

The Dene tribe known as the Yellowknives are one of five Dene tribes in the Northwest Territories. At the time when first contact was made with European explorers, they were a large and powerful tribe, living to the north and west of Great Slave Lake. The 'Yellowknives' name came from the knives and other tools that they made from local copper deposits. The name also came to mark Yellowknife River and Yellowknife Bay on Great Slave Lake.

Gold was discovered on the Yellowknife River in 1898, but nothing was really done to exploit the resources of the area (the Klondike was much more accessible) until the early 1930s. Prospectors began to arrive to the point where active mining began in 1934, and by 1936, an actual community had sprung up, and it was called Yellowknife. By 1940 there were more than 1,000 people there, and multiple gold-mining operations.

Yellowknife was incorporated as a municipality in 1953, and was named the capital of the NWT in 1967. Just three years later on January 1st, 1970, Yellowknife was incorporated as a city. For the next 29 years, it held the dubious distinction of being the Canadian capital with the smallest population. When Nunavut was created in 1999, however, its capital Iqaluit took over that honour.

Answer: Québec City, QC

When the French explorer Samuel de Champlain journeyed up the St. Lawrence River in 1608, he founded a settlement on the site that would become Québec City. The Algonquian people who lived in the region were already calling that area 'Kebek,' which translates as 'where the river narrows.' Sure enough, the St. Lawrence River gets narrower right at the spot that eventually became Québec City. Champlain simply adopted the local name and spelled it as a francophone would.

With its defensible promontory, Québec was a highly strategic site, and in 1663, King Louis XIV declared Québec to be the capital of New France. Nearly a hundred years later, during the Seven Years' War, Québec became the focal point for the battle for control over North America. General James Wolfe commanded the British forces that ultimately defeated General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm's French forces at the Plains of Abraham in 1759.

After the war ended in 1763, New France (and Québec) were officially ceded to the British. Québec remained the administrative capital of British-held New France until the region was changed into the province of Lower Canada in 1791. Québec was made the capital.

Québec was not officially incorporated as 'Québec City' until 1832. One distinction Québec City has is that its fortifications make it the only walled city north of Mexico.