Could You Pass For Canadian? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pay his taxes

The T-4 is the statement of income earned; every employee gets one. They must be mailed out by the end of February, and taxes are due at the end of April.

Answer: Doughnut shop

Tim Horton's is "the" Canadian doughnut shop. There are more than 2,500 outlets across the country, and a couple hundred in the US.

Answer: 8:30

Although the Newfoundland Time Zone is east of the Atlantic Zone, the island of Newfoundland does not keep the standard one-hour time difference. Since the island lies exactly three and one-half hours from Greenwich, they have decided to go with the half-hour. Labrador is split, some of it on Atlantic time, and some on Newfoundland time. There have been attempts to have Newfoundland conform with the other Atlantic provinces, but the people of the Rock are happy with the way things are.

I was surprised when researching this question to find that there are other places in the world on "half-hour time" - notably India, Iran, and parts of Australia.

Answer: Cigarettes

All of our British players should have been able to answer that one too, as Player's is a British brand. John Player and Sons started up in Nottingham in 1877; they merged with Imperial Tobacco in 1901.

Package design has been modernized over the years, but they still have the portrait of a sailor on the pack.

Answer: curling

Nearly a million Canadians curl, and more than three million watch it on TV. In fact, it is the official sport of Saskatchewan.

Answer: Political party

The Bloc Quebecois is a separatist federal party that was started in 1990 by Lucien Bouchard, after the failure of the Meech Lake Accord. That's all I'm going to say about that - if you are a Canadian, you already know far more than you want to about this, and if you are not ... believe me, you don't want to know.

Instead, I'll tell you about the new Canadian word: "senate" (v., rhymes with 'sedate')- to stupefy into a trancelike state with prolonged discussions of constitutional reform.

Answer: One blue bill, one purple bill, one polar bear, two caribou, one sailing ship, and one beaver.

The blue bill is a five dollar bill, and the purple one is a ten. Canada does not have a one or two dollar bill, we have instead 'loonies' for ones, and 'toonies' for twos (the toonie has a polar bear on it; the loonie has, that's right, a loon). The caribou, sailing ship, and beaver are, respectively, on the 25 cent, ten cent, and five cent coins. Canada does not have a one cent coin - it began being phased out in 2013.

When Canada did have two dollar bills, there was one province where you seldom saw them. In Alberta, where I grew up, they were considered unlucky, and people would refuse them if they were given in change. I doubt if I saw more than five twos in my life, before I moved to Ontario as an adult.

Answer: Former Prime Minister

Pierre Elliot Trudeau was Canada's Prime Minister from 1968 to 1979, and again from 1980 to 1984. Love him or hate him, he was a highly influential and memorable PM, with a lot of style, and a fierce intelligence.
"Fuddle duddle" was the phrase he "said" he used, when accused of mouthing a more controversial f-word in Parliament. "Just watch me" was his response, when asked if he was willing to declare martial law, during the FLQ crisis of 1970. His "walk in the snow" was followed by the announcement of his retirement, in 1984.

And "N.E.P."? It stands for "National Energy Program", and I don't need to explain that one to you. Instead, you can just pick any number at random out of the Alberta phone book, call it up and ask the person who answers to tell you all about it. They will be glad to, and to let you know why it was "wrong, so wrong".

Answer: Block heaters

Cars built in the sunny climes of the US and Southern Ontario just can't quite handle the winters in the West and North. A block heater keeps the engine from freezing right up when the temperature goes way down. It is usually only plugged in when the car has to sit for long periods, such as overnight. I plug my car in if the temperature is predicted to go below minus 25 Celsius overnight.

Answer: R. C. M. P.

In Canada, the Mounties play a double role. They are the federal police force, much like the F.B.I. in the US. They deal with federal crimes, interprovincial crime, and play an advisory role to other police forces. However, in most of the country (outside of Ontario and Quebec, which have provincial police forces) they are also the rural police. If you are speeding on the highway, or getting drunk and rowdy in a small town bar, it's a Mountie you'll be seeing.

And, sorry, but they don't wear the red serge dress uniform on their day to day duties. Instead, it's just a regular casual looking dark blue jacket.