Could You Pass This Canadian History Quiz?

They’re really not difficult questions: Who was the first prime minister of Canada? When was the country born? In what war was the Battle of Vimy Ridge fought?

You may know the answers to all of those queries. But a lot of the people around you don’t. That’s what a new poll from the Dominion Institute discovered. As Remembrance Day nears on Sunday, a study shows 82 per cent of younger Canadians failed a basic exam about Canadian history. Fully eight in ten couldn’t answer even simple questions about our past – which has some worried about our future.

The questionnaire, which was last put to the populous in 1997, shows we’ve become slightly less informed over the past ten years, with one per cent more unable to answer the basics.

The pollsters asked people in the 18-24 year old age group a series of 30 questions – the same ones they used a decade ago. Just 18 percent managed to get 16 out of 30, for a barely passing grade. Only 26 per cent knew that Canada’s birthday was July 1, 1867. A small 46 per cent could name  Sir John A. Macdonald (top left) as the country’s original prime minister. And a tiny 37 per cent correctly I.D.’d World War I as the time Canadians distinguished themselves at Vimy Ridge.

Institute founder Rudyard Griffiths is dismayed by the findings, noting millions have been spent on TV “Heritage Minutes”, war museums and more, but the message or the interest doesn’t seem to be there. “We haven’t moved the dial,” he complains. “On some areas of our past, most notably our political history, there’s been a precipitous decline in knowledge.”

So how would you do on the test? Take a sample now to find out. Click on the jump to answer link to see the correct response, then use your backspace button to return to the next question. And for more on the poll and its province-by-province results, click here.

1) Which country took control of Quebec away from France, by winning the battle of the Plains of Abraham? Jump to answer

2) Who was Canada’s first francophone Prime Minister? Jump to answer

3) What term is used to describe the severe economic hardships of the 1930’s? Jump to answer

4) In the 19th century, some inhabitants of what is now Quebec rebelled against the colonial government of the time. Who was the leader of that rebellion? Jump to answer

5) What was the name of the route to Canada taken by blacks escaping slavery in the US? Jump to answer

6) Name one group of Canadians who were evacuated from the West Coast during WWII because of their ethnic origin? Jump to answer

7) What Canadian city was severely damaged by a massive explosion in its harbour in 1917? Jump to answer

8) Which province was the last one to join Canada? Jump to answer

9) In 1944, Canadians joined in an event called D Day. What happened on that day? Jump to answer

10) Remembrance Day in Canada falls on November 11. November 11 was the last day of which war? Jump to answer

11) In what year were all Canadian women eligible to vote in federal elections? Jump to answer

12) Many of the early settlers of what is now New Brunswick and Nova Scotia spoke French and were resettled by the British government. What are those people and their descendants called? Jump to answer

13) The members of which ethnic group were once forced to pay a head tax to immigrate to Canada? Jump to answer  

14) Name one of the wars in which Canada was invaded by the United States. Jump to answer

15) What is the name of the Metis leader who was hanged by the federal government in 1885? Jump to answer

16) What economic issue between the US and Canada dominated the Canadian Federal elections of 1891, 1911 and 1988? Jump to answer

17) What American war helped convince Canadians and their leaders to unite and form a federation in the north? Jump to answer

18) What name is commonly used to refer to the British subjects who fled to Canada during and after the American Revolution? Jump to answer

19) Name two countries Canada fought against during World War I? Jump to answer

20) What term is commonly used to refer to early French fur traders in Canada? Jump to answer

21) Name the Canadian who received the Noble Prize for Peace in 1957 for his efforts to peacefully resolve the Suez Crisis and then went on to become Prime Minister. Jump to answer

22) What is the name commonly given to the political and social movement that swept Quebec in the beginning of the 1960’s? Jump to answer

23) Who was the first Canadian in space? Jump to answer

24) What year was Canada’s constitution patriated from Great Britain? Jump to answer

25) Name a Canadian who received the Noble Prize for the discovery of insulin? Jump to answer

26) What is the name of the native people of Newfoundland who were hunted to extinction by Europeans? Jump to answer

Answers:

1) England

2) Wilfred Laurier

3) The Great Depression

4) Louis-Joseph Papineau

5) The Underground Railway

6) The Japanese

7) Halifax

8) Newfoundland

9) Invasion of Europe/ France/ Normandy

10) World War I

11) 1921

12) Acadians

13) Chinese Canadians

14) War of 1812/Revolutionary/War of Independence

15) Louis Riel

16) Free Trade

17) The Civil War

18) Loyalists /United Empire Loyalists

19) Germany/Austria/Austro-Hungarian/Turkey

20) Voyageurs/Coureurs des bois

21) Lester B. Pearson

22) The Quiet Revolution

23) Marc Garneau

24) 1982

25) Banting/MacCloud/Collip

26) Beothuks