O, Canada - An Insider's Guide to Top, Best Canadian Travel Destinations

In honor of Victoria Day, or the "24th of May long weekend", as the Queen's official birthday is affectionately referred to in much of Canada, we, on Hub Pages, are celebrating by offering a collection of hubs on "things Canadian" - articles about Canadian travel destinations, Canadian cuisine, Canadian artists and performers, Canadian history, odd facts about Canadian politics, education, and our original settlers - the peoples of Canada's First Nations.

Along with this veritable cornucopia of Canadiana, there are also some very fine hubs of Canadian travel destinations. Whether you are planning a trip to Canada, or prefer to browse our scenic delights from the comfort of your home, this article is definitely your first stop.

Did you know that...?

• At 8,891 kilometers (5,525 miles) long, including 2,475 kilometers (1,538 miles) shared with Alaska, the longest undefended border in the world, known as the International Boundary, lies between Canada and the United States
• You can still hitch your horse (use your reins to tether your horse) to a hitchin' rail in downtown Calgary
• Insulin, used to control diabetes, was first discovered and produced by Canadian doctors, Frederick Banting and Charles Best
  
• At low tide, the Saint John River tumbles down through a narrow gorge into the Bay of Fundy. At high tide in the bay, the rising tide is too strong for the river, forcing the waters to flow upstream. Twice a day, every day, the tidal bore forces its way upstream and is still quite noticeable by the time it reaches the city of Moncton, many miles inland
• Canada, without any significant wars or battles, signed treaties with its First Nations peoples, who remain unconquered to this day
  
• The average annual rainfall in Bella Coola, BC., is 250 cm (about 100 inches)
• In sharp contrast, Canada's southern desert has an average rainfall of less than 12 inches per year, and summer temperatures can rise to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The desert which boasts plants and animals found nowhere else in Canada, is approximately 15 miles long, inhabiting an area from Osoyoos Lake to Skaha Lake and westward up the Similkameen Valley towards Keremeos
• Canada's official currency includes a one dollar coin, affectionately called a "loonie", bears the image of the Common Loon. The call of the loon is synonymous with Canada's wilderness. The two dollar coin which bears the image of a Polar Bear is called (no, not a "bear-ie") a "toonie", named for the two, distinctive metals that comprise it.
  
• Think of Canada as "the Frozen North"? Best rethink that - Canada is homw to two deserts, and, according to the Guinness World Book of records, Canada one of them is the world's smallest desert, found in the Yukon - see video below
  

• Canada has no active volcanoes
• Canada's Baffin Island, the fifth biggest island on Earth, is more than double the size of the UK, and is only slightly smaller than France.
• Lester Bowles Pearson, formerly Canada's Prime Minister, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace
• Wood Buffalo National Park, in Alberta, Canada's largest park, is home to the world's largest bison herd and the only nesting site of the whooping crane
• The Trans-Canada Highway at 7,604 kilometers long, is the longest national highway in the world. Completed in 1962, it stretches from St. John's, Newfoundland, on the Atlantic Ocean, to Victoria, British Columbia, on the Pacific Ocean
• The world's first chocolate bar was invented in 1910 by Arthur Ganong, son of the founder of Ganong's Chocolates, who began wrapping his chocolates in foil to avoid having them melt in his pockets - Ganong began selling the individually wrapped bars of chocolate for 5 cents
• Insulin, used to control diabetes, was first discovered and produced by Canadian doctors, Frederick Banting and Charles Best
• In Canada's high arctic, the sun never sets in the high summer - see video below

© 2010, Text by Elle Fredine, All rights reserved