Forget Labatt’s beer and maple syrup. Canadians have created plenty of
awesome and strange stuff, and here are 13 things you probably didn’t know
were proudly made in Canada. While hockey players and great beer may be
Canada’s favourite exports, there are actually tons of great Canadian
products used around the world every day. And while everybody knows the
telephone was invented in Canada, how many people know that 95 per cent of
the world’s Lentils come from Saskatchewan, or that we make more submarines
than most countries combined? Check out this strange and surprising list of
Canada’s most fascinating exports, and let us know what we forgot in the
comment section below.
1. Did You Know Most of the World’s French Fries Come from New Brunswick?
New Brunswick-based McCain Foods makes one-third of all the frozen French
fries produced in the world, and many come from a $65-million state-of-the
art potato processing plant that’s in Florenceville-Bristol
Brunswick has taken on the moniker ‘The French Fry Capital of the Worlddd_’
Not surprisingly, this is the location of the Potato World museum, and the
heart of the mid-July National French Fry Day celebrations.
2. Did You Know Carlton Place Makes the World’s Best Baseball Bats?
In 2012, more than 100 Major League Baseball players chose to swing
Canadian maple wood bats — better known as the “Sam Bat”. Sam Holman,
founder of the The Original Maple Bat Corporation
invented the bat by choosing maple wood, a harder wood than the
traditionally used ash. So, if you see a professional player with a little
logo on their baseball bat, that’s one of the 18,000 sluggers produced each
year in Carlton Place, a half-hour from Ottawa.
3. Did You Know Saskatchewan Makes Most of the World’s Lentils?
Mmmm, Lentils! Whether home or travelling abroad, order some lentil
of home. Canada is the largest exporter of green lentils in the world —
about 1.5 million metric tonnes annually, with 95% of it coming from
Saskatchewan.
4. Did You Know Scarborough Makes Most of the World’s Halls?
If you pick up a pack of Halls
getting another little taste of home since they are made in Scarborough,
Ontario. The plant at Bertrand produced more than 6 billion pieces of
“medicine” for the U.S. last year — enough that if you lined them
side-by-side they would circle the earth at the equator approximately 3.4
times.
5.. Did You Know Winnipeg Mints Coins for Over 60 Countries?
Canada produces currency for more countries than you can imagine! The
Royal Winnipeg Mint
countries, including Centavos for Cuba, kroner for Norway, and pesos for
Colombia. Currently the mint can produce over 20 million coins a day.
6. Did You Know Hamilton Makes the World’s Swedish Fish?
Those chewy Swedish Fish
in Sweden! More than 5 billion of the colourful little candies are produced
in Hamilton, Ontario every year — that’s all of the Swedish Fish consumed
in North America. Every day about 13 million of the little fish are
produced at a factory in Hamilton, which also makes all Maynards Candy for
Canada, and key brands for the U.S., including Sour Patch Kids.
7. Did You Know Toronto Makes the World’s Best Racing Bikes?
Using the same tools and techniques as Formula One teams,
Toronto-basedCervélo
called the world’s fastest and lightest bikes. At the 2008 Olympics in
Beijing, athletes riding Cervélo bikes won 10 medals, while in 2008 Carlos
Sastre rode a Cervélo bike to win le Tour de France.
8. Did you Know Winnipeg Makes Most of the World’s Scratch Cards?
Walk into almost any corner store in the world for an instant win lottery
ticket, and there’s a good chance your scratch card was printed by Winnipeg
company Pollard Banknote
1907, Pollard now has facilities throughout North America, however a
significant amount of its lottery scratch cards are still made in Canada.
9. Did You Know the World’s Best Cymbals come from New Brunswick?
Where do the cymbals used by Rush, Keith Harris of the Black Eyed Peas,
the Philadelphia Orchestra and marching bands around the world come from?
The small village of Meductic (population 300), located along the Saint
John River in southern New Brunswick. SABIAN
cymbals are sold in 120 countries around the world.
10. Did You Know Trenton Makes Tons of Dinos?
No, they don’t make dinosaurs like in Jurassic Park, but close. Research
Casting International
constructing dinosaur remains (casting, restoring, mounting, repairing), is
located in a 45,000 sq.ft. airplane-hanger-sized building in Trenton,
Ontario. The company has created more than 750 of the mighty beasts for
museums around the world.
11. Did You Know Kelowna Makes Most of the World’s Water Slides?
When you slip down one of those clear tube water slides on a Disney
Cruise, you’re likely using Canadian design and technology. Canada’s
Whitewater West Industries Ltd.
parks attraction company in the world. Their Kelowna, B.C. facility,
FormaShape, makes thousands of water slides each year.
12. Did You Know Peterborough is the Custom Aircraft Capital of Canada?
Flying Colours Corp.
Ontario doesn’t make airplanes, but they sure make them special.
Entertainment systems, corporate logos, iPad-holders, custom exterior
paint, upholstery, and they’ve even added a permanent bed in an aft cabin.
Everything is custom made in-house, from the leather seats and wood trim to
the side walls — for customers from across the globe, including much of
Europe, the Middle East, Russia, Asia, and India.
13. Did you know B.C. Makes Tons of Submarines?
Atlantis Submarines
Columbia, actually owns more submarines than many countries — but these
ones are used for tourism. The Canadian company initiated the world’s first
commercial tourist submarine in the Cayman Islands in 1986. More than 10
million people have since experienced underwater adventures in their 48 and
64 passenger submarines in the Caribbean and Pacific. The subs they operate
in Barbados, the Cayman Islands, Aruba, St. Martin, Cozumel, Curacao & Guam
were all made in Canada.
Cat