The Guess Who
This 1960s rock band from Winnipeg was named Chad allan & the Reflections when they recorded their first single. Trying to add some mystique (and maybe fool customers into thinking it was a more...
Canada
The Tragically Hip
When the 1960s made-for-TV Monkees split up, member Micheal Nesmith embarked on his own projects, trying to reclaim his sense of artistic integrity. In 1981 he made a movie called Elephant Parts that included...
Pablum
The first cooked dried infant cereal, Pablum, is 100 percent Canadian and still i use today. In 1931 three doctors at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children developed an easily digested cereal and fortified it...
Ginger Ale
Back around the turn of the 20th century Toronto pharmacist John J. McLaughlin was busy making fruit-and-herb-flavored soda water that he sold to local drugstores for their soda fountains. In 1904 he developed a...
May West Cake
The creme-filled, chocolate-frosted snack cake was originally named Mae West after the buxom actress, but the name changed in the 1980s to avoid lawsuits from the actress’s estate
Harvey’s
The Harvey’s fast food chain is named for an unsuccessful Toronto auto dealer. In 1959 restaurateur Rick Mauran wanted a simple name for is new operation. He considered “Humphrey’s,” but then ran across the...
Geese is the Word … Air Canada
During migration, Canada geese fly 3,000 to 5,000 kilometers (1,800 to 3,100 miles) each way, but it doesn’t work the same in both directions. Going south, they move fast, as far as 1,000 kilometers...
Bloody Caesar Cocktail
The Bloody Caesar was invented in 1969 at an Italian restaurant inside the Calgary Inn (now the Westin Hotel) when bartender Walter Chell created a cocktail to commemorate the restaurant’s opening. Taking cues from...
Fuller Brush
“Fuller” wasn’t a description of the bristles, but the last name of the company’s founder, Alfred Carl Fuller (1885-1973). A self-described country bumpkin. Fuller grew up on a farm in Welsford, Nova Scotia. His...
Right Place Wrong Time
A Mountie in Surrey, British Columbia, responded to a burglary call in August 2009. He pulled right up in front of the store being robbed at 72nd Avenue and Scott Road ready to catch the bad...
