Homeschooling

I put the question to the crew.
What questions do you have about Canada.

They came up with quite a few!

Join me and Amanda as we walk through Blogging the Alphabet “Q”, me with your questions and seeing what Amanda comes up.  🙂

How about special holidays and celebrations there? My son got curious about that when he found out people in Canada don’t have
Thanksgiving in November like we do in America.

 Canadians have thanksgiving at a reasonable time…not rushing Christmas!  🙂  Check out Kym’s post.
 We also have Canada Day (July 1st) and various other statutory holidays. 
Holidays we do in Ontario: Christmas, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day, Family Day (February) not a mandatory day off though, Good Friday and Easter, Easter Monday. Civic Holiday in August, Labour Day and Thanksgiving (October), and Remembrance Day (November).  

What is the political system like? is there a president?
No president, we elect a prime minister.  We have three main parties, the Conservatives, the Liberals and the New Democratic Party.   Currently the Liberals are in power (don’t ask me what I think about that!).  🙂   Currently some localities are testing a ranked ballot system for the next elections, this system only kicks in when the winner of an election wins by less than a certain percentage (can’t recall what that is right now). It then takes into account the popular vote.   We do not vote on a regular schedule, there is a time limit to when the current government MUST call a vote, but there is no set schedule in place for when they can choose to call it.   As long a party is in power…more power to them.   Sucks at times but hey.. there it is.   For more information on how our government works check out this site.

How much of Canada is inhabitable?
This site is REALLY helpful in seeing the population densities of Canada.  I do hope you will go and look.   The image below comes from that page.  Current population of Canada (as of the 2015 Census) is 35.85 million.

Can we learn more about Quebecois music? 
Honestly… haven’t a clue!   🙂  BUT I did find this video on Youtube. 

Does pokemon go have any special pokemon you can only get in Canada?
Nope. 🙂

How about please explain the whole prime minister thing
   How about you explain the whole president thing.. TRUMP….  REALLY?????

What part of Canada do you live in?
 South Western Ontario, near London (not in England).

Do wives all over Canada not take their husband’s last name or is that just QC?

Personal choices, and they vary by region.

Are there any foods unique to Canada?
Nanaimo bars…many people love them, me.. meh Too sweet UNLESS they are frozen, then YUM!!!
Poutine
Tourtiere (meat pie)
Maple syrup.  🙂

What are some Canadian traditions?
Canada Day (Dominion Day) celebrated on July 1st.  Parades, picnics, fireworks.
Thanksgiving at the proper time in October (Americans are so mixed up).  🙂
Family Day is kinda new and makes people ask questions.  It’s a fun day though filled with tons of family activities in almost every part of Ontario.
I dunno though… we are quite similar to Americans but we LOVE snow (for the most part) and do a lot of winter activities, and if you don’t like hockey there’s something wrong with you.  (not really, we are pretty laid back and we’ll apologize if we’ve offended you (or think that we have).  🙂

What type of animals are indigenous to Canada that aren’t in the US? 
 Polar bears.  Seriously LARGE bears.  Don’t want to mess with them.
Canada Lynx
Moose
Beluga Whale
BigHorn Sheep
Canada Goose (though I know you see those down south as they migrate)
Beaver
Tailless frog
There’s a tiny black and red snake found up north but I can’t recall it’s name.
Here’s a video on the loon.

Do you have tea time, like the British, or do you do three meals a day
like most Americans…or do you do something totally different?
Three meals a day plus snacks.  🙂  At least in Ontario and travelling west.  Quebec… might be more French in it’s outlook but I’ve never been there.  French people don’t snack.

The relationship between Canada and the UK. What power does the Queen
have in Canada? What power does the UK have in Canada? (so maybe you
could explain the Lieutenant General to our American friends. And why we
pronounce “Lieutenant” and other words the British way. LOL)
Oh heavens, I hardly know where to to begin. I think perhaps I should do a whole separate series on Canada eh?  🙂  A BRIEF explanation.
 Each province as a lieutenant general who is the nominal head of state for the province and acts as the go between.  We also have a federal lieutentant general who is the president of the senate and resides over the chamber.  Here he/she handles debate and how legislation moves through the chamber. 
 The queen is the official head of state, and comes to visit and honestly.. has nothing really to do with the running of our country.  We love her (really we do as our Queen and there remains a strong interest in the goings on of her family) but our day to day lives are unaffected by her.  🙂

The British pronunciation of the French word “lieutenant” (as “lef-tenant”) is used by the Canadian Armed Forces, but the American pronunciation of “loo-tenant” (which is closer to the original French pronunciation) is sometimes heard as well.  But really to be proper it’s lef-tenant.

 My daughter would
like to know if you still call the police force in Canada constables. 
 Yes, we call them constable… what do you call your police officers??
 We also have mounties…but not in my area. We have a regular police force since we live in Ontario.  But for instance we’d say “Constable Stewart” not officer .. though they do respond equally well to officer.  🙂  For more about the RCMP (the mounties) see here. If you ever have a chance to see the mounties in action you should do so.  Seriously cool to see their mounted musical rides.  Saw them one year but can’t find a picture right now.

How Yellowknife, Northwest Territory got its name.
 The name Yellowknife comes from a Dene band, the Yellowknives, now long
gone, who once lived on the islands in the East Arm of Great Slave Lake
and carried knives with yellow copper blades.   Cool eh?  🙂

Do
people really call Prince Edward Island PEI, like in the Anne books?  
I call it PEI, as does everyone else I know.   The folks I know from out east call it that too, so I don’t see why your children shouldn’t.  🙂  Call it as you will.. I hope to visit it one day.  I’ve been through the west, someday I’ll go through the east. My mom and sister went out last year and they said it was simply marvellous.

If I missed anyone’s questions.. SORRY, not intentional, just how life happens eh?

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My son has a love affair with frogs and toads for as far back as I can remember.  He is particularly fond of toads, but is totally loving it that our small pond out back is host to 4 different frogs.   Ergo when I was contemplating what to do for the letter f…I automatically thought about frogs.

I thought about talking about the common frogs we have in the backyard… and was fully intending to research the life out of them…until I ran into this one small fact…

Frogs, frogs, frogs, Canada has frogs.   LOTS AND LOTS OF FROGS.

Including this funny fact.  We are host to two small populations of TAILED frogs.   Can you believe it?  A frog that has a tail.. and CANADA has TWO populations of slightly different types of them.

I was stoked!!   I just LOVE learning new things… don’t you?

Anyways, on to this amazing little critter.

The Tailed Frog is a remarkable little frog, unique to B.C. in Canada. It is a
small frog, 2.5 to 3 centimetres from nose to rump…..Tailed Frogs have vertical pupils, no external
tympanum (the round “ear” visible on other frogs), and are voiceless. (source)

Originally this little frog was simple called the tailed frog, but in the year 2000, it was split into two species. The first, the coastal species
is called the Pacific Tailed Frog(Ascaphus truei).  The second is called the Rocky Mountain Tailed Frog (Ascaphus montanus).

Both of these frogs live in very small areas of British Columbia, as well as in select area of the United States.  They live in fast flowing streams.  Their population densities are low and believed to be declining since so few of the rivers in the areas they reside are suitable for reproduction.

These two frogs are very close in colouration and needs, they can’t handle temperatures above 20 Celsius. Cold fast flowing, small streaming with an abundance of small micro-climates are just what these frogs need.

They are a long lived frog, juveniles staying close to home but 4-7 year old frogs dispersing widely from their point of birth.  A long incubation period for the eggs, combined with reproducing every other year, and the loss of old growth forests is contributing to their decline.

Both sub-species are protected under the British Columbia Wildlife act, making it illegal to own, trap or kill any member of the species.

Where did I find my information?
Frogwatch.
Canadian BioDiversity.
Image.
Sararegistry for Rocky tailed.
Sararegistry for coastal.
Wikipedia.
British Columbia Frogwatch.

Now just so you know.. Canada has a WHOLE whack of other frogs.  From Spadefoots, spring peepers, tree frogs, bullfrogs, leopard and green frogs, pickerel frogs, cricket and chorus frogs, and so many more.  Check them out eh?  It’s a fascinating wet world to explore.  🙂

You can find out more here.

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