As Canadians mark the country's 138th birthday Friday, a new survey shows we're failing in our knowledge of Canadian economic history.
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The Hon. Donald A. Smith drives home the last spike in Eagle Pass B.C. on Nov. 7, 1885. (CP Photo/National Archives of Canada)
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The average Canadian correctly answered eight of 20 questions in the survey, which was commissioned by the Dominion Institute and conducted by the Innovative Research Group.
One person in the 1,000 people surveyed a male living in B.C. successfully answered all 20 questions.
When asked what was the major world event that brought Canadian women into the workforce, 78 per cent correctly answered World War II.
Sixty-four per cent identified NAFTA as the trade agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico, while about half (54 per cent) knew the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed with the hammering of the Last Spike.
Other results included:
- 8 per cent knew former prime minister Pierre Trudeau's National Energy program sparked a bumper sticker reading "Let the Eastern bastards freeze in the dark."
- 20 per cent identified pemmican as a combination of dried meat and berries used by the M¨tis to feed fur traders.
- 67 per cent knew the Hudson's Bay Company got its start from the fur trade.
Canadians aged 45-64 did the best on the survey with an average score of 8.7 correct questions. Canadians aged 65 and older averaged 8 correct questions; 35-44 year-olds answered an average of 7.4 correct questions; and people aged 18-34 got an average of 7.5 answers right.
The phone survey of 1,000 Canadians took place between June 13-17. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1%, 19 times out of 20.
