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Explore knowledge selected to support preparation for the Canadian citizenship test. Every record on this page belongs to the Citizenship Test collection within our knowledge base.
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Michael Ondaatje was appointed Companion of the Order of Canada in 2016. The appointment recognizes a poet, novelist and editor whose books include The English Patient.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Tulane Public Relations · Photo licence: CC BY 2.0 · Credit & context
Joy Kogawa was appointed Member of the Order of Canada in 1986. The appointment recognizes an author whose novel Obasan portrays the wartime treatment of Japanese Canadians.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Vancouver Heritage Foundation · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 · Credit & context
Robertson Davies was appointed Companion of the Order of Canada in 1972. The appointment recognizes a writer whose work spans literature, theatre and journalism.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Gotfryd, Bernard, photographer · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Canadarm2, a 17-metre robotic arm, is part of Canada’s contribution to the International Space Station and was extensively involved in assembling it. It moves end-over-end around the station, can handle loads of up to 116,000 kg, and grapples visiting spacecraft; with Dextre and the Mobile Base System it makes up Canada’s robotic contribution.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: NASA · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
At his father’s home near Brantford, Ontario, Alexander Graham Bell conceived the fundamental principle of the telephone on 26 July 1874. There, on 3 and 4 August 1876, he publicly demonstrated his patented invention, and on 10 August he made a long-distance call, to Paris, 13 kilometres away.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: K Danko · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 · Credit & context
Michael Smith of the University of British Columbia shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing site-directed mutagenesis.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: File:Michael Smith party at Mary Vickers's house.1994, F-109-7-0-0-10 001.jpg: SCWIST Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology derivative work: Michał Sobkowski · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
Richard Taylor, born in Medicine Hat, Alberta, in 1929, shared the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physics for experiments around 1970 that scattered high-energy electrons off protons and neutrons.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: ENERGY.GOV · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Sidney Altman, born in Montréal in 1939, shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Thomas Cech for discovering that RNA, not only proteins, can act as an enzyme.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: NIH · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
John Polanyi of the University of Toronto shared the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for contributions to the dynamics of chemical elementary processes.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Bengt Oberger · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
Gerhard Herzberg of the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa received the 1971 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contributions to knowledge of the electronic structure and geometry of molecules, particularly free radicals.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Willy Pragher · Photo licence: CC BY 4.0 · Credit & context
During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Canadian diplomat Lester B. Pearson proposed a peacekeeping force, and the United Nations launched its first large-scale peacekeeping mission, the United Nations Emergency Force, commanded by Canada’s Major-General E.L.M. “Tommy” Burns. Canadians served with UN troops in Egypt from 1956 to 1967 and again from 1973 to 1979; Pearson received the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Indonesian Ministry of Information and the Information Department of the Indonesian Army · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Members of the Canadian Armed Forces have served in dozens of peacekeeping efforts with the United Nations, NATO and other multinational operations. Peacekeepers are neutral international troops sent to countries in turmoil to reduce tensions and restore peace, monitoring ceasefires, patrolling buffer zones, clearing landmines and providing humanitarian aid.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Pierre André Leclercq · Photo licence: CC BY 4.0 · Credit & context
After the attacks of 11 September 2001, Canada joined the international coalition against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which had sheltered Al-Qaeda. More than 40,000 Canadians served there, the largest deployment of Canadian troops since the Second World War, in a conflict that lasted more than 12 years, the longest in Canada’s history. Canada led Operation MEDUSA, its largest combat operation since the Korean War.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: ISAF photo by U.S. Air Force TSgt Laura K. Smith · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939 began more than six years of fighting on land, at sea and in the air that ended in 1945. More than one million Canadians and Newfoundlanders served in uniform at home and around the world; over 45,000 gave their lives and another 55,000 were wounded.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Canadian Official photographer · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
When Britain declared war in August 1914, Canada, whose external affairs were still governed by the United Kingdom, was automatically at war. More than 650,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders served in what was then called the Great War; more than 66,000 died and more than 172,000 were wounded. Canada signed the Treaty of Versailles separately from Britain.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Castle, W.I. (William Ivor), official Canadian War photographer · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
The South African War, also known as the Boer War, was fought in southern Africa from 1899 to 1902 between the British Empire and the Boers. More than 7,000 Canadians volunteered to serve alongside British forces, and five earned the Victoria Cross. In February 1900 Canadians played an important role at Paardeberg, the first major British victory of the war.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: D. Gordon E. Robertson · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 · Credit & context
In 1945, Prime Minister Mackenzie King led the Canadian delegation to the United Nations Conference in San Francisco, which ran from April 25 to June 26.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Nicholas Morant / National Film Board of Canada. Phototheque / Library and Archives Canada / C-022717 · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
The dense forests, glacial waters, high peaks and deep canyons of Banff National Park in Alberta provide habitat for 56 species of mammals, 300 species of birds and more than 800 species of plants. Building on a long history of wildlife research and conservation, Parks Canada works to protect and restore the park for future generations.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Florian Fuchs · Photo licence: CC BY 3.0 · Credit & context
Joseph Howe, born in Halifax and largely self-taught, became publisher of the Novascotian and by 1836 was his province’s leading journalist and orator. Elected that year, he led the struggle that won responsible government in 1848. An eloquent opponent of Confederation in the 1860s, he joined the federal cabinet in 1869 after negotiating “better terms” for Nova Scotia, and shortly before his death in 1873 became its lieutenant governor.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: William Notman · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Lester B. “Mike” Pearson, Canada’s fourteenth prime minister, was an influential diplomat who became Secretary of State for External Affairs in 1948, helped form NATO and won the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership at the United Nations during the Suez crisis. Liberal leader from 1958 and prime minister from 1963 to 1968, he promoted bilingualism, championed the new flag, and brought in universal medicare and the Canada Pension Plan.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Capital Press · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Ernest MacMillan, composer and organist, was knighted in 1935 for services to music in Canada. For many years he conducted the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, led the Toronto Conservatory of Music and was dean of music at the University of Toronto. He promoted music at every level, supporting national music organizations, publishing, and conducting and judging festivals across the country.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Noel Rubie · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine, a jurist and reformer born at Boucherville in 1807, was one of the architects of responsible government in Canada. With Robert Baldwin he led the reform governments of the Province of Canada in 1842 and 1848. He left politics in 1851, became Chief Justice of Lower Canada in 1853 and was made a baronet in 1854.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Indéterminé · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Sir Robert Borden, born at Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia, led the Conservative Party from 1901 and was Prime Minister from 1911 to 1920. He guided Canada through the First World War, imposed conscription for overseas service in 1917 and formed a Union government of Liberals and Conservatives. He is remembered above all for insisting that Canada act as an autonomous nation in international diplomacy.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Notman, Boston · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Louis de Buade de Frontenac, governor of New France from 1672 to 1682 and 1689 to 1698, shaped the colony’s military destiny: he resisted the British attack of 1690 and invaded Haudenosaunee territory in 1696. To profit from the fur trade he defied policy against westward expansion, founding Fort Frontenac (Cataraqui) in 1673 and starting a network of posts; he remains a controversial, legendary figure.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Photo: Jean Gagnon · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 · Credit & context