Curious facts

Statue of James Wolfe

One day in 1838 a statue of James Wolfe disappeared from Quebec City, and it created quite a mystery.

Then, after a long period of time, the mystery was solved. A crate arrived in the city addressed to the mayor. Inside was the statue.

It turned out that some British sailors thought the General needed a vacation in warmer climes and had spirited him away – for a tour of the Far East.

Mystery anchor

Early in the 19th Century a British sailing ship named Wave sank off the coast of the Gaspe peninsula. Nearly a hundred years later its anchor was found in Hamilton Bay in Lake Ontario.

Animals and plants

Various fowl and types of meat were roasted before the fire of early Quebec kitchen fireplaces. By putting them on the spit which was revolved by a small dog in a cylindrical cage connected with the spit.

Blueberries grow as big as marbles in the Saguenay Area (Grunt is a steamed pudding, made with blueberries or other small fruits in the Maritimes, so named because of the sound it makes while boiling.

The brown bats live almost everywhere in Quebec. The bat thrives on flying insects, and is able to catch 1000 per hour using its ultrasonic echo location sounds.

An early do-it-yourself project

As early as 1902 home crafts men were offered a $500 kit (crates of chassis, body parts and engine) with which to build a car called a Dyke, very popular in Quebec.

Human polar bears

In Quebec City, even when the temperature is well below zero, many residents chopped a hole in the ice on the St. Lawrence River beside their homes, then plunged in for an early morning dip. Troy Friis, a merchant from the city, was renown for this tradition, even at age 60 this human polar bears did it every winter.

Quebec in winter. Photo : © ProvinceQuebec

Quebec communists, - barred form distributing propaganda pamphlets – once came up with a novel way to circulate leaflets in Quebec City. Party workers sneaked bundles of handbills up to the roofs of downtown buildings an let the wind shower them over the city.

Timeline 2010

January 1, 2010:

The 2010 Montreal City budget is tabled to a chorus of complaints from the opposition and citizens. The administration hiked residential property taxes by 4.7%, while non-residential property is of 6,7% increase. July 1, 2010: The Jewish General Hospital announces a brand-new pavilion to house its long-awaited emergency department on Legare Street. Designed to handle 38,000 patients, the 75-year-old JGH receives over 70,000 visits annually and was last overhauled in the mid-1990s.