Who We Are

The first 10 questions, with answers

Open a question to see the answer and the explanation.

1. 1. Which three groups are considered Canada's founding peoples?

   • Aboriginal, French and British
   • French, British and Irish
   • Aboriginal, Spanish and British
   • Aboriginal, French and Dutch

   Answer: Aboriginal, French and British. Canadian identity is built on the shared history of the Aboriginal peoples and the French and British settlers who followed them.

2. 2. Where are the ancestors of Canada's Aboriginal peoples believed to have come from?

   • Northern Europe
   • Asia
   • Polynesia
   • Greenland

   Answer: Asia. Aboriginal peoples are believed to have arrived from Asia thousands of years before the first European explorers reached North America.

3. 3. Among Canada's Aboriginal peoples, roughly what share are Inuit?

   • 4%
   • 30%
   • 50%
   • 65%

   Answer: 4%. Most Aboriginal people in Canada are First Nations, with Métis next and the Inuit the smallest of the three groups.

4. 4. Of the three Aboriginal groups, which makes up the largest share — roughly 65% — of Aboriginal people in Canada?

   • Métis
   • Inuit
   • Acadians
   • First Nations

   Answer: First Nations. First Nations people are by far the largest of the three groups, with the Métis next and the Inuit the smallest.

5. 5. In the Inuktitut language, what does the word "Inuit" mean?

   • "The people"
   • "The hunters"
   • "The north"
   • "The ice"

   Answer: "The people". The Inuit take their name from their own language, and live in small communities spread across Canada's Arctic.

6. 6. The Métis are a distinct people of mixed Aboriginal and European ancestry who live mostly in which part of Canada?

   • Vancouver Island
   • The Prairie provinces
   • The Atlantic provinces
   • Southern Ontario

   Answer: The Prairie provinces. Most Métis live in the Prairies, come from both French- and English-speaking backgrounds, and many speak their own language, Michif.

7. 7. True or False: The term "First Nations" came into common use in Canada during the 1970s, replacing the older word "Indian."

   • True
   • False

   Answer: True. "Indian" is now considered outdated, and since the 1970s "First Nations" has been the accepted term.

8. 8. In what year did the Government of Canada formally apologize to the former students of Indian residential schools?

   • 2011
   • 1998
   • 2008
   • 2003

   Answer: 2008. Residential schools operated from the 1800s until the 1980s to assimilate Aboriginal children, and Ottawa issued its formal apology decades after the last ones closed.

9. 9. Roughly how many Canadians speak English as their first language?

   • 7 million
   • 12 million
   • 25 million
   • 18 million

   Answer: 18 million. Anglophones number about 18 million, compared with roughly 7 million Francophones.

10. 10. Roughly how many Canadians speak French as their first language?

    • 7 million
    • 18 million
    • 3 million
    • 11 million

    Answer: 7 million. About 7 million Canadians are Francophones, the large majority of them living in Quebec.

57 more questions in this chapter open with a free account.