TORONTO — Canadians like to joke about how little their southern neighbors know about Canada, but a new survey suggests a lack of knowledge also exists north of the border.
Sixty percent of 1003 Canadians failed a 10-question quiz of Canadian facts and history, compared to more than 60 percent of 1,000 Americans who passed a quiz of questions about their country and its history.
For example, the survey showed 79 percent of the Americans knew the first line of their national anthem, while only 37 percent of the Canadians knew the first line of the Canadian anthem.
Ninety percent of Americans surveyed correctly identified George Washington as the country’s first president, while 54 percent of Canadians knew Sir John A. Macdonald was Canada’s first prime minister.
The survey was conducted by the Ipsos-Reid polling company and the Dominion Institute, an independent group that seeks to make Canadians more aware of their history.
