Social Records

Geography World Matters Accidents Crime Money

Record holders and places are Canadian unless noted.
(GWR - Guinness World Record)

Longest Boundaries
Including the Great Lakes boundaries but excluding the 2,547-km (1,538-mile) Alaskan border, the boundary between Canada and the United States is 6, 416 km (3,987 miles) long. It is also the longest undefended border.
The boundary between Canada and Greenland is the longest maritime border at 2,697 km (1,676 miles) long. (GWR 1998)

Northernmost Continuously Habitation
The Canadian Department of National Defence outpost at Alert on Ellesmere Island set up in 1950 is at 80°30´N, 62°W (GWR 1998)

Top

Biggest Contributors to Peacekeeping
As of 2001, Canada and Fiji have taken part in 40 out of 49 United Nations peacekeeping missions. (GWR 2001)

Most Elections Contested
John 'The Engineer' Turnel of Nepean, Ontario, has contested 41 elections at municipal, provincial and federal levels as an Independent candidate since 1979. (GWR 1998)

Highest Ratio Of Higher Education
Canada had a ratio of 6,980 tertiary-level students per 100,000 in 1998. (GWR 1998)

Highest Budget For Education
Canada, Finland and Norway spend 7.3% of their GDP on primary, secondary and tertiary education. (GWR 1998)

Top

Greatest Non-Warfare Casualties On One Ship
1,153 people died on the Titanic when it sank after hitting an iceberg off Newfoundland in April 1912. (GWR 1998)

Worst Accidental Explosion
The freighter Mont Blanc, packed with 5,000 tonnes of explosives and combustibles, collided with another ship in the Halifax harbour on December 17, 1917, creating a blast felt more than 95 km (60 miles) away and killed 1,635 people. (GWR 1998)

Top

Largest Object Stolen By One Person
Armed with only a sharp axe, N. William Kennedy slashed the mooring lines of the SS Orient Trader docked at Wolfe's Cove in the St. Lawrence Seaway. The vessel drifted to a waiting black-out tug evading a ban on shipping movements during a wildcat strike and sailed to Spain. (GWR 1998)

Top

Richest Media Tycoon
Kenneth Thomson, head of publishing and information group Thomson Corp., had a fortune of $16.1 million US in 2000. (GWR 2001)

Top