Hilarious Canadian Place Names Quiz

Answer: Ha! Ha!

Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!, Quebec is located south of the St. Lawrence River in eastern Quebec. The exclamation marks are officially part of the name of the town. Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! lies on the Trans-Canada Highway, so many pass by this funny-sounding name on their trips across the country.

It is thought that the "haha" in the name actually comes from an ancient French word for "impasse". In 2017, the town set a Guinness World Record for "the most exclamation points in a town name".

Answer: Wawa

Wawa, Ontario lies on the Trans-Canada highway in the Sault Ste. Marie area. It became a town during the fur trading days in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Later, minerals were discovered in the area and it became a mining town. In 1960, a 8.5-metre (28-foot) statue of a Canada goose was built on the edge of town as a tourist attraction to draw drivers into the town from the nearby Trans-Canada Highway. Wawa got its name from the Ojibwe (local First Nation) word for "wild goose" ("wewe").

Answer: Love, SK

Love is a very small town in the eastern part of Saskatchewan, about halfway between its southern and northern borders. It is actually named after Tom Love who was one of the first train conductors in the area. People from all over have sent packages of wedding invitations to the post office in Love so that the invitations can be stamped with the rather cute and romantic postmark that is used there before the invitations are sent to their final destinations.

Answer: Cardigan, PEI

Cardigan, PEI was actually named after James Brudenell, the 5th Earl of Cardigan. So, even though a cardigan is an item of clothing that many a knitter has created, the town name really has nothing to do with needles and yarn.

Answer: Alberta

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump was used for thousands of years by the indigenous people who inhabited the area. Before they had access to horses, they would drive the buffalo towards a cliff where many animals would be forced over due to the herd pushing along from behind.

The injured animals would then be killed and processed beneath the cliff for food, clothing and dwellings made from the hides, and tools made from the bones. The site was abandoned after European contact, but has recently become an important centre of knowledge with the appointment as a World Heritage site, and the creation of an interpretive centre.

Answer: Named after a dog.

Tiny is a small town on the eastern end of Georgian Bay in Ontario. Its size didn't bring about its name, though. It is actually named after the pet dog of Lady Sarah Maitland. She was Sir Peregrine Maitland's wife. He was Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada from 1818 to 1828, the representative of the King of the United Kingdom in Upper Canada at the time that the town came into existence.

Answer: Mayo

There is a Mayo in the Yukon Territory, and a Mayo in the province of Quebec. The town in the Yukon is named after former circus acrobat turned settler and explorer Alfred Mayo. The town in Quebec was named by its Irish settlers who named it after part of their home country.

Answer: Yes

Swastika is a small community that was created around a mining site in Northern Ontario in 1908, long before the negative connotations that resulted from Hitler's use of the swastika symbol during WWII. The town was actually named after the Sanskrit good-luck symbol "Swastika".

Despite the negative connotations, the town's name remains as it did back in the first years of the twentieth century.

Answer: Stoner

Stoner is a quiet town near Prince George, BC (the nearest larger city). It may have been named after nearby Stone Creek, but that is not clear. In any case, it sounds like a destination for proponents of legalizing marijuana.

Answer: Mushaboom

Mushaboom may sound like "mushroom", but it actually comes from a Mikmaq (First Nations) term for "a pile of hair". Legend has it that fairies would run around and pull one another's hair as they played. If any hair came away, they would scatter it on the ground. Nova Scotia born singer Feist wrote a song called "Mushaboom" in honour of this town that is on the southeastern shore of the province.