Great Canadian biz quiz, Part 2
Think you’re so savvy on the industries of the Great White North? Take this test and find out
In the week leading up to Canada’s 150th birthday, columnist David Olive tests your knowledge of the country’s industries. 1. In a 1975 bid for Canadian self-sufficiency in petroleum after the first world oil shock, of 1973, the government of Pierre Trudeau created crown corporation Petro-Canada, which consolidated much of the oilpatch with its acquisitions of all but which of the following? a) U.S.-owned Atlantic Richfield Canada (Arco) b) U.S.-owned Pacific Petroleums (Philips 66) c) U.S.-owned Great Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. d) Canadian “downstream” assets (refining and retail) of Belgium’s Petrofina S.A. e) Canadian downstream assets of Britain’s BP PLC.
2. Though it patriated much of the Canadian oilpatch from offshore interests, Petro-Canada was resented in Alberta as a federal intrusion on the oilpatch, and its twin-towers Calgary headquarters was locally disparaged as a) Trudeau’s Folly b) Red Square c) 24a Sussex Drive 3. “Smiling” Jack Gallagher’s dreams of finding a bonanza of oil reserves in the Beaufort Sea were finally extinguished with the 1987 purchase of what remained of his once enormous a) Dome Petroleum Ltd. b) Home Oil Ltd. c) Hiram Walker Resources Ltd. by Chicago’s Amoco Corp. 4. Nine years after it was privatized, Petro-Canada was acquired by a) Suncor Energy Inc. b) Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. c) Husky Oil Ltd. 5. Adam Beck, erstwhile cigar-box manufacturer, brought most of Ontario’s electric-power production under the control of the HydroElectric Power Commission of Ontario, the future Ontario Hydro, a crown corporation Beck headed from its inception in a) 1894 b) 1906 c) 1937 6. In 1916, Ottawa cited requirements of the First World War in a) introducing mandatory military service for industrial managers under 40 b) imposing the first corporate taxes, which soon were also applied to individuals c) demanding loyalty oaths from all Canadians over 18, both native-born and immigrants 7. An outcome of railway overbuilding across North America, today’s Canadian National Railway Co. (CNR) was created in 1919 by a) J.P. Morgan b) James Jerome Hill c) Ottawa as an amalgamation of several failed railways. 8. As Quebec minister of hydroelectric resources and public works and later of natural resources, René Lévesque nationalized many of the province’s remaining private electric power utilities, greatly enlarging the 16-year-old Hydro-Québec, a process that began in a) 1952 b) 1960 c) 1976 9. By allowing himself to be fired by prime minister a) Louis St. Laurent b) John Diefenbaker c) Lester Pearson in 1961 rather than bend to PM’s demand for an “easy money” monetary policy, Bank of Canada governor James Coyne established the genuine independence of Canada’s central bank. 10. Taking a page from a contemporary, Margaret Thatcher, Brian Mulroney privatized all but which of the following. a) Canadian National Railway Co. b) Canadair Ltd. c) Air Canada d) de Havilland Aircraft of Canada Ltd. 11. In 1984, Ottawa scrapped its Scientific Research Tax Credit (SRTC) when it became evident that much of the a) $563 million b) $1.1 billion c) $2.8 billion in forsaken tax revenues provided by the effort to stimulate R&D had been stolen by scam artists. Head start 12. The bargain emporium that U.S. émigré Ed Mirvish opened in Toronto in 1948, a pioneering retail concept that sold a limited variety of items but in bulk and at discount prices, opened a) 3 b)7 c) 14 years ahead of Honest Ed’s clones Wal-Mart, K-Mart and Woolco, all launched in the same year. 13. True or false: The Buicks made for the Canadian market by Oshawa, Ont. carriage maker R.S. McLaugh- lin with Buick engines supplied by a fledgling General Motors proved to be sufficiently better built than those made in Buick’s Flint, Mich., birthplace that U.S. buyers paid a premium price for as “McLaughlin Buicks.” 14. E.P. (Edward Plunkett) Taylor, who ruthlessly consolidated the Canadian brewing industry in the 1950s until his Canadian Breweries Ltd. was one of the world’s biggest brewers, was disparaged in some quarters as a) Eminent Possessor Taylor b) Excess Profits Taylor c) Extreme Pressure Taylor 15. Which airline is an awkward amalgam of Canadian Airlines International, CP Air, Pacific Western Airlines, Wardair, Eastern Provincial Airways, Nordair and other former rivals. a) WestJet Airlines Ltd. b) Transat A.T. Inc. c) Air Canada Answers 1)c. 2) b. 3) a. 4) a. 5) b. 6) b. 7) c. 8) b. 9) b. 10) a. 11) c. 12) c. 13) True. 14) b. 15) c.