Canadian Innovation

Canada is home to the invention of ice beer. It is produced by freezing the brew and filtering the ice crystals, increasing the alcohol content.

The inventor of the ice cream cone was born in Sussex Corner - the Dairy Capital of Canada, mid-way along the Fundy Coastal Drive. Locals tell the story of baker Walter Donelly who made a bad batch of dough. He was at a loss with what to do with his hard, crispy pastry. So, he ran next door to the ice cream parlour….and the rest, as they say, is ice cream cone history.

The world's longest covered bridge was completed in Hartland in 1899. It's 390 metres (1,282 feet) long and spans the Saint John River. There are 62 covered bridges in the province. Many of them are in the Sussex area of Kings County- the Covered Bridge Capital of Atlantic Canada. Be sure to make a wish as you drive through. (Oh, and ask one of the locals to tell you why covered bridges are called Kissing Bridges) !

Arthur Ganong returned from fishing expeditions with a sticky gooey mess in his pockets. It seems that Arthur, the son of the founder of Ganongs Chocolates of St. Stephen, had a sweet tooth and would never leave on a fishing trip without a handful of chocolates in his pockets. In 1910 tired of cleaning up the melted mess, young Arthur began wrapping his chocolates in a tin foil. Soon after, Ganongs made individually-wrapped bars of chocolate and sold them for a nickel. They became the world's first chocolate bar!

Canadian, Gideon Sundback, an electrical engineer, was hired to work for the Universal Fastener Company. Good design skills and a marriage to the plant-manager's daughter Elvira Aronson led Sundback to the position of head designer at Universal. Unfortunately, Sundback's wife died in 1911. The grieving husband busied himself at the design table and by December of 1913, he had designed the modern zipper.

It was the board game Time magazine called the "the biggest phenomenon in game history." Trivial Pursuit was first conceived on December 15, 1979 by Chris Haney and Scott Abbott. At the time, Chris Haney worked as a photo editor at the Montreal Gazette, and Scott Abbott was a sports journalist for The Canadian Press. However, it was not until 1981 that the board game was commercially released.