The All-Canadian Trivia Game features questions about Metro Moncton
Metro features in new Cdn. trivia game
But researchers goofed on location of big blueberry and city status for Dieppe
TIMES & TRANSCRIPT STAFF Published Monday December 17th, 2007
Trivia question: Where is the world's largest blueberry located?
If you answered Petitcodiac, you'd technically wrong but right according to the latest version of The All Canadian Trivia Board Game. If you answered Oxford, N.S., you'd be technically correct, but wrong according to the game.
So which is really right?
Well, for many years, the world's largest blueberry -- actually a concrete structure painted bright blue with happy eyes and little stick arms like a snowman -- stood by a blueberry stand on the old Trans Canada Highway between River Glade and Petitcodiac. When the old highway was replaced with the new twinned highway, the old highway became the Homestead Road and many of the businesses -- including the blueberry stand -- closed down. Around 1998 or so, the big blueberry statue was moved to its current location in a little park next to the Irving Mainway in Oxford. There he remains, smiling as people pose for pictures with him.
Apparently the blueberry didn't send a change of address card to the good people at Outset Media Games, all the way at the other end of the country in Victoria, B.C. The all-new version of The All Canadian Trivia Board Game still lists his home as Petitcodiac, N.B.
The blueberry question is one of several that test players' knowledge of geography here on Canada's east coast and the Metro Moncton region.
Others touch on the region's high tides, the Confederation Bridge, Gordie Drillon's achievements in the NHL in the 1930s, the big lobster in Shediac and the Northrop Frye Festival.
Sherry Cournoyer, a spokeswoman for Outset Media Games in Victoria, said the game recently won a Canadian Toy Testing Council Three-Star award, the highest rating. It is a national best-seller with over 100,000 copies in circulation since it was first released 10 years ago. There is also a French-language version and a Millennium edition.
The Canadian trivia game was first designed by David Manga. As the story goes, Menga was a fan of the popular Trivial Pursuit game who realized while playing that he knew more about U.S. geography than he did about Canada. He went searching for a Canadian-themed game and when he couldn't find one decided to create his own.
"He did everything himself," Cournoyer said. "He made up all the questions about Canada and then bought a white van and covered it with maple leaves and went across the country selling it from store to store. He's still working very hard at it."
In an interview posted on the company's website, Manga says creating the game led him to some obscure facts about Canada.
"I'm always amazed that with each new edition of All Canadian Trivia there always seems to be interesting new trivia tidbits to find," he says. "Probably the most interesting event I read about was something that was dubbed the Great Stork Derby. A wealthy lawyer with a wild sense of humour left a fortune to the woman who had the most babies over a ten-year period. It created quite a media sensation in Toronto during the Great Depression. Four women ended up sharing the prize. I think they had nine babies each."
Cornoyer said the 10th anniversary edition includes all-new game play, a redesigned game board and packaging. Like the original edition, this new edition features 100 per cent Canadian content, with 2160 questions in four categories: geography, history, arts and general. More than 1,000 new questions are included, with the balance made up of the best classic questions, like "Where are the highest tides?"
According to the publisher, the questions are written for the average person with the focus about learning about Canada.
"We added a little more spice for people who wanted to step up from the original edition."
Among the popular questions is which Vancouver Island community counts celebrity Pamela Anderson as its most famous resident.
Cornoyer said the questions and answers were researched and updated to bring them up to date.
But a couple of local things apparently slipped by. Besides the wrong location of the big blueberry, one game question asks which province the town of Dieppe is located in, apparently missing the fact that Dieppe is now a city.
Metro features in new Canadian trivia game.
