Toronto
When did Rob Ford take office?
When were the last municipal elections held?
Name the 5 Toronto municipalities.
- North York, Etobicoke, Scarborough, East York and City of Toronto.
What is the city’s main governing and legislative body?
- Toronto City Council
How many Councilors sit on the Toronto City Council?
What is the name of Rob Ford’s friend who was arrested for drug charges?
- Alessandro Lissi
What are the two largest sources of revenue for the City of Toronto?
- Property Taxes and Provincial Grants and Subsidies.
What are the 3 largest industries (by percentage of GDP) in Toronto?
- Financial Services (14%), Real Estate (14%) and Wholesale and Retail Trade (12%)
What is the population of Toronto as per 2011 census?
What are the coordinates of Toronto?
- Latitude: 43°42′00″ N
- Longitude: 79°24′58″ W
- Elevation above sea level: 173 m = 567 ft
Global Politics
Who became the 266th pope of the Catholic church in March 2013?
- Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio. He replaced Pope Benedict XVI who resigned.
Name of the former CIA contractor who exposed a massive surveillance program named PRISM operated by the United States, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia?
- Edward Snowden
Name of the football star who was accused of shooting Odin Lloyd?
- Aaron Hernandez of the New England Patriots
Who is the world’s most powerful person of 2013 according to Forbes?
- Vladimir Putin
What did the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Prince William & Kate Middleton) name their first born son?
Who is the current President of Iran?
Who is North Korea’s dictator?
- Kim Jong-Un, the young leader of North Korea who took over from his late father in 2011, Kim Jong-Il
Who is first female President of South Korea?
What is the name of Chile’s first woman President?
Who is the Prime Minister of Israel?
Which state in the US became the 14th state to recognize same sex marriage last month?
What is the name of the Chinese politician who was sentenced to life in prison for embezzlement, accepting bribes, and abuses of power?
- Bo Xilai (his wife Gu Kailai, is currently serving a suspended death sentence, the equivalent of life in prison, for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.)
Economics and Business
Who was the richest person in Toronto in 2012?
- David Thomson. With an estimated net worth of around $23.0 billion Cdn as of 2010, Thomson and his family are the richest in Canada and 22nd richest in the world according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
What are the biggest companies in the world by revenue?
- Royal Dutch Shell ($481.7B), Wal-Mart ($469.2B), Exxon Mobil ($449.9B), Sinopec ($428.2B), China National Petro ($408.6B)
Who are the world’s richest according to Forbes?
- Carlos Slim Helu and family ($73B), Bill Gates ($67B), Amancio Ortega ($57B), Warren Buffett ($53.5B), Larry Ellison ($43B)
Name 5 of the 10 most valuable public companies in 2012 in the world (by market capitalization).
- Exxon Mobile, Apple, PetroChina, IBM, Wal-mart, ICBC, General Electric, China Mobile, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, Samsung
Which is the richest city in the world based on GDP?
Where and when was the World’s First Bitcoin ATM Launched?
Who was the Bank of Canada’s governor who is now heading up the Bank of England?
- Mark Carney, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker
Which engineering firm is under investigation by Quebec’s anti-corruption squad and who was the chief executive charged with fraud?
- SNC – Lavalin, Pierre Duhaime
Who took over Nexen for 15.1 billion in 2013?
- China National Offshore Oil Co. a state owned enterprise.
What was Canada’s Annual GDP growth rate in 2012?
- 1.95% (2012), 1.36% (2011)
What was Canada’s GDP in terms of dollars 2012?
- The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Canada was worth 1821.40 billion US dollars in 2012. The GDP value of Canada represents 2.94 percent of the world economy. GDP in Canada is reported by the The World Bank Group. From 1960 until 2012, Canada GDP averaged 524.8 USD Billion reaching an all time high of 1821.4 USD Billion in December of 2012 and a record low of 40.8 USD Billion in December of 1961.
Local & International Sports
Name the 6 professional sports teams in Toronto?
- Toronto Blue Jays (Major League Baseball)
- Toronto Raptors (National Basketball Association)
- Toronto Argonauts (Canadian Football League)
- Toronto Maple Leafs (National Hockey League)
- Toronto Rock (National Lacrosse League)
- Toronto FC (Major League Soccer)
Who is the captain of the Toronto Maple leafs (2012/13)?
- Dion Phaneuf
Who is the coach of the Toronto Maple leafs (2012/13)?
- Randy Carlyle
When was the last time the Leafs won the cup?
- 1967
Where was the Super Bowl final played in 2013?
How many times have the Argonauts won the Grey Cup championship?
- A record 16 times as of 2013.
When were the Argonauts founded?
- October 4, 1873
Where will the Pan Am Games 2015 be held?
- Toronto, CA
Where will the 2014 Winter Olympics be held?
- Sochi, Russia
Where will the FIFA 2014 games be held?
- Brazil
Who won the 2013 Men’s French Open in 2013?
- Rafael Nadal beat David Ferrer in the finals. (6-3, 6-2, 6-3). Rafael Nadal, the three-time defending champion in the men’s singles, and won the title to become the first man to win the same Grand Slam title eight times.
Who won the MLB world series in 2013?
- Boston Red Sox beat St. Louis Cardinals.
Who were the Stanley Cup champions in 2013?
- Chicago Blackhawks beat Boston Bruins.
Which team won the UEFA champions league in 2012?
- Chelsea beat Bayern Munich.
Who was the winner of 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series?
- Jeff Gordon of Chevrolet
Where was Basketball invented and by whom and when?
Who was the winner of first ever World Cup ski race?
Name the Canadian winner of the first Olympic gold medal in the Men’s triathlon at the 2000 Games in Sydney?
Who is the youngest captain ever to win the Stanley Cup?
Where will the 2016 Olympics be held?
- Rio De Janiero, Brazil.
Which sport has been dropped out of the 2020 Olympics?
- Wrestling.
Who is the world’s oldest woman to claim the world no.1 ranking in tennis?
- Serena Williams.
Name the athlete who was charged for shooting dead his girlfriend in 2013?
Which are the other 3 South American countries to host the previous FIFA world cups?
Who won the NBA finals in 2013?
- Miami Heat beat the San Antonio Spurs.
Who won the Men’s Rogers Cup (Tennis) in 2013?
- Spain’s Rafael Nadal beat Canadian Milos Raonic in the finals.
Geography
Name three countries which are completely surrounded by one other country?
- Lesotho, Vatican City, and San Marino. Lesotho by South Africa, Vatican City and San Marino by Italy.
What is the shortest name of a place?
- The shortest place name is ‘Å’ it is located in both Sweden and Norway. In Scandinavian languages, ‘Å’ means “river”.
Which is the largest city in the world (by surface area)?
- The largest city in the world – based on surface area, is Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia which is 263,953 km squared.
Which mountain’s peak is closest to the moon?
- Mount Chimborazo (22,000 ft) in Ecuador is on a bulge on the equator, Everest (29,000 Ft) sits lower on the same bulge and is 1.5 miles lower
What is the name of the country where if you compliment a woman you have to marry her?
- Togo in West Africa
When did it snow in the Sahara desert?
- February 1979 and in January 2012.
Which is the only US state to ever have a king?
- Hawaii
What is the original full Spanish name for Los Angeles?
- El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula (under historical dispute)
Where were the Canadian polar bear-shaped license plates used?
- Nunavut, but not anymore.
Which of the Great lakes is the biggest?
- Lake Superior – the 5 lakes represent 21% of the world’s surface fresh water
Entertainment
Which was the highest grossing film of 2012 worldwide?
- The Avengers.
Who won the Academy award for best actress in 2012?
- Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook.
Who won the Academy award for best actor in 2012?
- Daniel Day Lewis for Lincoln.
Who is the most powerful celebrity of 2013 in the world according to Forbes?
- Oprah Winfrey
Who is Hollywood’s highest earning male actor of 2013 according to Forbes?
- Robert Downey Junior
What is the longest running Broadway show?
- The Phantom Of the Opera.
Who was crowned Miss World 2013?
- Megan Young, Miss Philippines
What is the name of the rapper who has made more money making headphones than he ever did making music?
- Dr. Dre aka Andre Romelle Young. Headphones are known as the “Beats” brand
What is the name of Walt Disney’s elder and only biological daughter who died on the 20th of November?
- Diane Disney Miller
Who Topped Forbes’ List of 2013 Highest-Paid Musicians?
- Madonna.
Science & Technology
Who won the Canada Gairdner Wightman award for his research in the field of Chronic Respiratory Disease?
Name the countries which will be constructing the world’s largest telescope?
Where will the world’s largest telescope be constructed?
Where was King Richard the III found buried?
- Leicester, central England, August 2012 in a car park. The former king, was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.
When is the Hailey’s comet predicted to appear again?
- In the year 2061.
Who is called the father of Internet?
What is the difference between poisonous and venomous?
- If you bite it and you die, it is poisonous and if it bites you and you die it’s venomous.
Who is the only Briton to have won Noble prize twice?
- Frederick Sanger, for Chemistry in 1958 developing techniques to work out the precise chemical structure of proteins and then in 1980 for developing “Sanger sequencing” – a technique which is still used today.
Who is considered “the father (inventor) of the cell phone”?
- Martin Cooper, worked at Motorola in the ‘70s and conceived the idea and brought it to market. What would you do without your smartphone?
What was the Oxford Dictionaries word of the year in 2012?
- Omnishambles – Pronunciation: /ˈɒmnɪʃamb(ə)lz/ – noun
- British informal – a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations:anyone with five minutes to spare, a Maths GCSE, and a calculator could have averted the entire omnishambles by checking the civil servants’ sums
Toronto Residential Housing
What was the value of the highest priced home in Toronto in 2013?
- $10,700,000 in Forest Hill. It was listed originally for $12,900,000
What was the value of the highest priced condominium in Toronto in 2013?
- $6,350,000 in Yorkville. It was originally listed for $7,599,000
What was the lowest value of a home in Toronto 2013?
- $170,000 for a 30 ft x 110 ft lot in Scarborough near Markham & Sheppard. It was under power of sale, was also a grow operation which had health and safety concerns.
- The least expensive transaction on MLS was a garage (10x23ft) near Weston Rd. & Rogers for $13,500
How many homes were sold in Toronto in 2012?
- 85,731 down from 89,096 in 2011 – GTA
- 14,644 in Central Toronto (C01-C15)
What is the average value of a home in Toronto?
- $497,298 GTA
- $644,638 in Central Toronto (C01-C15)
How many Realtors are there in Toronto?
- There are over 38,111 licensed Sales Representatives & Brokers as of Sept 2013. Only 4,000 of which are designated as Brokers.
Who should you call when you decide to find a new home or sell your current one?
- Jethro Seymour, Broker Royal LePage R.E.S. Ltd, Johnston and Daniel Division
