Q. What was the Canadian connection to those "Paul McCartney is dead" rumours back in 1969?

A. If you've got one, pull out your copy of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album and open it up. You'll notice that in the centre spread photo McCartney is wearing an O.P.P. (Ontario Provincial Police) badge on his left arm. The last letter is obscured, but that's what the badge signifies.

There were many supposed "clues" flying around in 1969 that hinted that McCartney had really died a couple of years before. Among the other ideas tossed into the rumour mill were: That by playing one of the Beatles' songs backward you'd hear the message "Paul is dead"; that on the back of the Sgt. Pepper album he's the only Beatle with his back turned because the extensive facial plastic surgery for his look-alike, a man named William Campbell, wasn't finished yet; that his walking barefoot on the cover of the Abbey Road album was a symbol of death; and that the licence plate on the Volkswagen in the background read IF-28 — what McCartney's age would have been had he lived.

The badge was another key "clue." People who believed the real Paul was dead thought the badge's letters were O.P.D., which were said to stand for "Officially Pronounced Dead." In the book "Blackbird: The Life and Times of Paul McCartney," author Geoffrey Giuliano writes that the badge was given to McCartney as a souvenir by a Canadian cop. Others say a fan sent it to him.

Eventually the rumours died down, but, spurred perhaps by the event, Abbey Road was The Beatles' biggest selling album.

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Q. Did a Canadian kill famed escape artist Harry Houdini?

A.  The story has been told through the years that when Houdini visited Montreal in October, 1926 he was hit in the stomach by a McGill University student.  Houdini died in Detroit, Michigan less than two weeks later, and many have said it was the blow he took that ultimately caused his death.

But who was this student, why did he hit Houdini, and was he ultimately responsible for the great magician's death?

Houdini was visiting Montreal to perform at the Princess Theatre and was invited to McGill by the Dean of the faculty of psychology to talk to students.  There are varying descriptions of just when and how Houdini came in contact with the student who hit him, and in fact, some news reports of the day wrote that Houdini was hit in a friendly sparring match with a newspaper reporter.

However, the student whose name appears most often in published reports was Jocelyn Gordon Whitehead of British Columbia who was either an arts student or studying theology at McGill.  According to the book The Life and Many Deaths of Harry Houdini by Ruth Bradon, a number of students asked if it was true that Houdini could withstand a blow to the stomach without feeling any pain. 

Houdini said yes.  One eye witness, Jack Price, said Whitehead hit the escape artist about four times before Houdini asked him to stop.  Price said it appeared Houdini was in pain because he'd had no opportunity to prepare his muscles for such blows.  Whitehead was apparently more than six feet tall, quite strong and probably did catch Houdini off guard.

Houdini left Montreal shortly thereafter and went by train to Detroit.  By the time he arrived there, he was feeling ill and saw a doctor.  He was diagnosed with acute appendicitis, but still managed to perform a show.  He was rushed to hospital the next morning and had his appendix removed by a Dr. Charles Kennedy.  Houdini remained in hospital for a few more days, apparently getting better at one point and then taking a turn for the worse.  He died on Oct. 31 of what doctors described as peritonitis brought on by a ruptured appendix.  In another Canadian connection to all this, Dr. Kennedy concluded that Houdini's appendix must have ruptured sometime on the train ride near St. Thomas, Ont.

Although people then assumed it was the blows from Whitehead that caused the death, Bradon says the consensus today is that it's medically impossible.  She says such a blow might have ruptured the large intestine but not the appendix.  She believes Houdini was already suffering from appendicitis before he reached Montreal.

As for Whitehead, information provided by McGill University's archives suggests the student was never investigated for any wrongdoing in Houdini's death.  As well, a professor of psychology denied that any punching took place after Houdini delivered his lecture at McGill.

It's possible, however, that the blow took place at a different time in Houdini's dressing room.  In the end, Houdini's widow was apparently the beneficiary of an insurance policy worth $25,000 that doubled if the escape artist's death was deemed accidental rather than from an aggressive action.  Her New York lawyers inquired about the Montreal incident, but signed an oath saying Whitehead had no intention of hurting Houdini.  Apparently Whitehead later accepted a job as a religious minister in the U.S. and disappeared into anonymity.

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Q. Is the snowblower a Canadian innovation?

A. The snowblower, that great preventer of backaches is a Canadian invention. Its creator was Arthur Sicard, a Montreal-area farm boy-turned entrepreneur, who tired of having his milk spoil when the roads to market were frequently blocked by snow drifts.

In the late 1800s he experimented with a variety of snow removal techniques - including scrapers and V-shaped plows attached to automobiles - all to no avail. His idea for a snowblower was sparked by a farm threshing machine, which consisted of revolving metal "worms" and a fan which blew chopped-up straw up a pipe into a strawstack.

Sicard invested his meager savings in a truck with primitive worms and a blower. It worked on small drifts but broke down on larger ones. When Sicard left farming for the construction business, the idea went on hold until 20 years later when he owned his own company and had enough cash to return to his idea.

With stronger gasoline engines on the market, he sank $40,000 into his first hand-built blower and it rumbled onto the streets of Montreal in 1924. He patented his idea in the late 1920s and sold his first machine for $13,000 through his own incorporated company. He sold machines to the Quebec department of highways, the city of Montreal and the St. Hubert airport and eventually his workforce increased to 160 as production jumped to 56 units a year.

Sicard died of a heart attack in 1946, just as his Sicard snowblowers were becoming familiar sights across North America.

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Q.  How many Canadian players were involved in the professional women's baseball leagues in the 1940s?

A.  In 1942, Chicago Cubs owner Philip Wrigley had the idea of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League as a way of attracting fans to ballparks. The league, which was featured in the 1992 movie, A League of Their Own, had several Canadian players.

Because of World War II, major league baseball and the minor leagues had lost several of its players to the services.  Journalist Jane Foy, who researched women's professional baseball from that era, says 53 Canadian women played in the league from the inaugural 1943 season to the last season in 1954, accounting for about 10 per cent of the women who played.

Among the Canadian standouts were Gladys Davis of Toronto who was the league's first batting champion.  She hit .322 for the Rockford Peaches.  Olive Bend Little from Moose Jaw held a league strikeout record that was never equaled, according to Foy.

Although the game started out with underhand pitching, it eventually evolved to overhand pitching and delighted fans with its high calibre of play. 

Almost one million fans watched league games in 1948.  The league remained something of a novelty in the early '50s, but lack of finances and the resurgence of the major leagues led to the women's game's demise.

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Q. Is it true that a Canadian was once Prime Minister of Britain?

A. Yes, the honour goes to Andrew Bonar Law, a native of New Brunswick who went to Britain and became an MP in 1900. He then succeed Arthur Balfour as leader of the Conservatives. Eventually Law held a series of important cabinet posts, such as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and became Prime Minister in 1922.

He was the only Canadian, and the only “colonial” to hold the post. However, he served only 209 days as the country's leader before resigning because of bad health.

He died in 1923.

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Q. Did Alexander Graham Bell invent the telephone in Canada or in theU.S.?

A. This question rings with controversy; if you’re an American you probably were taught the phone was invented in the U.S. and if you’re Canadian you might believe it was done here. 

The answer really depends on how you define the word invention. Bell moved to Brantford, Ont. in 1870 and began experiments on how to send the human voice over a wire. He moved to Boston in 1871 to teach, but kept working on his project.

For the next three years, Bell returned to Brantford often and discussed the idea of the telephone at length with his father one night in 1874. A year later he wrote the specifications for the telephone during another visit to Brantford, but it was on March 10, 1876 in Boston that he uttered the first words over a wire “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you.”

Bell also placed the first one-way long distance call in Canada later that year between Brantford and Paris, Ont, about eight miles away. If that doesn’t settle your argument remember that Bell often declared that Brantford was the home of his famous invention. For example in a speech in 1909 in Ottawa, he said: “Of this you may be sure, the telephone was invented in Canada. It was made in the United States.”

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Q. Who was responsible for actually making the first Canadian Maple leaf flag?

A. That claim to fame goes to a woman named Joan O'Malley. But first, a little history. 

The search for a new, distinct Canadian flag began back in 1925, but as we all know, the maple leaf we now see flying across Canada and the world wasn't raised until 40 years later. The 1925 committee never completed its work. Another committee was stuck in 1946 and though it received more than 2,600 designs, Parliament never formally voted on any of them.

Things finally got rolling for good in 1964 when then Prime Minister Lester Pearson informed the government that Canada should have its own flag by the 1967 centennial at the latest. By late 1964, the designs had been narrowed to three. One of the choices was a red maple leaf on a white background. Red and white had been proclaimed Canada's national colours by King George V in 1921.

In late 1964, Pearson wanted prototypes of the new flag to study one weekend at his new residence at Harrington Lake. According to Heritage Canada, the only designs available at the time were on paper. However, Ken Donovan, an assistant purchasing director with the Canadian Government Exhibition Commission got his team of designers working on it immediately. Graphic artist Jean Desrosiers and John Williams were called into work one late Friday evening to help get the flag made. There was no seamstress available so Joan O'Malley, the daughter of Ken Donovan was given the task.

During a ceremony celebrating the flag's 30th anniversary, O'Malley recalled her work: "I was just doing my father a favour; not participating in history. I was no professional. My sewing machine wasn't made for such heavy material. But eventually, the flag came together."

The flag was first raised at noon, February 15, 1965. _________________________________________

Q.  Did Lord Stanley do anything of importance besides donate the hockey cup that bears his name?    And what can you tell me about the Stanley Cup?

 A.  Frederick Arthur Stanley, or Lord Stanley as he later become known, was Canada's Governor-General from 1898 to 1893.  He's been described as publicity shy and a "careful" Governor-General.  Stanley's main claim to fame of course is the Stanley Cup, but he also served as a Member of Parliament in Britain from 1865 to 1886.  He also became a member of the House of Lords.

During his tenure as the Queen's representative in Canada, he was a strong advocate of closer ties between Canada and Great Britain. However, he has another claim to fame.  According to one source, Lord Stanley participated in the first known sound recording in Canada.  In 1888, he recorded with the new technology "A Message to the President of the U.S.A."

Each year when you see the captain of the winning hockey team hoist the Stanley Cup over his shoulders he his lifting about 32 pounds (14.5 kilograms).  Of course, the Stanley Cup has gotten larger over the years as they add bands to it to hold names.  However, a spokesperson at the Hockey Hall of Fame says those bands only weigh one or two pounds and can last a long time because "they can hold a lot of names."

The cup is silver plated and there is a kind of aluminum casting underneath. For those who might think the Stanley Cup you see being presented at the end of the finals is a replica, you're wrong.  As far as the Hall of Fame and National Hockey League officials are aware, there is only one Stanley Cup and it's the real thing that is used during the presentation or at any other function.

Q.  Is it true that more than one spike was involved in the ceremony celebrating the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway? Where are these spikes today?

 A.  You've hit the nail right on the head:  Technically, there were actually three spikes connected to the proceedings when railway officials and workers gathered at Craigellachie, British Columbia on November 7, 1885 to mark the end of the massive railway-building project.

As we told you in our first Great Canadian Trivia Book, a silver spike was made for the ceremony but was never used.  There were also two iron spikes. The first was bent when Donald Smith, a.k.a. Lord Strathcona, attempted to drive it into the railway tie; the second was driven into the tie but didn't stay in place very long.

First, the bent spike:  It was retrieved as a souvenir by Smith.  He had a portion of it shaved off and ringed with diamonds as a gift for his wife Bella, Canadian author Donna McDonald says in her book "Lord Strathcona, A Biography of Donald Alexander Smith."  But in his book The Last Spike, author Pierre Berton says a number of women - all wives of men who attended the ceremony - were recipients of the jewellry Smith made.  And when several other ladies complained they did not receive souvenirs, Smith had another spike cut up for similar souvenirs, writes Berton.

Second, the spike that went into the ground:  Once dignitaries left, it was removed by CPR roadmaster Frank Brothers who was afraid souvenir hunters would tear up his track.  It was later presented to Edward Beatty, then president of the CPR.

So where are these spikes today?

The original last spike - the one that was bent - is part of the collection at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa, says David Monaghan, the museum's Curator of Land Transportation.  It is four to five-inches long, is cracked and clearly shows where Lord Strathcona had pieces shaved away for jewelry.  The spike is occasionally on display and has been lent to other museums.  It was donated to the museum in 1985 by descendants of Lord Strathcona in honour of the CPR's centenary celebrations.

The silver spike has been mounted on a marble base to be used as a paperweight and is in Toronto, owned by descendants of the family of Cornelius Van Horne, president of the CPR and general manager of the railway during its construction.

To this day, no one knows where the spike that was driven into the ground ended up.  Monaghan has heard rumours that it is owned by someone in the Yukon Territory.

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Q. What's the story behind the Hilroy name on notebooks and other school supplies used by Canadian students?

A. Anyone who was ever a student probably remembers shopping for Hilroy notebooks, binders and loose leaf paper every August when it was time to return to school.  Students have been scribbling in Hilroy products for nearly half a century.

But who the heck is Roy Hill?

Put his last name in front of his first, remove one of the letter l’s and you have the answer: Hill, a native of the village of King north of Toronto, is the founder of a Canadian paper products company that in the late 1950s rearranged his name to became Hilroy Envelopes and Stationery Ltd.

Born in 1892, Hill took his first job at age 12, working for $3 a week as an office boy. Eager to get ahead, he began taking commerce courses at night school and seven years later landed a $7-a-week job in the warehouse of a textbook publisher. At age 24, he had more than quadrupled his earnings as a travelling salesman for a stationery firm covering the territory from Winnipeg to Montreal.

By this time, his knowledge of the stationery business was outstanding and in 1918, he disregarded the pessimism of skeptical business associates and made a decision that eventually put the Hilroy name in front of Canadians from coast to coast. He borrowed $432 on a life insurance policy, added a $1,500 loan from his parents, and formed Canadian Pad and Paper Co. Limited.

“While working for another company he began asking all kinds of questions, such as ‘who did this job?  What's that machine for? Where is this made?’ ” recalls his great nephew Doug Hill. “Someone said to him ‘Why don't you go and mind your own business?’  So he did.  He started his own company.”

Canadian Pad and Paper opened for business on the second floor of a remodeled home in downtown Toronto, where Hill had five employees and was the manager, salesman, shipper, receiver and paper cutter. He often worked from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., cutting and trimming pads or books manufactured during the day.  In the evenings, his wife Elsie and baby would come to the factory by streetcar to wrap and label the day's production.

Expansions took the firm to new quarters on King Street and in 1929 to Madison Avenue in Toronto, where Hill built a new factory.  The company prospered, based on his business philosophy of honesty, integrity, quality and treating his employees with dignity and respect.

In 1932, Hill purchased the entire stock of Eaton, Crane, and Pike. Thirteen years later he bought L.P. Bouvier Co. Limited, and formed a new company known as Bouvier Envelopes Limited.  When bigger quarters were needed in the mid-1940s, he purchased eleven acres from the township of York and in 1947 built a 145,000-square-foot factory, which has since been expanded to 250,000 square feet.

The Hilroy name arrived on the scene in 1958, when Canadian Pad and Paper Co. Ltd., Eaton, Crane and Pike Limited and Bouvier Envelopes Limited merged to become Hilroy Envelopes and Stationery Limited.

In the late 1950s and 1960s, Hill made several shrewd business moves to solidify his business, including the 1959 purchase of the Canadian Stationery Co. Limited in Joliette, Quebec and the founding of new branches of his existing firm, including Hilroy Envelopes (Western) Limited in Winnipeg, Hilroy Quebec Limitee, in Montreal and Hilroy Envelopes and Stationery in Calgary.

By then, Hilroy notebooks and loose leaf paper with the three holes, were being used by millions of Canadian students.

In 1968, Hill sold the business to Abitibi Paper to become part of what was known as Abitibi-Price Inc.  He remained at Hilroy as chairman of the board and became an Abitibi Director until his death in 1978.

In December 1994, Hilroy was purchased by The Mead Corporation of Dayton, Ohio and became part of that company’s school and office products Division.  In January 2002, Mead merged with paper company Westvaco of Stanford, Connecticut and Hilroy began operating under the name Hilroy - A Mead Westvaco Company. It employs about 200 people at its Toronto factory and is a major manufacturer and importer of refills, binders, brief covers, file folders, pads and envelopes, as well as the exclusive marketer and distributor of the Mead Westvaco product line to Canadian consumers.