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Listen to the Eh Sayers podcast to meet the people behind the data and explore the stories behind the numbers. Join us as we meet with experts from Statistics Canada and from across the nation to ask and answer the questions that matter to Canadians.
Max: Welcome to the inaugural episode of Eh Sayers Holiday Trivia. Today, I've rounded up the brightest minds I know, AKA forced my colleagues to come participate in this. They're gonna go head-to-head to see who can best answer a series of skill testing questions. This year's theme, Christmas trees.
The rules are simple: I ask each contestant six questions worth one point each, plus one bonus question worth three points. Whoever has the most points at the end of the show wins. What are they when you might ask? Absolutely nothing. Without further ado, let's meet our contestants.
Miriam: Hi, I'm Miriam Kilby and I am the manager of the graphic design team at Statistics Canada.
Vince: Uh, my name is Vince Germano and I am communications officer in Creative comms.
Max: Vince is actually a graphic designer. He's just being modest.
Tony: My name is Tony Colasante and I manage the video production team here at Statistics Canada.
Max: All right. Category number one is counting around the Christmas Tree Farm.
First question. Are you ready?
Miriam: I think so. Pretty excited. I love a game.
Vince: Yeah, for sure.
Tony: I've never been more ready my life.
Max: Number one, according to the 2021 Census of Agriculture, how many farms in Canada reported growing Christmas trees?
Tony: Oof.
Max: How many farms?
Tony: I know this. How many farms reported Growing Christmas trees?
Growing Christmas trees
Max: in the 2021 census... of agriculture,
Tony: Can't it be a low number? We need our Christmas trees. 40 million trees. I'm gonna say 10.
Max: 10 Christmas tree farms.
Tony: Yeah.
Max: In Canada.
Tony: Purely 10 farms that just do Christmas trees.
Vince: I'm gonna guess and say maybe 118 or something like that.
Miriam: 2,588.
Max: 2,588.
What makes you say that?
Miriam: I don't know.
Max: Random guess.
Miriam: Just random guess.
Max: Okay. The answer is1,364.
Vince: Whoa.
Tony: So I was close.
Max: Absolutely. Alright. No, that's not far out. That's not bad at all.
Number two in 2021, how many acres of farmland were used to grow Christmas trees?
Miriam: Oh my goodness. Um, okay, so we had about a thousand something and
Max: 1,364.
Miriam: Okay.
Max: Farms. How many acres?
Miriam: And then acreage for Christmas. Christmas trees. Um. Let's say a hundred acres per, so 130,000,
Vince: 200,000, I don't know.
Tony: Oh, I'm thinking of the number, how many acres of farmland you use?
Max: How many acres of farmland?
Tony: Yeah, many acres.
Max: You're a big acre guy, we all know that.
Tony: I like, I like acres yeah. So, um, how many acres? 50,000 acres.
Max: Tony, you're a genius. It's 50,803.
Tony: No, come on.
Max: Acres.
Tony: After I botched that first one.
Max: That was incredible.
Tony: I feel like you're not telling me the truth.
Max: No, I wouldn't lie to you. You know, I would never lie to you.
Tony: No way.
Max: Number three, there's gonna be a multiple choice, okay?
Tony: Okay.
Max: Throwing you a bone here.
Which province had the most Christmas tree farms in 2021: A British Columbia, b Quebec, c Ontario, or d Nova Scotia? Province that had the most Christmas tree farms in 2021.
Tony: I'm gonna say b, Quebec.
Max: B, Quebec. Final answer?
Tony: I dunno. You're giving me a weird look right now so I'm second guessing. When in doubt, C, they say, no I'm gonna go B, I'm going Quebec.
Max: B, Quebec.
Miriam: Uh, I'm gonna say Quebec. Uh, D, C,
Max: B, Quebec. Final answer?
Miriam: B Quebec.
Vince: I think it's between Ontario and Quebec. Okay. I'm gonna say Ontario.
Max: Hey, good one. So yeah, you're right. It's Ontario.With 418, they had the most farms followed by British Columbia with 276.
Vince: How many does Quebec have?
Max: Quebec had 257 and then Nova Scotia had 213.
Number four in dollar amount...
Tony: yeah.
Max: How much was the total of all cash receipts received by Canadian Christmas tree producers in 2023 ?
Tony: Dollar amount for all Christmas tree sales
Max: in 2023.
Tony: In 2023. Uh oh man. I am gonna say 800 million?
Vince: 1.5 billion?
Miriam: Uh, let's say $50 a tree. Um, $1 million dollars.
Max: The answer is: $189 million dollars. I know. Isn't that a lot?
Vince: Uh, I overshot it completely.
Tony: That was a good guess.
Max: I think so. You're in the... same decimal I think, so.
Tony: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's not that off.
Max: We're moving on. Category two, Canadian Christmas trees travel near and far.
So not all Christmas trees grown in Canada will stay here. Many will spread Christmas spirit in other parts of the world near and far. So my question five for you is, how many Christmas trees did Canada export in 2023? A over a hundred thousand? B, over 500,000, C over 1 million, or D over 2 million. How many do we export?
Miriam: Uh, C
Max: C, over 1 million.
Vince: Export. Okay. Um...
Max: A hundred thousand, 500,000, 1 million, 2 million.
Vince: Let's go. Is it over 1 million?
Max: Yes. Over all...
Vince: let's go over 1 million.
Tony: Let's say 100,000.
Max: Over 100,000.
Tony: Over 100,000 Seems right.
Max: The answer is over two million Christmas trees we exported in 2023.
Miriam: Wow.
Max: Number six. This is the last question before the bonus.
While plenty of Christmas trees grown in Canadian soil are exported around the world, Canada has imported small amounts of Christmas trees too over the years. So in 2023, how many Christmas trees did Canada import?
Tony: How many Christmas trees do we import?
Max: Exported over 2 million. How many do we import?
Tony: Oof.
We even need to import? Um, and this is purely a number. Just any number.
Max: It's, it's a hard number. Yeah,
Tony: That's a tough one. It's crazy. Um, I wanna say 200,000 trees.
Max: We exported over 2 million.
Miriam: Um, half that a million.
Vince: So how many do they import?
Max: How many do they import in 2023?
Vince: I can give you like an average amount. I don't know, maybe like 300,000.
Max: The answer is. 111,000.
Tony: Okay.
Max: Yeah. Not far off. Not far off.
Tony: All right.
Max: Good guess.
All right, last question. This is a bonus one. It's worth more. Are you ready? Yep. Okay. The modern practice of keeping a Christmas tree during the holiday season was invented. In which country?
Miriam: Sweden.
Tony: Ooh. Ah, I just wanna say Canada.
Vince: Germany.
Max: Hey, Bravo. Well done sir!
All right, and we are here with arguably gonna go down in history as the greatest performance in Eh Sayers Holiday trivia history.
Vince: Some may say the great is Canadian.
Max: Vince, you are our winner with four points. How do you feel? Tell us what this means to you.
Vince: Not gonna lie to you, uh, Max, it feels pretty, pretty good.
Max: Okay, there you have it folks. Vincenzo Germano. Your inaugural Eh Sayers holiday champion. Thanks, Vince.
Vince: Merry Christmas everyone.
Max: You've been listening to Eh Sayers.Thank you to our contestants, Miriam, Vince, and Tony. If you'd like to learn more about the Christmas tree industry in Canada, the article that we use to formulate all the questions for this episode will be linked in the show notes. You can get the show wherever you listen to your podcasts, there you can also find the French version of our show called Hé-coutez bien! If You liked this show, please rate, review, and subscribe. And as always, thanks for listening.