Leading up to Canada Day, the APEX team is having a great Canadian scavenger hunt, exploring media markets across the country.

As a proud Newfoundlander, I’m happy to bring you to the edge of the Atlantic Ocean to beautiful St. John’s.

St. John’s, stjohns.ca, @CityofStJohns (23,100 followers)

1. Population

• 211,700 (Census Metropolitan Areas)

2. Mayor

• Dennis O’Keefe

3. Interesting facts

• George Street boasts the most bars and pubs per square foot of any street in North America
• Colourful houses in downtown St. John’s are known as Jellybean Row
• The John’s Fire of 1892 destroyed most of the east end and left 11,000 people homeless

4. Known for

• Signal Hill National Historic Site and Signal Hill Trail – check out the icebergs off #SignalHill in May and June
• East Coast Trail, @EastCoastTrail – stunning views of the Atlantic coastline
• Republic of Doyle, @RepublicofDoyle#doyletweets
• Ches’s Famous Fish & Chips – The NL speciality is fries, dressing & gravy
• Quidi Vidi Village – a quaint fishing village minutes from downtown St. John’s
• Cape Spear Lighthouse National Historic Site – the most easterly point in North America

Also, really, really funny people:

• Rick Mercer, @rickmercer
• John Sheehan, @johnsheehan07
• Shawn Majumder, @shaunmajumder
• Mark Critch, @markcritch
• Trent McClellan, @Trent_McClellan

5. Rivalry

Townie vs. Baymen – Those who live in St. John’s are called townies and those who live “outside the overpass” (an old highway that used to be the only way in and out of St. John’s) are called baymen. A local Capital Mitsubishi dealership take on this debate with some hilarious TV ads:

• Round One
• Round Two
• Check out all 10 rounds here

6. Local hashtags

• #STJohns
• #YYT
• #nlpoli
• Follow political affairs reporter David Cochrane @CochraneCBCNL for some lively NL politics commentary – see previous APEX post Staying connected to NL with David Cochrane.
• #nlxw Newfoundlanders love to discuss the weather!
• #newfoundland
• #darkNL (CBC explains)

7. Upcoming events

• Party for six straight nights at the 2015 George Street Festival July 30 – August 4
• Royal St. John’s Regatta August 5, the oldest continuing sporting event in North America
• The Newfoundland & Labrador Folk Festival August 7-9

8. Go-to source for anything local

• The Scope
• Destination St. John’s

9. Local magazines

• NFLD Herald, @TheNfldHerald
• Downhome Magazine, @downhomelife

10. 5 media personalities 

• Ryan Snoddon, CBC NL’s much-loved meteorologist, @ryansnoddon
• Michael Connors, Legislative Reporter, NTV News, @MikeConnors
• Paddy Daly, Host, VOCM Open Line, @VOCMOpenline
• Daniel MacEachern, Municipal affairs reporter, The Telegram, @DanMacEachern
• Erin Sulley, Senior Producer/Host of Rogers TV’s Out of the Fog, @ErinSulley, @OutoftheFogTV

11. Food

• Karl Wells, Food Writer/Critic, Host/producer of One Chef One Critic, @karl_wells
• 12 Restaurants You Have To Try In St. John’s, Huffington Post
• Raymonds, Top 50 restaurant in Canada, National Post; Jeremy Charles: Canada’s real top chef, Globe and Mail

12. Dailies

• The Telegram, @StJohnsTelegram

13. Local TV

• CBC NL, @CBCNL
• NTV, @NTVNewsNL
• Rogers TV, #RogersTV

14. 5 radio stations

• 590 VOCM, @590VOCM, @VOCMNEWS, @VOCMOpenline, @VOCMBacktalk
• 640 AM CBC Radio One, The St. John’s Morning Show, CrossTalk Radio Noon
• 5 K-ROCK, @975krock
• Hits 99.1, @hitsfm
• 1FM, @coast1011

Merissa King is an account manager at APEX. She often misses the fresh ocean smell of home and her yellow house on Jellybean Row. See where else we go in our great Canadian scavenger hunt.