Naming Canada When Confederation happened in 1867, Sir John A. Macdonald was wondering how to name this new country. After puzzling over it, he exclaimed, ""Let's get one of our fellow citizens to draw letters out of a hat!"" So he got one of the citizens to pick letters and read them out loud. He said, ""C, eh?"" ""N, eh?"" ""D, eh"" And that's how Canada got its name!